The Nth Degree (song)
Encyclopedia
"Nth Degree" is a song by New York City
band Morningwood
from its debut album Morningwood
. "Nth Degree" reached #30 on the Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks
. The song has recently been used in a Mercury
vehicles ad campaign that features actress Jill Wagner
. Some commercials in the campaign have the vocals edited out, but on most cuts, the discerning ear can hear Claret spell out her band's name, "M-O, M-O-R, M-O-R-N-I-N-G-W-O-O-D".
just as the video ends.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
band Morningwood
Morningwood
Morningwood is an alternative rock band from New York City, USA, founded in 2001 by Pedro Yanowitz and Chantal Claret. Morningwood was signed to Capitol Records.-Career:...
from its debut album Morningwood
Morningwood (album)
Morningwood is the New York City band Morningwood's debut album. It was released on Capitol Records in 2006.-Track listing:All songs written by Pedro Yanowitz & Chantal Claret except as noted.#"Nü Rock" – 2:30#"Televisor" – 3:37...
. "Nth Degree" reached #30 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Modern Rock Tracks
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
. The song has recently been used in a Mercury
Mercury (automobile)
Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...
vehicles ad campaign that features actress Jill Wagner
Jill Wagner
Jillian Suzanne "Jill" Wagner is an American television actress, model, and game show personality.-Early life:Wagner was raised primarily by her father, David Wagner, a Marine, and her grandmother...
. Some commercials in the campaign have the vocals edited out, but on most cuts, the discerning ear can hear Claret spell out her band's name, "M-O, M-O-R, M-O-R-N-I-N-G-W-O-O-D".
Music video
The video opens with a person browsing through some records. Each record shows the band on sets and in costumes carefully calculated to reference and parody about 16 other famous album covers or music videos from 20th century popular music. The album Morningwood is selected and begins playing on a record playerPhonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
just as the video ends.
Albums in the music video
- Nth Degree: by Morningwood, is black-and-whiteBlack-and-whiteBlack-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and features a handHandA hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...
playing a bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Chantal! Sing!: features lead singer Chantal ClaretChantal ClaretChantal Claret is an American singer/songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the rock and power pop band Morningwood.- Early life :...
in purplePurplePurple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
on a blackBlackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
background - Saturday Morningwood: features a discoDiscoDisco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
theme with Chantal in roller skatesRoller skatingRoller skating is the traveling on smooth surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: quad roller skates and inline skates or blades, though some have experimented with a...
, parodies Saturday Night FeverSaturday Night FeverSaturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance... - Smell the Wood: by Morningwood, features the band as glam rockGlam rockGlam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
ers, parodies Def LeppardDef LeppardDef Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
. The name "Smell The Wood" is a reference to the fictitious band, Spinal TapSpinal Tap (band)Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
from the movie "This Is Spinal TapThis Is Spinal TapThis Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...
," where their album was titled, "Smell The Glove." - Morningwood: features the band as it appears on the real Morningwood album
- Old Country Morning: features the band as country musicCountry musicCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
ians - Mengde Uendelighets: (Not NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
for Nth Degree): by T Mérnving Wüd§ ( Not Norwegian for Morningwood), features the band in matching redRedRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
and yellowYellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
outfits on a greenGreenGreen is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
background, possibly a parody of this Country Church album or more likely the many earnestly leisure-suited Nordic album covers of the disco era. - Degré d'Infinite: (FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
for Infinite Degree): by Le Bois de Matin (French for Morningwood). - Mourning: by The Woods
- The Nth Degree: by Morningjerks, features the band as punk rockPunk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
ers in front of a graffitiGraffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
-covered brickBrickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
wall—an homage to the cover of the Ramones' eponymous album.
- Rippity Dippity Rap: by Positive Pedro, parodies Devastatin' Dave's Zip Zap Rap
- [Unreadable] Grad: by Morgenholz (literal translation into GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for morning wood), parodies KraftwerkKraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
's The Man-MachineThe Man-MachineThe Man-Machine is the seventh studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in May 1978. It contains the song "The Model" which was a chart-topping single in the UK in 1982....
in style and DevoDevoDevo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
's Freedom of ChoiceFreedom of ChoiceFreedom of Choice is the third album by New Wave musicians Devo, released on May 16, 1980. It saw the band moving in more of an overt synthpop direction, even though guitars still played a prominent role....
in layout. - Stacks of Cash: by Moneywood, parodies 90's hip hopHip hop musicHip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, particularly the Pen & PixelPen & PixelPen & Pixel is a Houston, Texas-based graphics design firm that specializes in musical album covers, especially for gangsta hip hop artists in the Southern US...
-style album covers featuring artists superimposed over symbols of largesse. - Working Out! with Morningwood: features the band in aerobicsAerobicsAerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness...
attire, parodies Olivia Newton-JohnOlivia Newton-JohnOlivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
's "Physical"Physical (Olivia Newton-John song)"Physical" is a song by Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, released in September 1981. The song was an immediate success, shipping 2 million copies in the United States, being certified Platinum, and spending 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ultimately becoming Newton-John's...