How Ringtones Dominated the Music Industry | Mic The Snare

[@laserrlife]

“Swedish teenager recorded himself mimicking the sound of a motorcycle.” *Oh no.*

[@IslayAnderson]

all great musical achievements always have something to do with Swedish teens

[@pinkajou656]

Why oh no...

[@enshen2190]

@@pinkajou656 🐸

[@waywardwillard]

Your analysis of ringtones in the 2000s just makes me want you to make a decade retrospective of the 2000s even more

[@lad9732]

Please i beg u. U can even make a series of short videos covering different genres to make it easier on you.

[@dallas4586]

dude you definitely should i’d love to see something like that

[@dunnowy123]

Yes!!!

[@WhateverWhenever888]

YES I WOULD LOVE THAT!

[@umbrelladown2805]

Please do this! I concur

[@w0mb0l0mb0]

"Chris Martin defeated by a naked frog, I'm a Coldplay fan and even I love to see it" as a Coldplay fan I love to hear this joke. The joke landed and I landed on the floor from laughing too hard at this one

[@rayazkhan9498]

"Crazy Frog was the Old Town Road of the 2000s" Mic, you're a genius critic, editor, explainer, and entertainer. I love your work. Thank you so much for sharing it

[@vickyc2573]

When I was a little girl I used to dream about the day I could have my first very own mobile phone and getting to customise it with a ringtone, which I hoped would be Ice Ice Baby. Every word of that sentence is 100% the truth

[@googyta]

Did you make it happen?

[@vickyc2573]

@@googyta By the time I got my first phone I had become obsessed with The X-Files, so I had the theme tune as my ringtone instead

[@vickyc2573]

@@uidFluiq I used to get songs on my phone by holding the phone up to the computer speakers and recording it. It would have been appalling quality but it would definitely have been Ice Ice Baby, no mistaking!

[@HarrietCereza]

This bought a very specific memory flooding right back to me. In 2005, my best friend got a Crazy Frog cake for his 11th birthday. It came with a little electronic device that, when you pressed a button, played Crazy Frog noises. We were very excited to take it to school the next day to see what havoc we could cause. The moment came in the middle of geography, our least favourite lesson due to it being taught by a bearded sociopath who hated children. My friend held the Crazy Frog device in his hand, declared "I swear, on this Holy Frog Grenade, to annoy all my enemies into little bits", and threw it across the classroom. The teacher was furious while we laughed harder than we ever had before or since. My friend never got his Holy Frog Grenade back, but it was worth it. It's been 15 years and we still laugh about it to this day. Can't believe that one of my favourite memories from school involves the Crazy Frog but there you go. Nostalgia is weird.

[@Nippontradamus]

That's absolutely hilarious and dope as heck. Your friend had balls of steel

[@liamthemusicreviewer]

So happy to have manifested something so blessed/cursed into the world

[@annisa412]

Nothing can replace the look on Mic’s face when he finally got to talk about crazy frog....an experience 10/10

[@cameronburr8214]

Before it was super memed, Owl Cities ‘Fireflies’ was, and continues to be, a ringtone bop for me

[@dunnowy123]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the elephant in the room...making songs that work for ringtones - short, ear wormy tidbits - is really similar to people designing songs for TIK TOK today. We've kinda come back to it, where songs like Savage, Old Town Road and Savage Love are only where they are because are PERFECT for TIK TOK.

[@TwoBs]

Yup, I’ve come across this topic brought up on several different music channels. People getting discovered specifically for music they’ve made to be used in TikToks, and touching on the topic how it’s kinda worrisome for music as a whole with the market becoming so over saturated with short songs trying to create a catchy hook to be heard by millions … if found. Wonder how things will be in 10 years. 😬

[@gabe_s_videos]

David Byrne's book "How Music Works" talks a lot about how music has always been affected by technology in some form or another, and not just in the last 20 or so years: the three-minute pop song was the result of songs needing to be short enough to play on the radio in-between advertisements. Music on early records had a lot of treble in it because the microphones were better at capturing higher frequencies than lower ones. Big symphonies were written to suit grand music halls. Songbirds and whales have had to sing louder for the past couple of centuries to accommodate human construction and activity. Art challenges technology, technology inspires art.

[@kcisme144]

for the longest time I had the Kim Possible "do do do do" as my notification tone, which gave me some the BEST interactions with strangers in public

[@cd.riscado]

The jamster ad with the KKK guy, eye-

[@samanteater]

That's not even the most 'problematic in hindsight' ad they ever put out. Look up 'Der Bonker'

[@klinchrx]

How is the name of that Jamster ad? Is it in KZbin? I'm looking it up and I can't find it lmao

[@bigredjanie]

@@klinchrx I can't find it either! Very strange...

[@Papabandana]

I'm in fucking tears.

[@liltylenoll6955]

@@klinchrx still looking for it and nothing shows up

[@Danae_O]

flashback to actually buying a polyphonic ringtone as a preteen and immediately feeling scammed

[@SamAronow]

This is what Arctic Monkeys warned us about. If not for ringtones I would never have learned about ASBOs.

[@Datlumskey]

Knew A Certain Romance was going to make an appearance in the comments

[@hazelsingh3887]

What’s an ASBO?

[@SamAronow]

Hazel Singh A restraining order for “anti-social” (read: stereotypically lower-class) crimes in the British legal system.

[@billpeel4408]

My first thought when I hit play

[@benburke3015]

11:47 Oh yeah that Live Aid performance was legendary. Thought his career took a bit of nose dive after the infamous Glass Frog tour, but he'll always be near and dear to our hearts.

[@TS-pp3xw]

I lost it at this moment in the video and you hit me with more

[@petertorres1980]

Thought this was gonna be about 100 gecs Still not disappointed

[@DeronHargrove]

I'm glad he mentioned it

[@jefferyjones8399]

My first phone was a Samsung flip phone. I bought a polyphonic version of "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand for the ringtone. What a time to be alive.

[@ohno417]

This video made me remember what being a kid in Germany in the 2000's was like, and I have realized that what I know as my childhood, the time when I first began to grasp the world, will be to most people never anything more than memes, re-recordings of old VHS tapes, and re-uploads of old TV screens onto the Internet, itself a force beyond the comprehension of the boy I was back then and the man I am now. Thanks!

[@Northergamerznorthznorth3]

In 2030 you'll be making How Tik Toks Dominated the Music Industry | Mic The Snare

[@nabeelmukhtar2871]

Be honest you just wanted to make this to talk about crazy frog for 10 minutes. Talk about Eiffel 65 next

[@jnrtherapper]

You’re not gonna believe this but he did

[@PhippsyAndFrodo]

This unearthed some massive 00s nostalgia for me!! As a child in the UK I was 110% wrapped up in not only crazy frog (he was literally EVERYWHERE) but the constant pestering of my parents to let me spend a fiver on a 30 second mp3 of kiss me thru the phone to play on my Nokia (those adverts were at least twice an ad break on kids tv and I was obsessed with them lol)

[@haileytin9454]

The ringtones might have cost $2-4 but they were free when you recorded them yourself from your friends phone after they bought it :)

[@Maria_745]

I was shocked by the $1.1 billion, I thought pirating ringtones was very popular. In the early days of polyphonic ringtones that meant recording a song when it came on the radio but a few years later i remember websites that would either have a collection of ringtones or the ability to upload an mp3 to create your own and text yourself the file

[@celeritas2-810]

This is also my memory

[@C19520]

There was a period of time in middle school when my ringtone was "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isenguard," and my summer camp roommate that year used "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" as hers. Those songs are permanently seared into my cranium, I'll tell you what

[@cheaptadpole]

i just can't stop laughing at 10:25 when she opened her phone and had excel open

[@dc_rapper]

Mic: And it's leading figure was arguably... you. Me: Me? "Crank That by Soulja Boy plays" Me: Oh. I should've seen that coming, but I didn't.

[@daishoryujin95]

C! G! N! U! Me?

[@hardfiled]

This was a hell of a nostalgia trip

[@srkennel3]

The one and only reason I stopped using ringtones in the mid 2000s was because the people on Laguna Beach used just basic rings. I immediately deleted all of my downloaded ringtones and just set my phone to a regular phone ring. I felt SO cool.

[@lilwaterpump3289]

As a 00s' kid whose parents didn't get me a phone until around 2011 I remember seeing a ton of ringtone and being really confused about how the hell they worked

[@AlexanderGreensmith]

So glad you credited Thomas Dolby! He's a legend. His book Speed of Sound is a great as well. Love the 2000s lookbacks, keep it up Mic.

[@Karlagrammar]

You really tapping into my childhood with this one

[@mitchlmitten5874]

“And it’s leading figure was arguably YOOOOOUUUU” Best part

[@4ndr7a82]

i have a weird obsession with the 2000s and videos like this give me life thank you,,,

[@MicahRion]

I SCREAMED when I realized we were gonna talk about Crazy Frog.

[@joaoassumpcao3347]

Surprised you didn't talk about the Crazy Frog discography

[@MicTheSnare]

Don't worry it's in the works 😂

[@Rallllllllllll]

@@MicTheSnare WHERE

[@gcwens]

@@MicTheSnare we're waiting for it...

[@Buster256]

@@MicTheSnare Do it you coward

[@kedsarama]

Honestly I've always kinda wanted this trend to make some kind of comeback. I remember seeing those commercials constantly during the 2000s and wanting a cell phone specifically to have a funny ringtone, but by the time I actually got my first phone, the whole fad had pretty much ended.

[@Testgeraeusch]

About 2000s rap: This explaines a lot... About Jamster/Jamba: I remember we even had school lessons on the dangers of these subscriptions. It typically came out when the child asked for a new cellphone "because the old one is kinda broken" = he/she can't use it for making calls because the monthly fees exceeded their pocket money. About my ringtone: My boss nearly jumped when i forgot to mute it and Slayer disturbed the weekly meeting. Worth it.

[@niknik166]

I'm 25 and I love watching videos like these... It reminds me of how old I'm getting...

[@anonymouse9510]

I remember my mum giving me a completely non-functional flip-phone as a kid, and I would just spend hours and hours sitting and listening to all the ringtones. It was actually really weird they were all basically the same and this was in 2013

[@lulairenoroub3869]

You could ring tones were obsolete at the time. I remember watching these ads on cable and bring like, "Why are you paying for these songs? They are free!" The only reason people bought them was because they didn't think they had an option. I'm the polyphonic era they were a little more correct, but I never encountered a phone that could do "truetone" that couldn't just record the song with the phone's mic, or transfer a .wav to the phone to be used as a ringtone if you wanted to. It wasn't like next level hacking either. I remember Bluetooth file transfer being a pretty simple thing that people just did in the mid 2000s, long before the first iPhone.

[@michalvalko248]

Oh man what a joy it was when you created your own ringtone in composer...

[@Fiona_fml]

The deep set childhood memories you unleashed in me with the words “Schnuffle Bunny”

[@roseghould]

1:29 I...HATE... that I know exactly where that soundbite is gonna come back up

[@woah729]

First off, just wanted to say I love the video as usual. Okay so my favorite story regarding this ringtones is that when I was in 1st grade, one of my classmates snuck a cellphone into class. In the middle of one of the teacher’s lectures, the ringtone went off and...it was A Milli by Lil Wayne. Needless to say, he was suspended for a couple of days and it’s one of my only fond memories regarding school.

[@grammerincorrect]

I use one of Dianes joke ringtones from Bojack as my actual ringtone (when I don’t have my phone on silent) so loved the reference hahah. The Serial one

[@nickbb6185]

why is this the best music commentary channel on youtube

[@KamilHenri]

I always keep my phone on maximum volume to assert dominance with my Annoying Thing ringtone in public

[@Shalalacls]

I remember my country had its own "ringtone culture": we got crazy frog and some of those cgaracters dubbed in my language, but there were also our own things, like the ringtones to celebrate when we won the World Cup in 2006. It was about the player who got headbutted on the field.

[@smoov22_sonic]

Ringtone Rap video lets gooooo 3 minutes into animated moles: *uh ok sure*

[@nathanberzmax6238]

When you get a notification from MictheSnare while watching MictheSnare.

[@nathanberzmax6238]

Oh and there's an Official Crazy Frog Discord.

[@nathanberzmax6238]

and I can't believe you forgot about Crazy Butt! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXjMepmGrrqnoZo

[@djkhemix]

It's funny to hear someone explaining early ringtone culture in this way because I was old enough to be immersed in it at the time and none of it seemed that weird. I never paid for any ringtones but I would spend a lot of time using the composer function on my Nokia 3310 to recreate melodies from songs I liked with the help of people online who worked out which buttons to press in which order. I remember finding it funny when I'd finish the process and listen to the result and find out I'd pressed a wrong button at some point and part of the tune was super sped up. Also, I remember back in high school when I was maybe 15 or something and used to watch funny videos on sites before KZbin existed. I found the original audio of the guy doing the moped impression being played over a still or an animation of a bike or a moped or something (just Googled it and it was called the Insanity Test) and it was funny and I got told off for playing it in computing class. Then, a while later, I saw the Crazy Frog advertised on TV and was like, oh they've ruined another good thing.

[@ryanrobinson2293]

Ah yes, Crazy Frog one of the greatest artists in recent memory

[@liamhell3124]

that jamie xx fact hit me outta NOWHERE

[@miaferrari958]

To think I was so excited when I bought my first ringtone, and even more so after managing to "compose" a Sublime ringtone knowing jack-all about music, and now I keep my phone on vibrate/silent at all times.

[@a.nightgold870]

Bless you, you cursed, righteous man

[@Betta66]

I met Thomas Dolby once. I was an intern at a radio station where he came in for an interview. Swell guy

[@raccoonja-ronja]

Somewhere in my mums house lies a Crazy Frog CD that I once got for my birthday. A hole CD full of "The Ketchup Song" remixes is the second clue that I had a very bad taste in music as a kid. I also had a Crazy Frog racing game my dad downloaded from somewhere. My first phone (around 2006) could save three whole songs and I used them as ringtones so I never bought any. But I still remember the adds on TV and in every kids magazine at the time.

[@DJPuzzles]

In college, my ringtone for my boyfriend was "My Phone's on Vibrate For You" by Rufus Wainwright. And I knew when I called my friend I would have to wait 15 seconds for her to pick up because she would enjoy the song for a while before picking up.

[@almostshawn3230]

I've spent years tearing Crazy Frog from my mind, and you brought it back to the forefront. I hate how much I love you.

[@kalimav2]

its okay, we all know you just needed a reason to talk about crazy frog. cool vid

[@lindaaa3256]

bro your content is so good you really pick the best topics to talk about and always have quality research to back up your claims hope your channel blows up soon

[@arrow_awsome]

one of my friends whose older then me recomended this video when i was surprised that ringtones used to cost money. very informative thanks!

[@FramingthePicture]

Your genuine enthusiasm about finally getting to talk about Crazy Frog in length is delightful and has made following your content all the more fulfilling EDIT: CRAZY FROG HELPED MAKE THE JAMIE XX "GOSH" VIDEO HAPPEN?!!?!??!?

[@missbrujalala]

I literally had Soulja Boy as my ringtone when I was a teen. Gotta love the 00s.

[@aias8209]

I just remembered the time when I wanted a song as my ringtone, tried to download it on limewire, got all the porn and viruses, then cried while trying to catch the perfect moment on radio to record a part of the song I wanted. After like 15 tries I was SO PROUD of my success (and this was like 10 days later, because songs don't just play on repeat on radio) and my friends were also impressed, so I sent the song to them as well and soon everyone in my school had that clip as their ringtone and I no longer liked that song or wanted it as my ringtone...

[@allynfornow]

That youuuu drop was so fire!

[@spadinnerxylaphone2622]

I remember going on a church youth group trip to Six Flags in 2006. My friend just got a cell phone and played his "My Humps" and "LEMME RIDE THAT DONKEY DONKEY" tones nonstop on the way over.

[@GoodGoga]

I had a whole CD of Crazy Frog in 2005-ish. I think there were 16 tracks, of which the first 6 were increasingly bad variations of Axel F.

[@mohamedtarquijalloh1620]

Man!!! Apologize was my ringtone for a long while. This was a nice trip down memory lane. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[@kentrzacherl]

I remember spending UNITS on TracFone ringtones. It was wild to pay the equivalent of about $4.25 for a super low quality version of "OMG" by Usher. OMG was my ringtone from 2011 until probably 2014 🙈

[@GCDzn]

I can absolutely confirm the fact that we Brits saw Crazy Frog many, many times every day at its peak. jeeez that was a trip

[@Bobskater1000]

I remember when I was younger I set my ringtone for whenever I called my mom to be Stewie griffin saying “mom, mom, mummy momma, etc.” funniest thing is she actually kept it on for a long time

[@andyzhang7890]

Loving your video essays on modern music history. This is good shit, I completely forgot about those ringtones ads on TV lmao.

[@WhateverWhenever888]

Man what a great nostalgic video! Was i the only one who unironically loved Crazy Frog as a kid? In australia he was everywhere, we had toys, cds (i still have the orange one) music vids on tv, and the mobile ringtone ads. Awesome video dude. I hope you do more of these kind of videos

[@SailorToBoat]

Every time you upload a video looking back at past music I spend the next hour listening to songs you play short clips of. Tonight I shall be listening to black eye peas and Soulja boy.

[@livianicholson9623]

obsessed with the crazy frog backstory - how did I never know this!!??!

[@IslayAnderson]

you've reminded me of a memory I forgot I had. in highschool(2008) music class the first lesson on DAW's was to make a ringtone

[@evgeniapetraki7021]

When people called me, they had to listen to the first 20 seconds of "Somebody that I used to know" and it pissed them immensely

[@GenerationNextNextNext]

What killed ringtones for me was accidentally putting one of my favorite songs with someone I hated talking to on the phone. It made me hate that song to this day.

[@NoFreeSpaces]

So niche but so interesting, another fantastic video!

[@paulinemocka1749]

Axel F is the 3rd best selling song of the century in France. Also the French version of the Fat song by the mole ended up being the best selling song of 2010 in the country. This is why I love my country.

[@bgl1335]

my boys got-

[@aidan331]

HIS OWN RINGTONE

[@sofiamolina2697]

ITS THE ONLY ONE I ANSEWER

[@taylorgayhart9497]

How did I completely forget Crazy Frog? Not an “oh yeah, that thing!” like, COMPLETELY forgot! The song clicked, but gun to my head I would NEVER have thought *that* thing existed! Lol

[@rosemulet]

I can’t believe I just watched a 20 minute video praising crazy frog

[@agusvila1015]

Composing my own ringtone in 2002 was glorious, thank u for bringing back these memories

[@simplecoffee]

That rock cover of Axel F is FANTASTIC and I need it to be my actual ringtone. (Yes, I'm one of those people who still has a ringtone; my phone is on silent except for that. The vibrations had me on edge, so I switched to having a ringtone.) Also, you're a man of taste for liking Crazy Frog, and I deeply appreciate it. 'Popcorn' is a banger.

[@bigz4829]

My friend had a “ring back” tone which was set to T.I. and Rihanna’s “Live Your Life.” She had it from the song’s peak in popularity until she got a new number in...2017? How it functioned was when someone would call her, the caller would hear that song instead of the normal ringing tone you hear while waiting for an answer on the other line.

[@legofarm13]

Can’t believe Mic made a whole video on ringtones just to finally talk about Crazy Frog

[@hifromthestudio]

we have it so good by being able to convert songs in our iTunes library into ringtones

[@HedeccaTamer]

The first use of the ringtone concept was in Laurel & Hardy, when phones would only "ring" because they were shaking against metal. But, in various scenes in their films, when the phone would ring, It'd make a completely different nose, most notably a horn. So Stan Laurel invented ringtones in the 1920's

[@farhannr28]

so this is the video that makes everybody stan Crazy Frog

[@keybrush4896]

I am genuinely happy that Mic finally got to talk about Crazy Frog, but also man, what a way to get yeeted through memory lane. Or maybe yote?

[@pescaldenza2573]

You have the amazing skill to entertain me for 20 mins straight talking about FUCKING RINGTONES

[@akex519]

You know at the end of the pursuit of happyness when will smith is walking in the street crying tears of joy? Yeah that was me when Crazy Frog first came on screen.

[@Fgurs]

In the series of seemingly infinite collection CD's my mom would play in the car when i was young was the Crazy Frog album. One of the tracks is the Crazy Frog's cover(??) of "We Like to Party" from the Vengaboys. And now that song has just cemented itself in my brain and I just have to live with that from now on

[@Breerox108]

Crazy Frog did a cover of Vengaboys? What's next, an Aqua cover of Smashmouth???

[@lola9148]

there was this ringtone ad that would play like twenty times over the course of the commercial breaks while i watched cartoons as a kid and it still haunts me. it was just some weird creature laughing. the whole point was that it was weird and it had an annoying laugh. i can still hear it. cackling in my head whenever someone mentions ringtones.

[@KnockMonsterr]

but does my boy have his own?

[@lydiavalentino]

is it the only one i know?

[@sofiamolina2697]

is it one i answer?

[@AnimatorGuy111]

"Who else plays Mortal Man in full for their ringtone??"

[@mirixf]

you brought back very hazy memories of ads trying to sell weird ringtones and wallpapers on tv that I didn't know where there oof

[@cptorange1687]

I was way too young for a phone so the ringtone magazine pages were always strange to me but one of my friends brought a crazy frog CD to school everyday, which was always a hit. I feel sorry for our teachers