I'm a big fan of memes. You'll see what I mean at the end of this column. Memes are the shorthand of our New Literacy. We're able to transmit complicated ideas in quick, entertaining snippets of images and audio, many of which come from SpongeBob. They're endlessly customizable and are pulled from an infinite number of sources that transcend time, national borders, and distinct languages. But what of these starting points? Memes are born from some larger context and I want to see the crowning.
When we see a meme, we're usually focused on the new idea. But the bold, sexy field of epimemeology looks to trace the memes back to their sources, in order to answer two questions. First, is this piece of culture—the movie, TV show, video game, comic, song—worth a shit? And second, can looking at the source provide any new information for when we look at the meme? So join me on this archeological dig through the dirt of internet culture. Our first excavation will be a meme I guarantee everyone here has seen and heard, often unwillingly!
The Meme:
"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley and the accompanying music video. I swear on my children that none of these links are compromised.
Where You Might Have Seen It:
The act of sharing the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video, or "Rickrolling," was only made possible after the advent of YouTube. Originally bubbling up from the message board 4chan in 2007 (Quick warning: a lot of memes I'm going to talk about are going to come out of that cesspool), the act of Rickrolling rapidly grew in popularity through 2008, with the song finding its way into email inboxes, Facebook posts, and message boards all over the planet. This culminated in a surprise Rick Astley performance at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The meme had broken internet containment and could be considered part of mainstream pop culture from that point forward. Thanks(?) Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
As of this writing, the music video has been viewed 1.4 billion times on YouTube. For context, if you were to stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and filled it with 1.4 billion gallons of water, you would drown.
The Message:
"You clicked on the link, you rube! You've been had!" Basically, the goal of Rickrolling is to trick the recipient into consuming the music video or, as time went on, simply the song. As some internet users grew more savvy, so too did the art of the Rickroll. Simply sending a link to YouTube will no longer suffice; people have to get creative.
The Source:
I've seen the video countless times (you'll see what I mean at the end of this column), so I would have to dig deeper, into Rick Astley's 1987 debut album Whenever You Need Somebody.
Overall, Whenever You Need Somebody is a perfectly adequate late-'80s pop album. The first three songs—"Never Gonna Give You Up," "Whenever You Need Somebody," and "Together Forever"—are total dance jams and the most fun tracks by far. No notes from me here; Astley works best when he's pumping the listeners up. In fact, "Together Forever" might actually pull ahead as my favorite Rick Astley song, though I'm probably biased because it served as the punchline to one of the greatest television monologues of the last 20 years.
What truly surprised me was the latter two-thirds of the album. Whenever You Need Somebody is definitely more enjoyable when it's happy than when it's sad, but the last seven songs cover various accounts of heartbreak. It's not terrible, but it doesn't totally work either. The booming drums and keyboard from the album's opening three tracks simply doesn't work as well when Astley is pining for lost love. The one exception might be "Don't Say Goodbye," where Astley brings up the energy by making a desperate plea to his lover to stay. In this way, "Don't Say Goodbye" is actually a nice poetic counterpoint to "Never Gonna Give You Up": Astley won't let her go, unless she wants to leave, and either way it fills his whole heart.
That said, the rest of the album simply didn't click the same way. "The Love Has Gone" genuinely sounds like someone doing a Rick Astley parody. "Slipping Away" suffers from a deeply confusing set of lyrics that makes it unclear if his love is going, gone, or was ever there to begin with. I actually enjoyed "You Move Me," but for all the wrong reasons: the song is essentially Astley telling the story of getting fired from his job, laid over a synth track that could easily be the original score of Stranger Things.
And "When I Fall in Love." Oh boy. I was listening to the album on YouTube and caught the music video for this one, which features Rick doing his best Nat King Cole impression while walking around what appears to be an abandoned summer camp in the dead of winter. Even more jarring than the orchestra arrangement (especially after nine songs worth of synth) was the image of Rick Astley in full crooner mode. After a decade and a half of seeing him in one particular music video, "When I Fall in Love" was like seeing him again for the first time. And that's when it all clicked for me.
Listening to Whenever You Need Somebody confirms my long-held suspicion about why Rickrolling spread so successfully: it's just very, very, very funny to see such a deep voice come out of such an elfish man. Imagine if Ed Sheeran started singing like Barry White. This proto-Weasley, dressed in clothes that are clearly too big because he pulled them from his dad's closet, singing with a voice like Darth Vader creates musical harmony and mental discord. It's an insane thing to witness. It must be seen to be believed, so you feel compelled to share it. If people don't want to see it? Fine, you'll make them see it.
In its own twisted, internet way, Rickrolling is an evangelical act. The Word of Rick must be spread, but spreading it is an act of love. Instead of sending a jump scare or something gross like a common troll, you're sending a pleasant surprise. You're saying "Hey, you are now blessed with the knowledge that there's a guy who looks like Archie, but sounds like the voice of an angry God. I hope this makes your world a more amusing place." Hopefully it did for 1.4 billion viewers and counting.
Anyway, as promised, here's a video of me being cool in high school:
When we see a meme, we're usually focused on the new idea. But the bold, sexy field of epimemeology looks to trace the memes back to their sources, in order to answer two questions. First, is this piece of culture—the movie, TV show, video game, comic, song—worth a shit? And second, can looking at the source provide any new information for when we look at the meme? So join me on this archeological dig through the dirt of internet culture. Our first excavation will be a meme I guarantee everyone here has seen and heard, often unwillingly!
The Meme:
"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley and the accompanying music video. I swear on my children that none of these links are compromised.
Where You Might Have Seen It:
The act of sharing the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video, or "Rickrolling," was only made possible after the advent of YouTube. Originally bubbling up from the message board 4chan in 2007 (Quick warning: a lot of memes I'm going to talk about are going to come out of that cesspool), the act of Rickrolling rapidly grew in popularity through 2008, with the song finding its way into email inboxes, Facebook posts, and message boards all over the planet. This culminated in a surprise Rick Astley performance at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The meme had broken internet containment and could be considered part of mainstream pop culture from that point forward. Thanks(?) Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
As of this writing, the music video has been viewed 1.4 billion times on YouTube. For context, if you were to stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and filled it with 1.4 billion gallons of water, you would drown.
The Message:
"You clicked on the link, you rube! You've been had!" Basically, the goal of Rickrolling is to trick the recipient into consuming the music video or, as time went on, simply the song. As some internet users grew more savvy, so too did the art of the Rickroll. Simply sending a link to YouTube will no longer suffice; people have to get creative.
The Source:
I've seen the video countless times (you'll see what I mean at the end of this column), so I would have to dig deeper, into Rick Astley's 1987 debut album Whenever You Need Somebody.
Overall, Whenever You Need Somebody is a perfectly adequate late-'80s pop album. The first three songs—"Never Gonna Give You Up," "Whenever You Need Somebody," and "Together Forever"—are total dance jams and the most fun tracks by far. No notes from me here; Astley works best when he's pumping the listeners up. In fact, "Together Forever" might actually pull ahead as my favorite Rick Astley song, though I'm probably biased because it served as the punchline to one of the greatest television monologues of the last 20 years.
What truly surprised me was the latter two-thirds of the album. Whenever You Need Somebody is definitely more enjoyable when it's happy than when it's sad, but the last seven songs cover various accounts of heartbreak. It's not terrible, but it doesn't totally work either. The booming drums and keyboard from the album's opening three tracks simply doesn't work as well when Astley is pining for lost love. The one exception might be "Don't Say Goodbye," where Astley brings up the energy by making a desperate plea to his lover to stay. In this way, "Don't Say Goodbye" is actually a nice poetic counterpoint to "Never Gonna Give You Up": Astley won't let her go, unless she wants to leave, and either way it fills his whole heart.
That said, the rest of the album simply didn't click the same way. "The Love Has Gone" genuinely sounds like someone doing a Rick Astley parody. "Slipping Away" suffers from a deeply confusing set of lyrics that makes it unclear if his love is going, gone, or was ever there to begin with. I actually enjoyed "You Move Me," but for all the wrong reasons: the song is essentially Astley telling the story of getting fired from his job, laid over a synth track that could easily be the original score of Stranger Things.
And "When I Fall in Love." Oh boy. I was listening to the album on YouTube and caught the music video for this one, which features Rick doing his best Nat King Cole impression while walking around what appears to be an abandoned summer camp in the dead of winter. Even more jarring than the orchestra arrangement (especially after nine songs worth of synth) was the image of Rick Astley in full crooner mode. After a decade and a half of seeing him in one particular music video, "When I Fall in Love" was like seeing him again for the first time. And that's when it all clicked for me.
Listening to Whenever You Need Somebody confirms my long-held suspicion about why Rickrolling spread so successfully: it's just very, very, very funny to see such a deep voice come out of such an elfish man. Imagine if Ed Sheeran started singing like Barry White. This proto-Weasley, dressed in clothes that are clearly too big because he pulled them from his dad's closet, singing with a voice like Darth Vader creates musical harmony and mental discord. It's an insane thing to witness. It must be seen to be believed, so you feel compelled to share it. If people don't want to see it? Fine, you'll make them see it.
In its own twisted, internet way, Rickrolling is an evangelical act. The Word of Rick must be spread, but spreading it is an act of love. Instead of sending a jump scare or something gross like a common troll, you're sending a pleasant surprise. You're saying "Hey, you are now blessed with the knowledge that there's a guy who looks like Archie, but sounds like the voice of an angry God. I hope this makes your world a more amusing place." Hopefully it did for 1.4 billion viewers and counting.
Anyway, as promised, here's a video of me being cool in high school:
3 comments:
At this point, nothing is going to top the Pat-roll. But I did enjoy the time that Rick Astley himself got Rick-rolled
can 4chan make pat-rolling a thing? i believe in the internet's power.
Trust me, you do not want the 4chan or 8kun of 2024 getting involved in any of this
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