Meet The New Rulers Of YouTube

Blondie’s Chris Stein and Debbie Harry talk to the new rulers of YouTube.

- Chris Stein, Debbie Harry, and Barbara Sicuranza

I suppose it’s entirely possible that there is someone out there who doesn’t have a computer or a cell phone, who lives in a cabin or cave, and who hasn’t encountered the Gregory Brothers and their contribution to contemporary culture. If you are one of these digitally uninitiated, go find help. Borrow a computer now, go to YouTube, and look up Michael Gregory’s channel, which is called Schmoyoho, and watch/listen to their audiovisual tracks.

The Gregorys are the actual brothers Evan, Michael, and Andrew, and Evan’s wife, Sarah. They are consummate musicians and cultural revolutionaries.

I’m not exactly sure when I first started seeing/hearing their offerings, but I definitely recall being fascinated by the case of Antoine Dodson and the surrounding viral hoopla. Antoine was a guy from Huntsville, Alabama, who wound up on a local news channel, WAFF/NBC, delivering a monologue about saving his sister Kelly from a home-invading rapist, “some idiot in the projects.”

Something about Antoine’s witty delivery and hooky street phraseology made the news clip an Internet sensation and the realization of Andy Warhol’s iconic maxim that “in the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.” Enter the Gregory Brothers, who reached out to Antoine and did a musical remix of the news video called the “Bed Intruder Song.” As of right now the original “Bed Intruder” stands at 130 million–plus views. It reached number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became YouTube’s most popular song of 2010.

Despite its being a weird novelty event, I always thought “Bed Intruder” was in fact a really great song, and so I kept following the Gregorys’ endeavors. Several years later, Blondie was seeking material for a new recording cycle, and I figured, now is the time to get in touch with the Gregory Brothers.