As promised, I am back with yet another article on some precious meme songs that this world just needs to know about. This time around, while we will be looking at a fewer number of songs, we will be going more in-depth to fully understand where they originated from and why they hold so much importance to me and people all over the world. Just like last time, I would recommend that you listen to each of these songs while reading about them because it just adds to the vibe. Without further ado, let us begin.
- Soviet National Anthem
Now this particular song is attributed to a certain someone who deserves every possible form of farewell gift that he can get. This is whole-heartedly dedicated to our local OG communist who has kept alive the spirit of spreading Marx’s word around the campus to the best of his abilities, and while he got bullied for it (this is a joke, we love him), he still did not give up.
The music was created by Alexander Alexandrov and was initially used in the Hymn of the Bolshevik Party but then it was chosen as the anthem by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after a contest in 1943. Following the death of Stalin, the Soviet leadership initiated a process of De-Stalinization in an attempt to move away from the former leaders’ legacy. Due to this, a new version of the anthem was formulated which removed all mention of Stalin from the lyrics; this, then became the popularized version of the anthem we know and love today. The anthem itself is absolutely beautiful, patriotic, and catchy; I still cannot wrap my head around the element that makes it such that you feel proud to be Russian while listening to it even when you’re anything but Russian. I guess it would be fair to say that it is, perhaps, our anthem?
- Sandstorm – Darude
Released in 1999 by a Finnish DJ and music producer Darude, this upbeat song was initially only used in films and sporting events. This changed when it started to gain massive popularity amongst gamers and streamers who used it as background music in their playthrough videos. Gaining over $1 billion, the song also became a meme due to viewers often asking gamers the name of the song playing behind their videos, which led it to being used as a generic response for all songs. Even YouTube joined in on the meme and on April Fools’ Day 2015, they added a button to all their videos which allowed viewers to play Sandstorm over any video they were watching. Moreover, they also responded with “Did you mean: Darude – Sandstorm by Darude” after every search on their site. Needless to say, YouTube passed the vibe check that one time in 2015 and things have gone downhill ever since.
- Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley
The rickroll meme has been used since 2007 and is recognised by almost everyone. However, where exactly did this bait-and-switch prank originate from? This phenomenon began in 2004 from 4chan, where someone posted a link to Rick Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released Grand Theft Auto IV. Due to the high anticipation for the game, many GTA fans fell victim to the rickroll and the joke became increasingly popular on 4chan. Astley himself voiced his approval of the off-beat joke
As much as I would want Hassan to put a link to this song’s music video in The LACAS Chronicle’s Instagram page bio to rickroll all the readers, I believe he will not actually do it so let us pretend that it happened.
- You Reposted in the Wrong Neighbourhood – Shokk
While the song gained an insane amount of popularity, many people failed to realise that it was actually a remix of two songs: Casin (by Blue70) and Shake That (by Eminem ft.Nate Dogg). Individually, the songs failed to gain as much recognition as they did after they were mashed-up by a user called Shokk 青 who then uploaded it on Soundcloud. It was posted on 24th March 2014 and currently has 2.64M plays which is a lot considering it is simply a remix. The trend of mixing the background music of this song with other songs soon took off and various other remixes of the remix were created. It remains a mystery why this specific song was used behind meme videos but I suppose the internet itself will always remain a mystery.
- Baka Mitai (I’ve Been A Fool) – Yakuza OST
The best thing about this song is probably the fact that no one knows it by its name but rather by its chorus: “Dame Da Ne, Dame Yo”, which directly translates to “It’s no use”. While the connotation of this karaoke song from the Yakuza video game series is extremely saddening, it has not stopped people on the internet from using it in many deep-fakes that started flooding the internet not too long ago. The meme started gaining momentum after a Twitter user @Tortokhod posted a deep-fake of the YouTuber Linus from Linus Tech Tips. The lyrics are also quite simple to follow and let you sing along even if you’re not Japanese.
you can have it I just got even better idea pic.twitter.com/LnCkMZK51K
— Cakewalking Polychrome (@Tortokhod) July 17, 2020
These are all the meme songs that I will be covering for this time and if you’d like another part of this article series, feel free to tell me about your suggestions. I hope all of you had as much fun reading this article as much I had writing it and stay tuned for more!
Habiba Rashid
TLC Writer
The LACAS Chronicles 