Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

After some heavy and serious videos on this channel, let's get into something that is a bit lighter, bolder, and refreshing. I'm never beating the allegations that this video is an ad. I swear to you that this video is not a promotion. It's not an advertisement.

It comes from a legitimate place of personal interest. I happen to like jumping into and analyzing various types of promotional music, incidental music, tracks that sometimes are produced or made for PSA purposes, advertisement jingles as well, to an extent, too.

At this point in musical history, I think we have a pretty firm idea of what the human spirit is capable of when its creativity is driven purely by the soul. But I think it's intriguing what artists will create when they're put in a position where they have to make something in celebration of a product in the name of capitalism.

Not that I think no personal artistry went into the music project we are about to observe here, which comes to us by way of none other than Dr. Pepper. Yes, Dr. Pepper now has a foot in the music game.

Now, personally, off the bat, I want to say that I'm not really a Dr. Pepper guy. I'm not just putting that out there because I'm trying to prove to you this is not a promotion. This is not a promotion. Yeah, I'm not really crazy about the flavor of Dr. Pepper, and I can only imagine what the hell it tastes like with a Blackberry.

But still, I guess they've got a Dr. Pepper Blackberry flavor out there now. And to help promote this new flavor, I guess weeks and weeks ago at this point, they came out with a record, a vinyl record that's all purple.

I mean, from the video they've posted here, the Dr. Pepper itself doesn't even look purple, but there's this purple liquid on the cover of the vinyl. Why does it look like purple drink? I digress, though.

This vinyl is, in fact, real, as is the music on it. You can actually sample the four tracks on this record on SoundCloud. It's maybe really more of an EP's length. It contains four songs that range from about 2-3 minutes. And the titles of these tracks are "Bold Echos", "Suspended in Sweetness", "Suculent Whispers", and "Floating Through Blackberry (Flavor)". These titles feel so market-tested.

But yeah, an added kicker to the music on this project is that currently on SoundCloud, it is tagged as qmbient, and apparently the sounds in the music we are about to hear was somehow generated or made from the sounds of Dr. Pepper.

Now, I mean, If you know anything about music production, I'm sure you already have in your mind, conceptually, how a producer might go about that. Using MIDI and synthesis and samples, you could just basically grab the sound of about anything and generate it into something that is at least somewhat musical, whether it's, I don't know, opening the can or the sound of the soda fizzing, maybe even pouring the soda into a glass.

I'm I'm surprised they didn't call on Matmos to do this project. I mean, it would have had more name recognition behind it, and at the very least, they would do a whole record, a full proper record around it.

So yeah, either way, apparently there are some bold beats and harmonies on this project that we are about to hear right now. So let's give some of these songs a taste and see what they've got.

Yeah, sorry, I don't have any Blackberry Dr. Pepper here to drink. Just ice water, something I would much rather prefer to drink over any Dr. Pepper product, but whatever.

All right, let's start with the track "Bold Echos" and see if there are any bold echoes. Whoa. Oh, wow. We're pouring the soda. We've opened the can. We're going on a Blackberry Dr. Pepper odyssey.

Okay, impressions on the first track, interesting. While it wasn't there throughout the entire piece, through a few key moments, you were hearing some of those samples of the soda and the can and so on and so forth.

I wonder how thoroughly Dr. Pepper adhered to the idea that the sounds we're hearing are made using the soda. Is it all the sounds or is it just some of the sounds?

Because sure, while you could experiment quite a bit to generate something musically out of the sound of, you know, recordings of soda in some way, they could have easily just grabbed some ambient sense and just had them hanging in the background while playing some sound effects from soda, which is maybe what I'm feeling like this is on a first glance, but I could be wrong.

So far, Dr. Pepper is not so much delivering any the beats. No, this was really purely a droney ambient experience of big Tangerine Dream vibes. Maybe there should be a tangerine flavor. But yeah, let's go listen to the track "Suspended in Sweetness" and see what the hell that does.

Why does it start with another soda can opening? Is it going to be a soda can opening at the start of every track? Is that how we know we're going through the project?

Okay, whoa. I was taken aback by that one. I thought at the most, what we would get here is a bunch of very bland, uneventful static synth drones that don't really evoke much. But this piece was actually low-key eerie and a little bit psychedelic, slightly unnerving in a way, not the warm, positive vibes that I think we usually associate with marketing products.

Because, yeah, this track felt like a cross somewhere between a Donkey Kong Country water level and also the Akira soundtrack. Yeah, it was like somewhere sitting in between those two, both of which are pretty strange and mystical at points.

So this was a little weird. While it did feel like I was floating as if I was suspended in Sweetness, there was also a sense of impending dread, which I would also feel if I were in an ocean of Dr. Pepper Blackberry. Yeah, I'd be freaking the fuck out.

Okay, let's listen to "Succulent Whispers, which I don't think I've ever known a whisper to be succulent, but whatever.

There's the damn soda. The damn soda can's opening up again.

Okay, wait, hold the phone. That one was a legit sonic experience there. Not only were you hearing the soda fizz samples placed prominently and consistently throughout the track, slowed down at various pitches, but then you also have some notable percussion on that track. Was it actually a series of hand drums? Was it maybe a sample of tapping or generating percussive sound out of the soda can itself? It very much could have been.

That track was actually even more evocative than the last song. Started in a way where it felt like I was going on this psychedelic soda journey with some radio heads sounding synth cords in the mix. But once things really started to brighten up, I was like, "No, this isn't so much Radiohead. It's like a Coldplay instrumental." I could so hear Chris Martin just crooming over the second half of this track, no question. But yeah, I guess that's what a "Succulent Whisper" sounds like.

Let's hear what it sounds like to float through Blackberry flavor, though.

There's that soda can. Got a soda can opening at the start of every track. Is somebody blowing into the top of that soda can and getting that woodwind tone going?

Okay, I like how the can opening is essentially being turned into a snap or a snare in the mix on that one. That's creative. Okay, wait, hold on a second. Hold on right there. That one's a little goth. That one has some real goth club vibes in the second half there with those '80s guitars, the moody synthesizers.

I like that chord progression, too. It was a little new age at first with those woodwind tones in the first leg, but it really smoothed out into something pretty groovy. So Dr. Pepper did actually end up delivering on the beats.

But yeah, those are the four tracks on this thing. There you go. My new favorite genre, soda music. And somehow Dr. Pepper managed to come through with one of the more solid ambient EPs I think we're going to hear in 2025.

So there you have it. Let me know what you think of all of this madness in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Blackberry flavor forever.