Larry David, when asked in a 2009 interview to describe the opening theme to “Crb Your Enthusiasm,” didn’t cut words: “It introduces the idea that you’re into something pretty idiotic.”
Despite the six-year hiatus from the HBO comedy from 2011 to 2017, the gay tub, piano and mandolin waltz called “Frolic,” written by Italian conductor and composer Luciano Michelini, continued to grow in popularity on the internet as the star of countless. memes, from Bernie Sanders to Steve Harvey to Chris Christie to Donald Trump.
Now, perhaps inevitably, it has been perpetuated as a 1-of-1 NFT (along with the original six-page score) on the Bitcoin-backed platform Counterparty — the home of as powerful Web3 culture icons as Rare Pepes. The token was minted in April with an auction scheduled at a future date (TBD).
How it started
Beginning his career in the early 1970s, primarily composing for Italian and foreign films, Luciano originally wrote “Frolic” for a comedic character named Il Barone Rosso (The Red Baron), played by Nino Tofflo in the 1974 melodrama ” The Beautiful Summer “(” The Beautiful Summer “). On the same subject : Enjoying music News, Sports, Jobs.
However, David did not discover the tune until several years later – in a bank advertisement. “I love that, where did they get that from?” he thought at first hearing it. “The commercial ran for a week, and I never saw it again. Then I forced my assistant to investigate it — it was all this suffering to get the name of the bank and the music, and finally she tracked it down. So I just put it away for a while. a time when I would need it. “
On the series launch in 2000, Larry remembered “Frolic” but did not contact Luciano directly. According to Luciano, the son of Franco Micalizzi (an Italian composer from RCA) called and said an American label had bought the rights to “La Bellissima Estate”, whose music included “Frolic”.
More specifically, series editor of “Curb”, Steve Rasch, found it at Universal Production Music (then known as Killer Tracks), which included it in their catalog of Italian film music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. The company’s vice president, Carl Peel, later provided access to “Frolic” along with various other related tracks with a similar comedic ethos. However, based on the song’s modifiable and recognizable harmonic arrangement (with a multitude of seventh chords), “Frolic” quickly carved out a place as one of the most recognizable and culturally significant pieces of the series.
How it’s going
Controlling historical things like art, wine and paintings has been an existential problem plaguing auction houses and markets for centuries. To see also : Music Fans’ Travel Bucket List: Ultimate Music Landmarks. However, this was until early concepts such as Bitcoin Colored Coins (2012) and Rare Pepes (2016) took advantage of the inviolability of the Bitcoin blockchain to reflect the origin of digital items, along with a transparent record of ownership.
Although there are several ways to tokenize physical assets, collectibles, such as the Chyna Pepe and the Pepechain from developer Joe Looney, provide clear examples where the hash of the original file is encrypted and tied into the token. In addition, because the descriptions of assets are publicly viewable by a blockchain explorer, anyone with an internet connection and a smartphone can authenticate and cross-reference the details to verify an original piece.
With this in mind, given its cultural and digital impact, on April 25 the original score for “Frolic” was merged (minted) and digitally preserved on Counterparty.
It is important to note that although every transaction on Counterparty works the same way as Bitcoin, not every Bitcoin transaction mirrors the dynamics of Counterparty. Sure, transactions through Counterparty are simpler because they use Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN field to permanently store every transaction or action (including arbitrary data) related to the asset. While some consider using the OP-RETURN field (and storing data outside of financial transactions) an irrelevant and “blockchain bulge,” the use case is appropriate for anything that requires proof of ownership.
In addition, once an asset is mined on a Counterparty, it is only accessible to the person (s) who hold the private keys to the wallet address where it is stored. Unlike smart contracts or third-party markets on Ethereum that can be exploited or hacked by phishing scams or ridiculously simple attacks, Counterparty assets exploit the robust security model of Bitcoin addresses, which provide full autonomy to the owner. That said, although Bitcoin wallets are not unreasonable, for the most part, accessing one means that a hacker or scammer should first get their private keys. Therefore, it is relatively more secure than a smart contract that can give permission to a hacker or bot to withdraw funds through markets like OpenSea without the full awareness or the owner understanding what they clicked.
With that in mind, the decision to fund Frolic on Counterparty, according to its creators, was the only logical long-term solution to preserve the work’s authenticity from a technical and practical point of view. In addition, although the 2021 NFT bubble has helped propel CryptoArt and Ethereum-based collections like CryptoPunks into the zeitgeist, a majority of “innovative” collections launched during the exaltation cycle are probably less secure and less authentic compared to predecessors created in 2016 and 2017. which still exist today.
For example, although markets like OpenSea have made it easier for the everyday person to click and buy, the murky nature of smart contracts and IP rights makes it extremely difficult to make any thorough and timely reviews. Unfortunately, this resulted in a cacophony of carpet pulls and scams that left collectors with nothing more than essentially worthless images. Yes, for some of these non-counterpart projects based, the meme “right click, keep as” has unfortunately become true.
Although protocols like Solana and Ethereum try to provide value to artists and creators through participation, there are still gaping design flaws, risks, and problems, especially when analyzed from a long-term perspective. One example is that if artwork is not stored in a chain, it continues to depend on markets paying fees to store data and could result in lost images if they close, as seen with Rare Bits in 2020.
In contrast, the layered creative and intrinsic value of “Frolic” outweighs status profile images or mere rare metrics that affect the perception of most collections published on Ethereum. Included in the 1-of-1 are:
The scans were then linked into a JSON file and uploaded to the seamless and decentralized storage solution Arweave. Also included is a PDF cover page that outlines the details of “Frolic,” the project, and shares the links to each particular file.
In addition, the “Frolic” package also includes:
Considering the open nature of Counterparty, and unlike significant artwork like Warhol or the Gioconda (which not only require admirers to travel to museums or galleries, but are often locked in secure warehouses), anyone with a smartphone or computer can. look at the asset knowing that it is not only the verified original, but the first historical score “artifact” digitally preserved by this open source method.
How it could go
Ultimately, as seen through the unique integrations and mixes of artists like deadbeef and Scrilla, music cuts out an ever-general and expansive presence on Web3. Read also : The Bristol Riverside Theater announces the Summer Music Fest series.
However, as with the multitude of mixed tunes, not all music-centric NFTs will end on an equal note. Some will invariably transcend their creative foundations, while others will be lost, remaining among the other long-forgotten fragments of the Web.
Although value is subjective, one could argue that based on its innate memetic and comedic power, the cultural awareness of “Curb”, the omniscient influence of music, the foundations of Counterparty, and unique real qualities, “Frolic” transcends the superficial perceptions . of 1-of-1 asset. In all fairness, it matches the gold standard for something truly digitally scarce.
Along with preserving an important cultural icon for posterity, the creators behind the “Frolic” project hope its structure can be used and reproduced as a template to embrace what has become one of the most significant technical innovations to trace origin since the pen and . -paper accounting system. And more importantly, do it in a way that introduces a new set of possibilities and features to the art world that, until now, were simply not possible.
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