We got a nice note from the people at the “remhq” YouTube account: “Sincere apologies and do note us on team REM love the stuff you guys do.” They added the appropriate credit to the YouTube video description. Thanks guys! I’ve been listening to R.E.M. since I bought Document on cassette back in middle school, so it’s cool to find out that they (or at least their marketing people) are Improv Everywhere fans.
UPDATE: remhq removed the video from their YouTube account and sent us a note saying they are going to re-edit the footage to credit us in the video itself.
UPDATE 2: R.E.M. decided to just remove the video for good.
Thanks, REM…. I was terribly afraid I’d have to stop listening to you guys…. and i used to be so obsessed…. late is better than never, and u guys are great… lemme be the first to say, I LOVE REM, despite the lack of love the first time around.
Sorry for the lack of attribution. I’ll kyron the video in the AM with proper credit and put it back up. It was an honest mistake.
And FTR – when I taught art up at UC Santa Barbara IE was a huge part of my curriculum in my performance art class.
Thanks Ethan. I really appreciate you going to these lengths to give us credit.
Yay! (I’m not sure you can really copyright this stunt, but it’s still nice to get acknowledgement for what you inspire!)
Yay! I’m a huge IE fan and a huge REM fan, so I was a bit worried when I saw that first post… good to know REM have the love. :)
That’s really, really awesome. Good job REM for doing the right thing.
I’m glad to see that REM is at least trying to credit you guys, but it still is disappointing to see them be so unoriginal. They took a great idea and made it into a horrible marketing ploy. I think the main distinction is how Improv Everywhere showed the action and reactions while their video mainly focuses on the frozen people holding propaganda. I don’t think that trying to give credit to Improv Everywhere now is enough to justify the band/marketing team’s actions. The bottom line is that they tried to get away with taking credit for an awesome idea when, in reality, even when they copy good ideas they can’t produce anything worthwhile. I have officially lost all respect for R.E.M.
Congratulations Improv Everywhere! You took an old prank and convinced everyone it was your original idea. You have people so convinced, that when others use that old prank they have to give you credit. So how are you going to convince all the people who did this prank before you did to retroactively give you credit?
James- Of course Improv Everywhere wasn’t the first to do this, but they did it in a big way that inspired more freeze events globally. If R.E.M. had done it in a different way that would be one thing but it was just a lower quality version of the Improv Everywhere video. The other issue is that all of the freeze events were done in fun (the ones before Improv Everywhere too) This was done for advertising, and it was done to ride on the coat tail of what Improv Everywhere sparked.
Was it a lower version of the improv everywhere video or a higher version of past videos? You can say REM’s version was not as good, you can say their goal of advertising took away from the fun, but to they owe IE credit for something that did not originate with IE is wrong.
The IE version was big, rejoice in that, but don’t act like IE now owns the idea of standing still like a statue.
That is awesome! I am so happy that they did that. I now have respect for them.
Awesome. I’m probably going to pick up the album now being an REM fan and all.
Cheers!
I gotta agree with James. Did IE give any credit to those who froze in place in the past? maybe even a “thanks to all of the freezers who inspired this scene”. I dont think so. Although IE made it popular, it is like a cover artist who doesnt give credit to the original writer. Then the cover artist complains when someone else makes a cover of their song. Not quite right.
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