Designed by Feel Good Anyway
for the song 'Meet the Elements'

Schoolhouse Rock! mattered. Three was a damn magic number. And even though we don’t remember exactly how “I’m Just a Bill” became a law, we knew that he usually didn’t. The failure of SOPA/PIPA recently reminded us of that.

Educational songs are edutainment 1.0. Simple lessons set to rhythm, rhyme and cartoons. Those of us who already like learning, like these songs. We get all sorts of nostalgic for Reading Rainbow.

Some contemporary bands are keeping this alive, like PUSA lead singer Chris Ballew’s “Caspar Babypants” or They Might Be Giants’ Grammy-nominated album, Here Comes Science.

Production company Feel Good Anyway produced a charmingly simple, high-contrast vid to accompany their song, “Meet the Elements.”

But even though this video got 1 million+ YouTube views, this shit ain’t going viral. Maybe edutainment 2.0 will.

This generation is in desperate need of more creative ways to keep up with the speed of technology, especially web tech. So much laughter and sharing across the globe is from viral video, and most of that is void of a deliberate, “Hey, I’m gonna make you laugh but teach you something along the way, too.”

Maybe it’s gotta be something interactive. Spoken-word HTML5 video responses. Paint-by-hexadecimal color code in realtime. Programming code scavenger hunt across the web with fun prizes. Something fun. Your suggestions are welcome in the comment box below.

American science edutainment 1.0 started way back with the 1959 album Space Songs by Tom Glazer.

They Might Be Giants re-recorded his song, “Why Does the Sun Shine?” It was a fun rendition, but no one can match the pomp of the unabashed original style. (:marching in place: “Come, let’s learn!”)

Like much of the style of the late 1950s, if you weren’t cheesy, you weren’t happening. If you watch the video below with the original song, you’ll see that Glazer wins your heart until he introduces some near-intolerable lecturing toward the end of this gem. Excuse me — mass of incandescent gas.

Watch the original: (For lyrics, click “read more.”)