Internet Music Phenomenon Worth Recalling.
The Internet has many redeeming qualities when it comes to the spread of information, news and cultural phenomenon. It also is the repository of so much data, videos and music that it has a way of bringing out the dark side of human nature. Joseph Conrad called that instinct the “fascination with the abomination” and that phenomenon is alive and well on the Internet. In fact, with the way music spreads virally over the Internet, music fads represent some of the greatest modern examples of “fascination with the abomination.”
The Internet is an important tool for the music industry. But while the music industry works hard to promote talent, underground communities with an affinity for music and the esoteric have made the Internet a place where some of the strangest music ever can become a phenomenon. Just as William Hung managed to score a recording contract by getting a cult following after a terrible American Idol audition, so too do others find a strange success in being terrible when their music is presented online. Here are some of the most notable:
One of the earliest weird musical Internet breakouts was the Buckwheat Boyz. Long after the band itself disbanded, the Buckwheat Boyz became an Internet phenomenon when their song “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” (which mostly consists of those four words repeated over and over again to music) appeared as accompaniment in a Flash video with a dancing banana. The phenomenon became an allusion on Family Guy! There have been two toys based upon Brian in his banana costume, one of which is one of the most sought-after Family Guy action figures!
Sometimes, the weird phenomenons propagate themselves, like the Hampster Dance. The Hampster Dance started as a single website page that featured animated hamsters and other rodents dancing to music. It became so popular that the phenomenon generated not one, but six album releases!
Arguably the most significant Internet phenomenon related to music is still developing. Rebecca Black, a thirteen year old girl, recorded the song “Friday” which certainly garnered most of its attention by those who are fascinated with the exceptions to the rule. Critically regarded as one of the worst-written songs of all time and performed using so much post-production equipment as to almost completely obscure Black’s actual voice, “Friday” is a musical travesty. And yet, when Black uploaded the song and video to the Internet, it garnered a huge amount of buzz. The video for “Friday” had over thirty million hits on YouTube and the digital download of the song has sold over one hundred thousand downloads. Black’s music career may have started as the object of Internet mockery, but between her sales numbers for the single and a Glee-cover version of the song, Rebecca Black has good reason to be happy.
Quality does not guarantee success, but the Internet has sprouted a whole subculture that makes successful music of poor quality.
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