Songify the News

Michael, who graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in music and a concentration in recording and production,[7] first created a "debate musical" using footage of the first presidential election debate of 2008 titled "Debate Highlights—in song and dance". This early effort did not use the Auto-Tune software to manipulate the voices of the presidential candidates in the video.[8] His brother Evan, a music major at Swarthmore College '01, encouraged Michael, who had prior experience with Auto-Tune, to attempt to use the software in his next video to make the political figures appear to sing along with the music.[9]

Michael used footage from the vice-presidential debate of 2008 as the basis for the Auto-Tune experiment, and the resulting creation, "VP Debate in Song and Dance,"[10] became the prototype which the Auto-Tune the News videos would expand upon. As the concept began to attract notice, Michael recruited the rest of the Gregory Brothers to collaboratively develop the Auto-Tune the News series.[7]

Because it draws its source material primarily from news footage, the Auto-Tune the News series has covered myriad topical issues including Arctic shrinkage, health care reform debate in the United States, texting while driving, tobacco regulation, and the alleged sexual assault of Kelly Dodson. Andrew Rose Gregory, who graduated from Swarthmore College in 2004, believes that focusing on unusual or obscure topics is a source of strength for the series, asserting that "[p]eople are frustrated with pop music because it's all the same over and over again, in terms of being love songs or a song about someone going away. These are songs that aren't about anything you've ever heard a song about."[11]

As Songify the News, the series has continued in a format indistinguishable from its predecessor. Further topics, largely United States-related, have been covered, including the 2012[12] and 2016 elections,[13] LGBT rights,[14] gun laws, and military drone usage.[15]

Keith Olbermann (center) manipulated via superimposition to appear to play the cowbell in the ninth Auto-Tune the News video

In the videos, the Gregory Brothers perform alongside TV news clips altered with the Auto-Tune effect. One recurring element is a closing in which special recognition is given to the "Best Unintentional Singer"[16] or other ad hoc awards such as "Best Fictional Bromance" (awarded to Paul Krugman and David Brooks).[17]

In addition, it is common for the Gregory Brothers to alter footage by superimposing their own mouths or arms onto individuals who were in the original video clip; compare Syncro-Vox. This effect is often used to make those individuals appear to be singing along or enthusiastically getting into the music. The Gregory Brothers sometimes use this technique to make people appear to play percussion (such as drums, the tambourine and the cowbell) or other instruments (such as the theremin) along with the music.

A duet between Katie Couric and Andrew Rose Gregory in the second Auto-Tune the News video

Some recurring public figures and characters featured in the videos include:

• CBS anchor Katie Couric, commonly referred to as "Katie Coo" and "Shawty" (slang for an attractive woman) in the videos. The Gregory Brothers describe her as "outstanding" in her suitability for auto-tuning.[18] As of September 2010, she has appeared in more videos than any non-Gregory character, appearing in every Auto-Tune The News video except Auto-Tune the News #12 and #13. Her best known "hook" is the phrase "very thin ice", originally uttered by Couric as a black-humor pun during a news story covering the diminishing ice levels in the Arctic. This phrase was used by the Gregory Brothers to construct a duet between Couric and Andrew in "Auto-Tune the News #2: pirates. drugs. gay marriage." This sample has also been used in #3 and #8 (which included a duet between Couric and T-Pain).
• The "Angry Gorilla" (variably identified as, e.g., "Frank McGee"[16] or "Angry Gorilla (R—South Dakota)"[17]), who is one of the brothers wearing a gorilla suit handed down by their grandfather.[18] In one interview, the Gregory Brothers stated that this character serves to "act as a foil for the commentators and talking heads that use anger as a calling card, or at least fabricate cheap ire to chase viewers."[19]
• Senator Junkie Einstein (R—South Dakota),[20] who continually appears when any reference to drugs in the news comes up. Notably, in #5, he is seen attempting to smoke lettuce (his "leafy green fetish"), satirizing comments made by Congressman Steve Buyer in the video asserting that smoking dried and rolled lettuce would cause "similar problems" compared to smoking tobacco.[20]
• Bølverk, a Scandinavian Viking character, whose dialogue is entirely sung in an Opera-esque fashion. His most notable appearances come in #9, discussing the Nobel Peace Prize with Katie Couric; and in #11, arguing against the Angry Gorilla and Nigel Farage and instead took the side of EU president Herman Van Rompuy. Bølverk was also described as a "Nobel War Prize Laureate".[21]
• Vice President Joe Biden, among the first figures to be Auto-Tuned, regarded as "an all-star unintentional singer".[22] In the series' later incarnation as Songify the News, Biden received three out of the first six awards for "Best Unintentional Singer", and appeared in person alongside Michael and Andrew Gregory in a Valentine's Day Songify This clip to promote HealthCare.gov.[23]

Many of the costumed characters played by the Gregory Brothers are designated as "R—South Dakota" (i.e., Republicans representing South Dakota). Characters who have been labeled as such include Senator Junkie Einstein,[20] Olga Barth,[20] Bølverk,[24] and Angry Gorilla.[17][21]

Auto-Tune the News has spread virally, accumulating millions of viewings.[25][26] The series' subject matter and its explosion in popularity yielded an interview on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on May 1, 2009,[18] and sustained media attention left the Gregory Brothers "fielding a number of inquiries" regarding turning the series into a full-time occupation for the group[7] (see commercialization below).

Representative Michele Bachmann (Republican-Minnesota 6th) was auto-tuned in "Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin.", the sixth episode of the series. In the video, she makes a speech regarding her thoughts on the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Bachmann said of the video that her children "think it's really funny to watch it...it's a riot" and that "it is really clever, really funny."[27]

The Bed Intruder Song video spread virally much faster than any previous episode, ultimately becoming the most-viewed YouTube video of 2010 (excluding major label music videos).[28] Dedicated solely to the news story of an attempted sexual assault, the episode gave a musical treatment to interview footage of the victim, Kelly Dodson, and her brother, Antoine Dodson. The episode was released on 31 July 2010 and was viewed 7.1 million times over the course of its first month online.[29] As of May 2012, Bed Intruder Song has over 100 million views. The Gregory Brothers subsequently remade the song and video as episode 12c, "iTunes Version – Bed Intruder Song", and released the accompanying song on the iTunes music store. It made an entry to the Billboard Hot 100 at #89 and debuted at #5 on Heatseekers Songs chart.[30][31] The Gregory Brothers pledged half of the song's earnings to the Dodson family.

In an interview with Barry, the Gregory Brothers reported that they had sold over 100,000 copies of The Bed Intruder Song on iTunes.[32]

Aaron "Blackdata" Steele, a professional drummer from the New York area, was featured in "Auto-Tune the News #7: texting. rhyming. pat buchanan fail."[17][33] T-Pain was featured in "Auto-Tune the News #8: dragons. geese. Michael Vick" which also promoted his new iPhone auto-tune app, "I Am T-Pain."[24] Joel Madden was featured in Auto-Tune the News #11: Pure Poppycock, singing a duet with Katie Couric regarding the made-up news proliferating on the internet.[34] Mike Penny, a shamisen player, was featured in Auto-Tune the News #11 Pure Poppycock, playing his shamisen during the EU meeting. He had previously arranged several Auto-Tune the News songs for his shamisen and posted videos of his solo performances on YouTube. Weezer was featured in Auto Tune the News 13, opening the video by playing various instruments related to freedom, liberty and justice. Rivers Cuomo sang a short verse parodying a quote from Charlie Rangel. The entire backing track for ATTN 13 was Weezer's own song "Memories".

A notable feature of the newly titled Songify the News series has been its consistent inclusion of guest stars. A wide range of comedians and musicians have sung intentionally alongside the Gregory Brothers with minimal use of Auto-Tune; largely from the YouTube community, but including those popular in other media, such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Darren Criss, Blondie, and Nev Schulman.

The Gregory Brothers partnered with Sony to create a viral marketing campaign for the 2009–2010 holiday season based on their "Auto-Tune the News" series.[44] One offering in this campaign is the video entitled "Auto-Tune the Ads: Sony. Justin Timberlake. Peyton Manning."[45] When asked about a possible backlash by fans due to client integration in Auto Tune The News, Michael Gregory said "The audience gets it. It used to be where any type of sponsorship you might have fans say 'they sold out' but nowadays if you can do it on your own terms, your fans are rooting for you."[32] In an interview with Wired, the band said they are going to be working with Comedy Central to produce a TV pilot for a television series to be aired sometime in 2011.[46] The band's "Songify This" videos were parodied in The Simpsons' episode, "The Falcon and the D'ohman" and The Cleveland Show's episode, "Frapp Attack!". Aside from that, the band worked with app developer Khu.sh to create Songify, an Apple iPhone app that allows the users to autotune any speech into song. Provided with the app is an template that autotunes speech to the Double Rainbow music, with additional template packs from the band available for purchase in-app.

• The Gregory Brothers' official Website
• The Gregory Brothers' channel on YouTube; contains the Songify the News videos
• The Gregory Brothers' second channel on YouTube
• Songify the News official episode listing on YouTube
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Evan and Michael Gregory about Auto-Tune the News, April 11, 2010