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Internet Culture Backlash: Hipster Runoff Content Farm

posted April 19th, 2012 & filed under culture jamming, digital trends, Serious Stuff

For the last few years Hipster Runoff has been the de facto leader in criticizing hipster and internet culture through an amazing lens of half joking / half serious / half none of the above. The anonymous creator and writer for the site Carles is as much of an Internet construct as the topics he covers. He’s never revealed his true identity, although there are plenty of online theories. He was interviewed by The Village Voice in 2009 and it really ended up creating more questions then it answered.

Part of the allure of the satire Hipster Runoff specializes in is the mystique surrounding the writer, who could possibly be perpetuating one of the most elaborate ruses in Internet history. Hipster Runoff started out as a music critic blog, but over the years expanded its focus to popular culture, and the web culture. Very often the tone is very hard to pin down especially if you’re unfamiliar with the site or the concept behind it. It’s basically meta-satire in motion; the idea of poking fun at things through a voice that itself is purposefully imitating the very things that it’s satirizing.

Although the majority of (Hipster Runoff ) HRO content is satirical in nature, every once in a while Carles will write a post that’s an extremely astute take on the nature of Internet blogging and what actually drives the momentum of memes and disposable culture. One of the most interesting pieces that arose from the site, which garnered substantial press around the web, was Carles’ coverage and main thinkpiece about Lana Del Rey. In his post “Lana & Me: Our Dark, Abusive, Co-Dependent Relationship on the Content Farm” he critiqued the idea of blogs existing as empty vessels that need stories like the Del Rey backlash to simply fulfill “content farming” needs to perpetuate and invent stories to increase unique page views which only equate to more advertising revenue. The most interesting aspect of the post was the idea of Carles critiquing the motives of online music criticism while at the same he’s one of the largest culprits of embracing the empty notion of needing to invent content to maintain the success of a site.

Carles’ “Content Farm” post really brings up interesting cultural notions of exactly why these websites and platforms perpetuate certain stories over others. As he pointed out and displayed in an Alexa search query result, people were going to HRO just to see what new take he had on the entire Lana Del Rey backlash, instead of deriving their own opinion about her music, which is really the only reason she was known in the first place. A lot of websites and blogs put relevance on snark and being able to spin a story to maximize their SEO results, and even though Carles is a major facet of the content farm vantage point, at least he’s astute enough to identify the current online climate of blog scavengers combing the web for the next buzz sustenance to satisfy their audience. Carles knows that he perpetuates the idea of a content farm as much as any other blog, but it’s his take on the culture and self awareness to critique it that sets him apart from all the other sites.

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/

Very often what Carles accomplishes feels very similar to what Stephen Colbert has mastered over the years. The persona he’s created is so convincing that it’s almost more realistic and authentic then the very stories and politics he covers. Colbert said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he always talks to his guests ahead of time and tells them to be prepared for his ridiculous line of questioning to make sure that they’re not offended by his absurd brand of punditry. Between his anonymity and extremely scant explanations on his perspective behind the site, Carles has created an entirely new level of satire that’s probably some of the most confounding and insightful critiques about the absurdity of online culture; by creating and writing for Hipster Runoff it’s almost become his own personal backlash on the entire online experience.

Resources:

Hipster Runoff

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2012/01/lana-me-our-dark-abusive-co-dependent-relationship-content-farm-carles.html

https://twitter.com/#!/hipsterrunoff

The Village Voice

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-04/music/hipster-runoff-explained-maybe/

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2009/12/day_two_of_the.php

Splitsider

http://splitsider.com/2012/01/watching-hipster-runoff-eat-its-own-tail/

Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/stephen-colbert-on-deconstructing-the-news-religion-and-the-colbert-nation-20090902

Vulture

http://www.vulture.com/2009/02/tao_lin_is_maybe_probably_not.html

Wired

http://wiredinsider.tumblr.com/post/7340533136/you-are-your-content

http://www.thefader.com/2012/04/12/based-scripture-the-full-transcript-of-lil-bs-lecture-at-nyu/

Lil B’s NYU Lecture and the Social Media Wunderkind

posted April 17th, 2012 & filed under marketing/advertising, Serious Stuff, social networking

Lil B, the legendary Based God himself, hopped off of his Social Media throne last week into the real world to a give a lecture to 500 people in a crammed NYU auditorium to speak on absolutely every topic imaginable in an amazing extension of his cult-like Internet persona. The week before when the news broke that Lil B was invited to lecture the trending wheels almost fell off the bus; some were completely befuddled at the concept, the hip hop purists were thoroughly outraged, and the rest were beyond ecstatic, but how did a rapper with no major label backing and barely any official releases translate a cult following into over 400,000 Twitter followers, 60 million YouTube views, and a lecture at a prestigious university?

Over time Lil B has utilized Social Media to it’s utmost potential. Even back in the infancy of the new web, he was something of a MySpace pioneer with hundreds of different accounts chockfull of free music to download with an ever rotating and updated catalogue of absurd and relentless tracks. His success is a combination of an innate knack for promotion through Social Media coupled with extremely unique content that’s literally impossible for other artists to duplicate. The combination of these two ideas is really what’s driving the bulk of his success; if he was able to accomplish only one of those tasks he would never be as huge as he is right now, but because his prowess on Social Media is almost unmatched, he’s seamlessly translating his fanbase into real world venues.

via Pitchfork

That takes us right into the heart of his NYU lecture. Over an hour and a half he gave us unreal quotable material, life coach style affirmations, and a singular vision that’s savant like to some and absolutely awe inspiring to others. Over the course of the lecture he covered a massive laundry list of topics: adopting cats from the ASPCA, existential quandaries, the similarities between humans and insects, why we should stop hydraulic fracking, the first announcement of his California garage rock record, and that “Every single person you meet, look at them like a golden million dollar baby”.

His success though Social Media and it’s translation into real world venues is an amazing model for artists who are looking to expand their online presence and brand. There are a few key concepts that have led to his massive cult-like following.

First off, a major aspect is his singular unique vision and content; even if you were to promote yourself as much as Lil B does, without unique content it’s not going to have an inimitable mimetic quality that so much of his work effortlessly achieves. Secondly, Lil B is the perfect combination of an instantly accessible meme with a fully integrated Social Media promotional system backing him up. He’s amassed over 400,00 Twitter followers and over 60 million Youtube views simply from self promotion and word of mouth Social Media sharing. He personally responds to almost every fan that contacts him, while simultaneously releasing a new free mixtape of around 20 songs every three weeks, and on top of that one or two new music videos every week or so. Coupled with his incessant self-promotion, he has a devoted fanbase of fully enthused followers that add on another layer of promotion to what he already does, which reinforces the viral quality of everything he releases.

The reason he was asked to lecture at NYU is almost a byproduct of his success through Social Media. He has an entirely rare and singular approach to everything he releases, and his knack for Social Media has given him an unusually large audience for such strange and sometimes difficult material. On top of that he’s probably the only rapper to have invented a complete philosophy, meme, and movement in which to release and package all of his content, which has spawned an entirely new Based sub-genre unto itself. The NYU lecture is just another stepping stone in what will become a long and storied career for him, and we’re lucky enough to be able trace his entire journey through Social Media and the collective online community.

Below are links for a written transcription of the entire lecture, an audio recording, a really interesting version of the transcription as read through voice recognition software, and some of the most interesting quotables from the night.

Written Transcription

Audio Recording

http://soundcloud.com/trent-walker/lil-b-at-nyu

Voice Recognition Software Version

http://soundcloud.com/regular-music/the-full-transcript-lil-b

Quotes from the Lecture via Pitchfork

“I’m the first rapper to adopt a tabby cat. I adopted it straight from the ASPCA, you feel me?”
“When I was younger, I didn’t even know how to walk. I was so self-conscious.”
“Every single person you meet, look at them like a golden million dollar baby.”
“I was having these big ant problems in my house. As I was studying these ant colonies. It’s like man, they have their own communities too. I’m there with them.”
“I’m out here trying to get my Mitt Romney on.”
“You guys are the first to hear it: I’m actually releasing my rock album. This is gonna be some garage punk. This one’s for the rebels. Look out for the Lil B rock record, California Boy.”
“Let’s stop fracking. Who knows about hydraulic fracking? I’m like whodie, get that oil out the ocean!”
“Real talk, you guys are about to freak out because I got a song with one of the biggest artists on Earth coming.”
At one point, Lil B laid on a table and imitated himself going to sleep, whispering, “Honesty, integrity, friendship, passion…”
“Until further notice, I’m paying taxes and I’m loving it.”

http://lunavega.net/2011/08/social-media-the-simulation-quandary/

Holographic Tupac: Idea Originates from Hatsune Miku

posted April 16th, 2012 & filed under digital trends, Serious Stuff

Last night during Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s peformance at Coachella a miraculous event took place: the legendary west coast rapper Tupac performed a two song set for an astounded crowd; but it wasn’t due to the myriad of theories that Pac is still alive, it was actually a Tupac hologram. He appeared on stage, gave a shout out to Dre and Snoop, then amazingly shouted out Coachella, and went into a two song set of his signature classics “Hail Mary” and the Snoop duet “Amerikaz Most Wanted”.

This is probably one of the first instances of holographically projected celebrities within an American concert, but it’s actually a concept that‘s been popular in Japan for the last few years. Back in August I wrote about the most popular Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku who was created in 2007 by Yamaha and Sega. Her voice is a combination of synthesizer software and Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita, but her likeness is entirely holographic.

It definitely seems like similar technology was used to bring an incredibly lifelike version of Tupac to the stage, from his distinct vocal inflections to even his west coast dance moves in between sharing verses with Snoop. It’s only a matter of time before entire concerts in America will be performed by holograms, whether they’re entirely synthesized or amalgams of stars that have already passed. It wouldn’t be surprising if instead of a Michael Jackson tribute concert in Las Vegas they’ll just holographically project a compilation of his best performances for a different crowd every night. Holographic stars don’t even need contracts, or extensive tour riders, just a tech crew with an endless fiber optic feed.

Hatsune Miku article:

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8774-grimes/

Deconstructing Grimes: Will Her Internet Fame Last?

posted April 13th, 2012 & filed under Serious Stuff, Trends

Since signing with record label 4AD, Canadian electronic musician Grimes aka Claire Boucher, has become the new indie darling with tons of glowing reviews everywhere from Pitchfork, Stereogum, The New York Times, and even landing the cover of avant garde fashion magazine Dazed & Confused. Her most popular tracks include the singles “Vanessa” and “Oblivion”

Photo by John Londono

She encompasses a lot of the familiar tropes you might find in indie-electronic musicians. Of course, with this comes the criticism from Hipster Runoff and other music bloggers who are already questioning how much sustenance her musical output can really maintain. Is it just a matter of time before she’s trending alongside Lana Del Rey’s poses, or can her indie buzz stand up over time?

1) DIY Generation and her early Internet Buzz

Grimes is part of the DIY generation and most of her early buzz came from Internet blogs instead of from shows she was playing. In an interview with Exclaim.ca she talked about the first Grimes release Geidi Primes, a hand-packaged cassette limited to 30 copies, but also offered as a free download in January 2010 by Arbutus Records. Boucher describes it as “just a record I made that only 20 people knew about,” and soon thereafter blogs like Gorilla Vs. Bear were quick to pick up on it as “an essential go-to late night jam.” For a while she recorded her own albums using Apple’s GarageBand until she started using keyboards, synthesizers, and other effects tools. All of her internet buzz led her to open in May 2011 for Lykke Li on her North American Tour and the following August, her debut album was re-released through No Pain in Pop Records.

2) Her unique sound, style, and aesthetic

Her entire aesthetic and unique ambient, vintage Sci-Fi sound and sometimes wordless vocals sets her apart from other electronic musicians, and it doesn’t hurt that her tracks are extremely catchy. One of the most popular song off new 4AD album Visions is “Oblivion” which combines an 80s electro backbeat and ambient synths with 50s style girl group almost doo-wop harmonies for a really interesting sound that’s both completely futuristic while also evoking the best pop music of the past. Her style also appeals to the fashionista set with her eerie, hippie-goth, futuristic sort of look. She’s also leveraged her fashion fanbase by creating a Tumblr so fans can emulate her look, in addition to her completely raw Twitter feed where she personally engages with tons of fans and shares her every unfiltered thought.

3) Will she fade into Internet oblivion?

Her rise within the indie scene has also created some comparisons to Lana Del Rey, not as much stylistically, but they’re compared more for their quick rise and buzz within indie circles In an article for San Diego City Beat, writer Seth Combs created an algorithm of sorts which calculates that it takes an average of 35 days for an artist’s buzz to turn into backlash, and cites different artists like Odd Future and Del Ray as starting off huge but eventually dissipating just as quickly.

He definitely has a point where the online indie sphere has an inherent timeline in place to give an artist early compliments, only to half-heartedly retract or diminish them later, which is something Pitchfork has almost been built on, but as Combs states in the article, even though Grimes exists in the same indie sphere as someone like Del Rey, their overall career trajectory is worlds apart. Grimes has produced and wrote every song she’s ever released while although Del Rey co-wrote every track on her debut Interscope album, she’s didn’t produce the actual music for any of the tracks. Also, Grimes had been releasing music for over two years and courting a slow building buzz on different indie tastemaker sites before she crossed over to a more relevant indie position. Del Ray’s ascension was so meteoric that the backlash was almost built in just for that notion beyond whether or not her music even deserved the negative press.

via Dazed & Confused

It also seems like Grimes has a more diverse array of tools at her disposal that can sustain the short attention of the indie glitterati. She’s using bits and pieces of warm pop and eclectic electronic sounds from different eras that are entirely familiar but at the same time distinctly her own. Her influences include everything from medieval music, to volatile industrial and noise stuff, to hip hop, and in the Pitchfork interview she said her favorite singer is Mariah Carey “because her voice sounds utterly groundless. It’s not even a human voice; it almost sounds mechanical.”

That’s what really makes her music so substantial right now and why it stands out amongst the other way over-saturated indie-electronic music genres. Grimes takes so many of the best aspects from ambient, new age, R&B, idm, and pop music, and creates a new sound that’s completely her own, but still so familiar that you almost feel like you’ve heard it before. It’s easy to compare two artists with substantial indie cred but when you really take a look at why they’ve become popular, it’s easier to get an idea of what will happen to their careers in the future. It almost doesn’t matter how much fame builds around an artist, some sort backlash will eventually happen. It’s really up to them to determine how that initial buzz will affect the rest of their career.

Resources:

Pitchfork

http://pitchfork.com/features/directors-cut/8783-grimes-oblivion/

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/fashion/claire-boucher-known-as-grimes-mines-beauty-from-the-dark-side.html

Complex

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/04/who-is-grimes

Fact Magzine

http://www.factmag.com/2012/02/27/grimes-visions/

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimes_%28musician%29

Hipster Runoff

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/topic/grimes-claire-boucher

Exclaim.ca

http://exclaim.ca/Features/OnTheCover/grimes-accidental_pop_star/Page/2

San Diego City Beat

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego//article-10233-how-long-will-grimes-be-indie-musics-new-it-girl.html

http://www.escaperoutes.com/welcome

Television and the Interactive Realm of Social Media

posted April 11th, 2012 & filed under digital trends, marketing/advertising, Miscellaneous, Serious Stuff, social networking

Every aspect of our lives have completely merged with Social Media, including the entertainment we take in and how we interact with it. Out of all the mediums television has definitely seen the most seamless integration with a huge a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and tons of different websites that solely focus on fan participation. The viewing experience has taken on a completely new level of interactivity in addition to the benefits of essential marketing and research tools only available on Social Media.

One of the major changes that has come with Social Media integration into television are fully interactive viewing experiences. There are shows that have premiered in the last few months where Social Media has allowed the viewer to actually become another character on the show. One of the best examples is the recent NBC reality show Escape Routes. It’s an Amazing Race style series that pits teams of two against each other in urban locales as they go on scavenger hunts to accomplish different tasks, but the major difference is the viewer at home can help out the teams with their missions in real time, through Social Media as a virtual teammate. The competitors on the show update their whereabouts and specific tasks while getting assistance online from the viewers at home who become virtual team members and if you’re local enough you can go to the city they’re in and help them out with the tasks, which completely breaks down the wall between a passive audience member and actually becoming an part of the show.

Escape Routes is one of the best examples of a fully interactive and immersive television experience, but lots of producers have integrated Social Media into different facets of their shows. Watch What Happens Live, a late night talk show on Bravo hosted by reality show dilettante Andy Cohen, takes questions from Facebook and Twitter followers in real time that alter the show’s content and sometimes get a rise out of otherwise stale guests. Bravo has been one of the early adapters of Social Media presence for their stable of reality show franchises. They encourage their most prominent cast members to maintain weekly blogs that expand on each episodes weekly storylines, and they air what they call “Social” editions of some episodes that have pertinent tweets from the cast members commenting on the storylines as the action unfolds on screen.

Beyond integration with Social Media into a show’s actual storyline, producers and creators have turned to Facebook and Twitter as another gauge for a show’s success. Before the Internet one of the only ways for a network to grasp the popularity of a show was through Nielson boxes, which are doled out to a mix of different demographics to get a numerical gauge of actual viewership. Social Media hasn’t made Nielson numbers irrelevant, (they’re still the main way that advertising revenue is determined for networks), but Social Media has become a different type of barometer that can sometimes even save a low rated show from cancellation. One of the best examples is the cult favorite absurdist NBC sitcom Community. Even though it was shelved midway though it’s third season, the outpouring of support from its dedicated and mostly younger fanbase was enough for the network to let it finish out the last 12 episodes of its season and then make a final decision after that.

Series creator Dan Harmon attributed this turnaround to a new television audience that does most of their viewing online in unmeasured venues outside of the Nielson system. In an interview with The New York Times Mr. Harmon said, “The most coveted demographic, and most coveted of that demographic, these very smart, upwardly mobile, college-age kids just don’t watch TV anymore.” Social Media has become such a huge factor in not only changing the television experience, but also as marketing research for show developers and networks who can get tangible real world opinions from their actual audience instead of the sometimes unrealistic Nielson numbers. The Internet has completely reshaped the entire entertainment industry, and especially television has gone through a complete transformation in every venue, from the couch, to the computer screen, to the boardroom.

Resources:

Escape Routes

http://www.nbc.com/escape-routes/

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2012/03/07/ford-teams-up-with-nbc-and-emmy-award-winning-reality-producer-for-prime-time-tv-reality-show-escape-routes-436412/20120308ford01/

Bravo

http://www.bravotv.com/

http://www.bravotv.com/watch-what-happens-live

http://www.bravotv.com/blogs

http://www.bravotv.com/blogs/the-dish/get-social-with-the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-tonight

https://twitter.com/#!/BRAVOANDY

Community

http://www.nbc.com/community/

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/arts/television/nbc-brings-community-back-to-its-passionate-fan-base.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.facebook.com/thehungergamesmovie/app_234281223336412

Why is The Hunger Games Not So Hot Abroad?

posted April 6th, 2012 & filed under marketing/advertising, Serious Stuff, social networking

With the amount of publicity The Hunger Games has been getting in the US and its record breaking box office numbers, I was naturally curious to see if it was getting the same reaction across the world. Even though I haven’t seen the movie, Rolling Stone and other respected publications have been giving it extremely good reviews. The Hunger Games also had a huge marketing push localizing its content across different regions including

1) Region specific Facebook pages and a Facebook game

2) Region specific Twitter accounts

3) Region specific Tumblr pages

http://hungergamessingapore.tumblr.com/

http://hungergamesphils.tumblr.com/

http://hungergamesthai.tumblr.com/

On the other hand, the new blockbuster Wrath of the Titans doesn’t have a Twitter account, and only utilized region specific Facebook pages and a Facebook game, which actually ended up being a pretty smart move considering the Facebook adoption has been much more successful abroad than the Twitter campaigns. Beyond the box office totals that show how much more weight Wrath of the Titans has overseas, the Google Search Volume Index numbers were also much stronger last week vs The Hunger Games in regions like Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Greece, Thailand, and Romania.

So why did The Hunger Games flop abroad when they clearly had a stronger and more viral marketing campaign than Wrath of Titans?

Could it have been the cast? I’ve read numerous blogs that were dissatisfied with the lack of ethnic casting and the fact there were no Asians or Latinos in significant roles. Maybe it was the storyline? Many blogs were critical that the plot of The Hunger Games was a little too similar to the 2000 Japanese cult favorite film Battle Royale, where a former high school teacher at the behest of the Japanese government kidnaps his former ninth grade class and forces them to kill each other on a remote island until only one is left standing. Oddly enough the Wrath of the Titans storyline is nowhere as sophisticated and has received overwhelmingly horrible reviews. Let’s face it – the world loves American films for their action packed special effects, and maybe not so much for our derivative storylines.

There’s also the fact that very often a film as distinctive as The Hunger Games doesn’t always correspond well on a cultural level in other countries. There are tons of films that are blockbusters in the region they’re conceived in but when they come to the states it’s hard for them to match that success, and frequently they’ll even do poorly outside of their own country.

So much of what makes The Hunger Games a hit in America might actually be the same thing that’s inhibiting its success across the pond. A lot of the plot deals with a futuristic, post-apocalyptic version of North America in the context of a reality show satire that might be hard for foreign markets to fully immerse themselves in without a prior understanding of current American entertainment and political culture.

It’s also based on a series of novels that been criticized for their simplistic writing style that are teen-centric in their focus and reference points. It might be possible too that the foreign mainstream markets have a different palette that this film underwhelms. Certain regions might not have the best grasp of the English language, so some intricacies of the storyline that are lost in translation could potentially make for a less enjoyable film. It’s hard enough predicting a successful film in one country, and being able to create something with equal popularity around the globe becomes another feat entirely.

Resources:

Global Box Office numbers

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/foreign-box-office-hunger-games-wrath-titans-dr-seuss-lorax-306653

Hunger Games Promotional Pages

http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/

http://www.facebook.com/thehungergamesmovie/app_234281223336412

https://twitter.com/#!/TheHungerGames

https://twitter.com/#!/HungerGamesUK

http://hungergamessingapore.tumblr.com/

http://hungergamesphils.tumblr.com/

http://hungergamesthai.tumblr.com/

Wrath of the Titans Promotional Pages

http://wrathofthetitans.warnerbros.com/index.html

http://apps.facebook.com/wottgame/

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/weirdwebculture/tp/The-Best-Internet-Memes.htm

South Park and the Evolution of the Internet Meme

posted April 4th, 2012 & filed under digital trends, Serious Stuff, social networking, Trends

Last week’s episode of South Park took a satirical spin on the history and evolution of memes, and in the process came up with some hilarious and elaborate explanations for why memes exist and evolve over time. According to South Park, the first recorded meme appeared on the hieroglyphics of the pyramids, and from there they’ve been changing and rapidly spreading over time, only to be left with the modern day examples that are rampant all over the Internet. Of course South Park’s take on memes is more satirical in nature, but in all satire there’s some morsel of truth revealed, and they made some interesting and astute comments on the world of memes, and especially how and why they exist on the Internet.

via i raff i ruse

Simply stated a meme is a concept, idea, image, or behavior that spreads quickly through culture, and although they’ve existed for hundreds of years, the term was first coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, as a concept within evolution to explain the spreading of cultural phenomenons. Since then memes have become a known and studied concept within the realm of modern culture, but the real evolution of memes took off with the expansion of the Internet. There have even been empirical scientific studies done that aimed to show why certain memes are successful online and others become digital debris.

South Park mocked this scenario by replacing old memes with new ones in increasingly absurd scenarios. First it was “Faith Hilling”, then it became “Taylor Swifting”, then it was “Breading” and “Reporting”, which expanded into a new take on “Oh Long Johnsoning”, and then when those became trite and passé, they started combining the most recent trends together into an all new mega-meme, but what is it about memes that gives them such a short shelf life?

via LOLVirgin

The Internet and Social Media have created such an instantaneous culture that has only added to our collective short attention spans. Everyone is always trying to get more and more done in a shorter amount of time, including frivolous things like entertainment and keeping up with trends. Memes are almost a shorthand for cultural concepts that can encompass a wide range of ideas in a very small and precise way, and when that’s coupled with the infinite diversions and short shelf life of Internet content, it only makes sense that our interest, no matter how large at first, will eventually be waning. The more memes compete with each other for our attention, the less time we have to focus on them, and the easier it is to become bored with their concept.

via icanhascheezburger

So why are certain memes more successful while others fall by the wayside? Why does the classic meme prank of Rickrolling have more viral sustenance then say something like breading, which seemed like it arrived almost as quickly as it disappeared? Partially it’s due to the older memes that arrived when Social Media was in its infancy had less competition, so if someone made one that was successful, it definitely stuck around for longer and became more ingrained into Internet culture. It seems like there’s so much competition now that memes have to really cut across all demographics and tastes to really maintain any sort of Internet presence.

There’s also the intangible entertainment value of memes which is sometimes just a random factor. The right timing, the right combination of graphics and slogan make a certain meme a success the same way a television show in the right time slot gets renewed but a higher quality one with more competition and lower ratings will get cancelled. Overall memes have become such a fascinating and integral part of the Internet and they’re definitely one of the best ways to get an accurate grasp of our culture at any given time, from caveman paintings to the virtual web of the future.

Here’s a list of some of the most notable Internet memes of the last 15 years (in no particular order)

1. Keyboard Cat

2. Numa Numa Dance

3. LOLcats

4. Chuck Norris Facts

5. Randall the Honey Badger

6. Oh Long Johnson

7. Chocolate Rain

8. Double Rainbow

9. Based God

10. People of Walmart

11. Dramatic Chipmunk

12. Rickrolling

13. Diet Coke and Mentos

14. Planking / Owling / Breading

15. Star Wars Kid

16. Epic Fail!

17. Scumbag Steve

18. Nyan Cat

19. Tebowing / Bradying

20. Dancing Baby

References:

Net For Beginners

Know Your Meme

http://knowyourmeme.com/

http://knowyourmeme.com/blog/meme-review/best-memes-of-2011

South Park

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s16e03-faith-hilling

Nature

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120329/srep00335/full/srep00335.html

Mashable

http://mashable.com/2009/05/25/youtube-video-memes/

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Hilling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9166584/Twitter-quitters-increasing-numbers-of-celebrities-leave-the-site.html

Twitter and the Celebrity Backlash

posted March 29th, 2012 & filed under digital trends, Serious Stuff, social networking

There are over 100 million people on Twitter including a countless number of celebrities, from some of the biggest stars and politicians in the world, to the smaller ones from reality shows or the Internet famous. No matter what the size of a star’s fanbase, a lot of celebrities have realized Twitter might actually not be the best platform for interaction or growing their brand.

What makes Twitter unique is that it allows for the most direct access versus any other Social Media platform. There’s definitely celebrities that post on Facebook and will sometimes answer questions, but Twitter has become the go to venue for instantaneous unfiltered access for fans. A lot of celebrities have remarked Twitter allows them to have their own voice outside of a Publicist or a PR sculpted format; it’s almost one of the only authentic forms of expression for people in the public eye and the least censored by the people managing their career.

Some people feel that celebrities should expect to get trolled or at least sarcastically harassed on Twitter, and it’s important to remember that expectations of fans change based on the way you interact with them. If you’re constantly giving your opinion about everything in the news or pop culture, then your fans will react in a similar manner. There’s also the idea that once you’re in the public eye you lose some portion of your privacy, and when that’s combined with a platform like Twitter, it can make even the most amiable celebrity an easy target.

The term “twitter beef” has also become a common concept where instead of being trolled by snarky fans, a celebrity will engage in a war of words with other celebrities. It takes place across all avenues of entertainment, but especially in the hip hop community, where brash comments and bravado go hand in hand on a platform like Twitter. One of the most interesting and comical Twitter beefs occurred last year between Fabolous and Ray J, which escalated from the Internet to a wildly comical and surreal radio interview, which was then perfectly referenced in a classic Rick Ross couplet on his track “You the Boss”.

There’s also a handful of instances where celebrities will get caught up in how free and open Twitter is and they’ll either decide to completely close their account or hand it over to their handlers for strictly promotional purposes. John Mayer, Alec Baldwin, and others have quit Twitter after their tweets led to subsequent scandals. It’s so instantaneous and such a direct form of expression it’s easy to forget that one snafu could become a worldwide trending topic by the next afternoon.

Another aspect of celebrities quitting Twitter is due to abuse from their followers. Sometimes amassing a huge number of followers comes with the requisite Internet trolls who are merely on there just to get a rise out of you or cause backlash. English comedy star Matt Lucas recently deleted his Twitter account after one of his followers tweeted an insensitive joke about the death of his co-star Kevin McGee. With the open and direct interaction also comes the negative aspect of too much access. Sometimes people get overly comfortable with celebrities because they’re so familiar with them, and when you throw in the anonymity of Internet, it can potentially lead to these situations.

Our culture has created an incessant need for celebrity gossip and Twitter is an up to the minute feed of the backstage minutia that enhances or detracts from the public’s perception of a celebrity. Instead of waiting for the weekly tabloid magazines you can find out what’s going on every hour, and sometimes even as it’s actually happening. As with all Social Media there are definitely pros and cons that come with each platform, but because of its unfiltered and direct nature, Twitter is a platform that doesn’t always benefit every celebrity.

Resources:

Telegraph

MTV

http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/09/19/fabolous-ray-j-fight-in-las-vegas/

Rap Radar

http://rapradar.com/2011/09/19/ray-j-speaks-on-fabolous-altercation/

Vibe

http://www.vibe.com/post/fighting-words-are-celebrity-twitter-beefs-getting-tired-129570

Rolling Out

http://rollingout.com/entertainment/top-celebrity-twitter-beefs-of-2011/

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577229132810307306.html

Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/john-mayer-reveals-why-he-quit-twitter-20110713

Entertainment Weekly

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/12/07/alec-baldwin-twitter-celebrities-who-quit/