Raygun are a UK band who (whether of their own design or not) owe a lot of their current high online profile to virals and online marketing.
In August 2009 late at night in its 4Play segment, Channel 4 broadcast a 15-minute programme featuring the band. The video was posted to Youtube by Rhodri Marsden under the title “Lack Of Self Awareness” with the music removed.
The video became a viral hit, and as the counter approached 10,000 with many predominantly negative user comments, Sony BMG enforced a take down notice on the video.
Critics of the video mainly focused on the rock and roll clichés on display. Singer Ray Gun likened his band to “Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift”. He also claimed their album was “inspired by the perils of hedonism, when you go out and indulge too much and regret it the next day. Anything that you think is good for a while can end up being so harmful to yourself, whether it’s love or sex or drugs or alcohol”.
Despite attempts to remove the video from the internet, it is still at time of writing widely available online. It has even become so notorious as to inspire parody videos.
Raygun later released an “apology” for the interview which they posted to their Myspace Blog.