#Music

Classic cars are a labor of love for owners and a point of lust for enthusiasts.

Unless you’re an audiophile you may not be familiar with Harman. This company is a market leader in the sound business and chances are most drivers are well aware of at least a few of its diverse brands.

Mazda just announced that it’s become the official automobile sponsor of South by South West (SXSW), a music, film and interactive festival hosted annually in Austin, Texas.

It’s hard to beat the noises a well-designed, high-performance engine makes; experiencing this is of life’s great pleasures, especially when it isn’t adulterated by restrictive exhaust systems or synthesized bullshit piped through a vehicle’s speakers.

Volkswagen has teamed up with dance Underworld to create a unique smartphone app that will play music based on the way you’re driving.

Who ever came up with this idea is a genius. Get a whole slew of classic hot rods and cool rides, gather them all together in one place, then get Metallica to play for all the gathered car enthusiasts. It sounds like every metal and motor head’s dream.

This combination will come to fruition in real life at the first annual Orion music and more festival taking place on June 23 and 24 at Bader Field in Atlantic City.

Pandora is taking an aggressive stance toward promoting their product by bumping up the number of car makers carrying their product by 475 percent.

Despite being the only example in the world, the Maybach Exelero has been around the block a few times. First concieved as a concept car for Fulda Tires (who wanted to use the vehicle for tire testing), the Exelero then appeared in a Jay-Z video.

Cars like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Ferrari F430 and Cadillac Escalade tend to be the standard rap video vehicles, but independent R&B artist Frank Ocean, a mega-talented R&B singer with a lot of internet buzz, tends towards the enthusiast end of the spectrum.

The album art for his record Nostalgia, Ultra features an orange BMW M3 from the early 1990s, and his newest video, for the hauntingly beautiful song Acura Integurl features not just one but two modified Acura NSXs carving through canyon roads. Considering Ocean’s love of cars that are oriented towards “Go” rather than “Show” we’re pleasantly surprised at his choice, but support it wholeheartedly. The only thing missing are the actual engine noises, which would nicely compliment his pitch perfect vocals.

Video after the jump

Dr. Dre’s long awaited new album Detox has had more false starts than the Toyota FT-86, but the legendary hip-hop producer has finally released a single, titled I Need A Doctor. If you like hip-hop music, you’ve doubtlessly heard the song by now, but you might not have seen the video, which involves a horrific crash involving a Ferrari 360 Modena.

The intro to the video has Dre driving the 360 along some twisty mountain roads while reflecting on his earlier rap career, followed by the Doc losing control of the car and crashing violently. While the crash scene is pivotal to the entire video, we were a little surprised that the crash was real, and not done via CGI or any other method. Then again, with video budgets reaching higher and higher, a used 360 is probably a fraction of what it costs to put together the actual video.

[Source: Carscoop]

Behind the scenes video after the jump

Hip-hop has picked up where Rock & Roll left off as America’s favorite music genre, and the automobile has assumed its rightful place within the culture, in the same way that it did during the heyday of The Beach Boys and other acts of the 1960’s.

If you think about it, rap music’s influence on the automobile is even more profound than rock. Where would Cadillac be today if it weren’t for the Escalade’s appearance in every single rap video? Rappers are taste makers, and while they certainly know what they like (how else do you explain donks), the newest single from Rick Ross and Drake, titled Aston Martin Music, seems a bit more contrived than the average overwrought music video.

The video shows Rick Ross smoking marijuana, letting his girlfriend take the rap for serious drug charges and relaxing in the beach with R&B singer Drake, a couple Aston Martins, and some female companions. We’re not sure if Aston Martin sanctioned the use of their cars or not, but Bugatti promised that no rappers would ever get their hands on a Veyron, and one of the worst MC’s in the game managed to get a brand new example.

[Source: Youtube]

Picture this: It’s Sunday, the early dawn hours and you’re cruising down an empty country road. You already know what’s under the hood of your new acquired ride, but you’ve yet to test what your new car’s stereo can do—save for the constant chattering of talk radio. It’s time for a little speaker blast, you say. So you plug in your iPod, load up your newest playlist (stocked with high-quality lossless FLAC files, of course), and crank the volume to 11 and the next thing you know you’re rocking out to the sounds of…  Joan Baez ?

Well, it’s either Joan or The Eagles. It doesn’t matter though, as this speaker test isn’t about your taste in music as much as it’s about testing your sound system’s fidelity. That’s according to Matt Kirsch, an audio engineer with General Motors, who recently published his personal Top 10 list of tracks he recommends using to assess the low ends, mid-ranges, and dynamic peaks of your car’s stereo system.

So while you might be a little offended by the presence of two back-to-back tracks by the Black Eyed Peas, they’re there to test the bass. The rest of the list includes a wide range of tunes from Johnny Cash, to Radiohead.

See after the jump for the complete list:

Audi‘s S3 hatchback is a pretty slick hatchback, hitting 60 mph in under 6 seconds and pushing 265 horsepower from its 2.0L turbo four-banger while carrying yourself and a couple passengers in style and comfort.