You know that viral, deeply inspirational Britain’s Got Talent clip in which a lone singer bursts the preconceptions and expectations of the whole world, dazzling audiences and bringing people to tears with her talent?

Yeah, okay, so this is pretty much nothing like that.

This is more in the category of self-deprecating artists who aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves, being exactly what you’d expect them to be – and then some. Let’s call it “dorkpop,” intentionally geeky musicians willing to be just the people they are. Three keyboards, and one man with a keytar. (Note that he basically demonstrates in the video why these should be called shoulder-mounted keyboards or something, since the only thing they have in common with a guitar is a strap.)

Artists able to laugh at themselves: always a good thing.

But the really funny thing about this clip is that Simon Cowell apparently can’t laugh. He seems somehow offended by the fact that they don’t take themselves seriously. Mr. Cowell, unable to handle irony?

Well, if Susan Boyle was so heartwarming you needed a dose of irony, here it is.

Via our friends in the UK who themsleves have quite a lot of British talent, MusicRadar (of Computer Music and Future Music):

Simon Cowell bemused by keytar trio

“This is not serious, right?” Evidently Mr. Cowell has quite a bit in common with certain grumpy readers of this site in comments. (You know who you are. We forgive you.)

CDM readers heavily lamented the loss of Roland’s AX-7 “shoulder keyboard” (better known to the world as a “keytar”). Sure, the keytar has a reputation for being dorky (bad news, chaps, the keyboard has a reputation for being dorky). But putting instruments on your shoulder is also a simple way to make them easy to play – ask a guitar, an accordion, or any other number of instruments. They let you move around, and there’s no question as computer musicians we get enough time in their chairs.

Well, the Roland AX is back – and as the name implies, the new AX-Synth now generates sound. Here are the new specs – and Roland filled CDM in on more details:

• 49 velocity-sensitive keys (as opposed to the AX-7’s non-standard 45 notes, which made it go E – C)
• 7-segment LED (same as before)
• Lots of controllers: D-Beam, ribbon touch, modulation bar, volume knob, aftertouch controller, portamento on/off, hold button on/off, “Bender mode” (presumably transforms you into a character from Futurama). The AX-7 had most of these, but the D-Beam is in a much better location, and the aftertouch controller is now a dedicated knob on the side.
• Runs on 8x Ni-MH rechargeable batteries (or eight AA’s, folks)
• Internal sounds via a 128-voice polyphonic sound engine, editable with an included editor software app. (Says PC only, but I believe Mac is coming, too, based on other editors from Roland.)
• V-LINK button for video control (I’m sure we can do some damage with that)

Wait, you know, let me translate that into something that makes more sense: