One of the things that made that creepy, viral “Hi Stranger” video from earlier this week so striking was its score, a soothing ambient strain that helped counterbalance the thing’s inherent eeriness. Well, according to this piece from Boing Boing, that music was actually the Windows 95 theme, just slowed down by 4,000 percent. Here’s the original and its slowed-down version for reference.
The idea of producing ambient melodies by slowing down a piece of music is old hat by this point. Remember how Justin Bieber’s “Baby” sounded like Sigur Rós when slowed down by 800 percent? Well, whether it be the Windows 95, 98, 2000, or XP theme, the results all sound like the sunnier sides of a Stars Of The Lid or Dead Texan drone. That said, check out the shadow that blankets the Windows 2000 version around the two-minute mark. This thing’s got layers.
Oh, and somebody stretched the XP version out to 24 hours in case your blissfulness meter needs a full recharge.