Thank goodness for Twitter because now we have yet another way to find music and get recommendations from fiends and anonymous bots. That’s right folks, today Twitter took the wraps off of one of the worst kept secrets of the Internets: Twitter Music.

In case you’re somehow not familiar with the new service, it helps users discover music based on what their friends are listening to, along with recommendations from popular artists.

“It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists,” Twitter said in a post at its blog. “It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.”

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Take the billion download getting smash Gangnam Style. Get it good and drunk. Then put it in a room with the cougar, A-Ha’s Take On Me. What do you get? For those of you who wonder what it’d look like if the catchy pop anthem that most people only know the chorus of since the lyrics are primarily in Korean and animated it, here you go.

2012 showed us the power of viral video when PSY’s Gangnam Style garnered a billion views in only about six months time. It also made him a sought after pop sensation. Say what you will about the song, you’ve already heard it more times than you can count. Now, others are at least able to capitalize on its popularity like YouTube flipbook animator etoilec1. While he has already earned himself over four and a half million views on his channel, his Gangnam Style video has already hit almost 200,000 in just a week’s time.

Take a peek at the video below and check out the rest of etoliec1′s work on his channel here.

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How do you measure a year? Don’t worry, I’m not about to break out into song. But my answer does involve at least three of the hottest songs of the year. It also includes a dancing zebra, a man skydiving from space, some gamers and probably close to 1,000,000 calories. In just one day, YouTube.com’s year in review video has garnered more than 17,000,000 views (a number that will most likely be obsolete by the time this post even goes live). But the video isn’t just a compilation video or highlight reel.

Take a peek below at the cast of YouTube celebrities brought together for this remix rewind of all of their top viewed trending videos. With over billion of views between the stars of the video (over 980,000,000 for PSY’s “Gangam Style” alone), some of these people who may not have ever graced a movie screen have become more recognizable than some television or big screen actors.

Some of these people featured have found themselves on TV because of their YouTube fame including iJustine who appeared in the Call of Duty: Black Ops II “Surprise” trailer.

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If you have a Kinect, chances are that it isn’t the most used accessory of your XBox 360. Though tons have been sold, there hasn’t been great support of good games for it. In fact, many have been downright disappointing like Star Wars Kinect. The shining light for Kinect has been the Dance Central series.

With the first two titles, Dance Central has proven to be one of the best applications of the Kinect technology in terms of accurate recording of the player’s movements and giving a fun experience that actually utilizes the Kinect technology in a fun way. Now, for the third year in a row, the team at Harmonix brings back its dance craze inspired game with incredible results in the form of Dance Central 3.

The Long

If you’ve never played a Dance Central title before, the premise of the game is very simple. Players stand in front of the Kinect controller and mirror the movements they see of the characters on screen. The angle of their arms, legs and body are all monitored by the Kinect as a player follows the motions on screen. The accuracy of the player’s movements determines how well they score on each dance move. Higher scores mean more stars, which have been trend in Harmonix’s music games for some time now.

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Perhaps more than the Aston Martin, the Walther PPK or the martini’s, the signature Bond title tune is among the most important aspects of any 007 film. There have been some classic songs, some alright diddys and some downright duds over the years, so does Adele have what it take to deliver on Skyfall‘s titular ballad?

Well thankfully that is a question we do not have to wait for the release of Skyfall next month to answer. The song has been officially unleashed to the internet and it is with great relief we can report that it is actually pretty damn good. The last film, Quantum of Solace, had a title song that most people were not a big fan of, so the bounce back in quality for Skyfall is especially noticeable.

Unlike previous major pop star attempts at Bond themes, Adele manages to find the classic groove of the series roots without making the song all about her. As opposed to Madonna’s Die Another Day or the aforementioned Another Way To Die, which just seemed like advertisements for the artists and not a viable addition to the tapestry that was those particular films.

You can checkout Adele’s Skyfall after the jump.

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Hans Zimmer is a lot of things to a lot of people, but first and foremost he is musician. Which means it should come as no surprise that the way he feels best to pay tribute to the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado is by writing music.

That new music is not just an outlet for Zimmer, but a way for him to help as well. Through his Facebook fan page Zimmer has just released that new composition, entitled Aurora:

“Aurora” is dedicated to those who lost their lives and were affected by the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. I recorded this song in London in the days following the tragedy as a heartfelt tribute to the victims and their families. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Aurora Victim Relief organization. The track is available on iTunes shortly and you can donate here: http://bitly.com/QmUiWM

We also reiterate that donate link HERE. For as little or as much as you want to donate you can help the victims and in return you will receive the new Zimmer track.

This is a beautiful thing Zimmer has done. Not only is he offering up a beautiful piece of music as tribute to all of those effected by this tragedy, but he is also providing an avenue for even more money to pour in to support the victims.

As with any story regarding this tragedy, this was not easy to write. However, we at The Flickcast feel it is important to shine as much light on efforts like these as possible. Thank you Mr. Zimmer for the heartfelt song, and for the efforts to raise more money where it is needed most.

A few months ago on The Bitcast, WallE talked with me about some of the best and most memorable music in gaming with everything from Donkey Kong Country to Halo to even Ducktales. Many of us have spent years of our lives in front of video games and the most iconic songs are embedded in our heads. If you had to put together a soundtrack of the most iconic all smashed together, could you imagine what it’d sound like?

Swedish YouTube user and musician FreddeGedde (a.k.a. Freddie25) did and pieced together his own medley with some of these amazing pieces all together. Playing the guitar, keyboards, kazoo and tinwhistle all himself, FreddeGedde collaborated with drummer Louis Abramson to put together a piece that rings true to all of the original music highlighted within.

Take a look after the jump of FreddeGedde’s Video Game Rock Medley and his YouTube channel for more of his awesome work.

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It took me a while to come around on the score for The Dark Knight. I was disappointed that all of my favorite musical moments seemed like poorer versions of themes that originated in Batman Begins. I think the music fits the movie well, but isn’t quite as impactful as the first film’s score.

Of course then I listened to the soundtrack, and in the context of a stand alone musical experience the score finally began to work for me. I can now appreciate the work as one of the better soundtracks of 2008, which it very much was.

So obviously there is a lot of excitement for the upcoming Dark Knight Rises score, which hopefully wont take me nearly as long to get behind. Warner Bros. can no doubt sense that anticipation as they have just released an extended preview of the music from the movie. Providing :30 second clips for each track of the upcoming soundtrack release.

It is impossible to judge a score based on seven and a half minutes built from fifteen tracks, but the tease does provide likely confirmation that there will be no grand departure in the musical portion of the blockbuster-to-be. If anything it allows for those same reservations I had about The Dark Knight score to creep back into my head.

You can take a listen to the extended preview after the jump, and be sure to experience the whole thing in theaters July 20th.

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The musical is one of the most interesting types of storytelling. It is all together ludicrous to have all of your characters stop what they are doing and relate their emotions in song. But for all that silliness it is also one of the most pure and powerful ways to convey emotion and impact onto an audience.

One of the most popular, and longest running, musicals out there is Les Miserables, based on the Victor Hugo novel. The story is classic and has been adapted before for film, but now the popular musical version is receiving the big budget cinematic treatment.

Now we get our first look at what exactly we can expect from this big budget cinematic adaptation in the form of the film’s first trailer. You can judge for yourself if it feels suitably epic for you, but I can assure you this feels very right. The cast seems spot on, and the look and tone seem to be right as well.

For those of you who have yet to experience the music of Les Miserables in some form or another yet in life, do yourself a favor and pencil this one in to your year-end movie watching calender.

The movie comes out this December and you can check out the trailer after the jump.

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It’s safe to say there’s at least one show geeks and nerds in many lands can agree is pretty awesome. That show is, of course, Game of Thrones.

The shows visuals, casting and story have captivated audiences and made the show a success for HBO. Another major element of Game of Thrones that contributes to its success is the series’ musical score.

One fan, YouTube’s own MrSolidSnake745, has taken his love of the Game of Thrones score to even great heights and made his own hommage to the series’ main title theme.

The difference here is that he did it all with eight floppy disk drives. Putting aside the fact that even finding eight floppy drives is a pretty amazing feat these days, this video is still pretty impressive.

Check it out after the break.

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The films put out by Marvel Studios have been excellent in most ways possible. Really nailing the tones of a wide variety of Marvel superheroes. One thing these movies have been lacking, however, is a strong musical presence.

Going back to the original Iron Man, these films have not really had the same level of film score heights that we have come to expect from comic book movies in the last decade plus. The tide began to turn with the last released film, Captain America, which brought in the fantastic Alan Silvestri, but even that didn’t really live up to its potential.

Well Mr. Silvestri is back with the biggest and most epic Marvel film yet, so can he deliver on the promise his name and this property offers? In one word, yes. In seven words and three exclamation points, hell freaking yeah! he totally nailed it!!

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As far as music services go, iTunes has pretty much been the dominant player for several years. However, Spotify has made great strides and has become a personal favorite of many members of The Flickcast staff. But as good as the service is, there’s been something lacking: an iPad app.

Fortunately, the company is changing that today. That’s right, Spotify has announced that its iPad application is now available in Apple’s App Store. The free app allows premium Spotify subscribers to access the services huge library of music, stream tracks and playlists, and share songs.

The new Spotify iPad app also features gapless playback, a crossfade function and AirPlay integration, allowing users to stream music wirelessly from the iPad to AirPlay-compatible devices. In other words, if your an ipad and Spotify user, this is just the thing you’ve been waiting for.

On a side note, if you’re a Spotify user and want to listen to music at home I highly recomment pairing the service with some Sonos speakers. The Sonos Play 5 / Spotify combo is really hard to beat.

Check out a video highlighting all the new features of Spotify for iPad, as well as the full press release, after the break.

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Sometimes news is just so pleasantly surprising you can not help but to smile. In the back of our minds we expected another solid Hans Zimmer-y type score for the next Disney period, action/adventure, Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza. That would have been fine, maybe even great, instead we will be getting something far more interesting.

Jack White, of The White Stripes fame, is stepping on board to compose the music for The Lone Ranger. A bold and exciting direction for Disney to take, but one that makes so much sense when you really think about it. The Lone Ranger looks to be turning into a very progressive blockbuster, and hopefully in this case quality follows progress.

As for Mr. White, movies are not an entirely new endeavor for the talented rocker. He wrote music for actually acted in Cold Mountain, his folksy styling fit in perfectly with that civil war tale. He also co-wrote and sung the theme song to the most recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace. That film might have been divisive, but most agreed the theme was quite good.

Like other established musicians turned composers, Jack White will likely keep a distinctive style in his Lone Ranger music. If he is really successful he will sound like himself while transcending his own sound like Trent Reznor and Danny Elfman have done in the past. We can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us.

OK, so we know it is coming, we know The Avengers looms just a little more than a week away. The early critical reception is very high, the buzz couldn’t be better and many of you already have your tickets in hand for the midnight shows.

That is a lot of anticipation, and we are certainly feeling it here at The Flickcast. One of the biggest things I am looking forward to the most is the score by Alan Silvestri, as the resident film music nerd here, his take on an Avengers theme tickles my fancy way more than most.

When a film of this magnitude is on the horizon, it is hard to keep things like it’s soundtrack under-wraps, and as such the entire score has already leaked online. I am happy to say it is quite great in what little I have allowed myself to listen to, but it only makes my jonesing for the movie that much more intense.

So to alleviate a little of that pressure, here is a video of the main theme by Mr. Silvestri, cut together as a music video featuring all of the as yet released Avengers footage. This video lets you experience the kick assery of the main theme in the context of actual Avengers footage.

Check it out after the jump.

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There are a few certainties in life, death, taxes and a Danny Elfman score for the next Tim Burton movie. Their creative collaborations have always been among the high points of each new Burton film, even if sometimes the music can sound overly familiar.

In recent years the Elfman music associated with the last few Burton films has been quite exceptional. Elfman’s ‘Burton’ style has been perfected to the point that it sounds effortless. So of course we are excited to hear what Elfman has in store for Dark Shadows in a few weeks.

Well, wait no more, says Warner Bros. as they have put a very expanded preview of the score up on their official website. On the site you will get a full minute and a half of each track, which is more than enough to get a really good sense for what type of music we have in store for us.

Having listened to the expanded preview, I can happily report that this score does not seem to disappoint. The trailers for the movie suggest the film has a bit of a goofy tone, but for the musics part it is all dark and moody. The likely juxtaposition between the music and the tone of the movie feels very right considering the filmmakers involved.

So go check out the expanded preview now and be on the look out for a full review here on The Flickcast when the film is released in early May.