Gnarls Barkley - What's That About?

I mean, I don't want to take away any of the glory from Barkley, a character invented by Dangermouse & Cee-Lo, I just don't understand what's going on. How can a fairly unknown track from two fairly unknown artists make download history? Is it just me or is there something strange going on here?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy' went to No.1 in the UK singles chart today. It was based completely on paid for downloads. The actual single is released tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure I heard the track 'Crazy' about a year ago, or nearly that. I seem to remember that twat Zane Lowe 'Bigging it up' and it being a jingle on his Radio 1 show. Either everyone has gotten awfully trendy all of a sudden, got themselves an iTunes account and actually bought the track, rather than steal it through Limewire like they usually do... or there has been so little singles bought last week Barkley's 17 downloads was enough to push them to No.1?

The music business astounds me. Is this some attempt to push the phrase 'legal download' into the mainstream psyche? Let's face it, anyone that's interested in singles and pop music charts is busy downloading that one good Will Young track from some P2P, or off to the markets today to pick up the entire Top 40 on one CD for £1.99.

Interested?:

The tossers at NME have their say.
Barkley's Site
Barkley's Myspace
The sorry state of music. (Current Top 10)