Do They Know It’s MIDI?

By Less Lee Moore

Since after nearly thirty years I still remain somewhat obsessed with Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” single (despite how ridiculously offensive it is), naturally I was overjoyed when Megashaun pointed me in the direction of a MIDI version of the song.

The opening sounds like it’s copped straight from a Japan track, circa Gentlemen Take Polaroids, which is rendered all the more hilarious by the fact that no members of Japan were included in Band Aid. (And nor was Adam Ant for that matter. Why exactly?)

This finding means that I can now share with you all with the recent rebirth of my love for MIDI versions of songs.

It started when my old cellphone died and I didn’t set up the new one to accept MP3s as ringtones. I soon realized, however, that it did allow MIDI tracks to be used as ringtones (or “ringtunes” as my phone refers to them).

After being delighted to find versions of various Pulp songs, “Yakety Sax,” Meatloaf’s “Paradise By The Dashboard Light,” and the theme from ALF, I was even more amused to discover a tremendous cache of MIDI versions of Sparks tunes! These were all immediately added to my library.

More recently, Megashaun found a MIDI version of the original Law & Order theme, which I listened to at least five times in a row upon downloading it. (My obsession with Law & Order is too much of a tangent to be fully discussed within this blog post.)

In this age of ubiquitous access to music via MP3s, YouTube, Vevo, etc., there’s something quaint and quasi-Luddite about MIDI files, and they evoke a weird wistfulness for the early days of the Internet. Considering that those days aren’t so long gone, it would seem that technology has not only sped up our appetite for instant gratification, it has also increased the speed at which nostalgia takes hold of our collective consciousness.