Youtube sensations. "Gangham Style." "Friday." I have always found them intriguing. I am especially intrigued by the success of "What does the Fox say?" which now has hit more than 447,000,000 views.
This video first became popular while I was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Missionaries do not spend any time or energy surfing Youtube, so I was incredibly confused when someone read my name tag and, upon learning that my name was Sister Fox, asked me, "What does the Fox say?" My response? "Umm.....I teach the gospel! Is that what you're asking me?"
Although I had never seen the video, I still saw the effects of this Youtube sensation everywhere. About 3-4 times *daily* I would hear the question, "What does the Fox say?" Sometimes people even sang it to me. By the end of my mission I was so incredibly curious about this mysterious Youtube sensation that it was the first piece of media I watched upon returning home.
My reaction: *THIS* is popular?
Perhaps I had spent too long detached from the media to fully appreciate the humor and music presented in "What does the Fox say?" However, I wasn't too surprised to learn that the video was originally intended to fail and it's popularity was a complete accident. So why did it become popular? How did it speak to millions of people? Why did I get dozens of "likes" on my Facebook status that announced the title of my new blog? Why did my dad, who works for the Church, think it would be funny to hook the video up to giant speakers in his workplace and blast it across the entire floor?
No idea.
I have my guesses, though. The song, though perfectly ridiculous, is incredibly repetitive and catchy. It's clean. It's fun and crazy. It gets stuck in your head. The video is weird. Perhaps it helps people escape for a few minutes from a rigid world of stress and high-demand and allows them to embrace their inner spontaneity and extraordinariness that makes life more exciting.
What *does* this Fox say? I still don't know why it's popular. What do you say? I guess you'll just have to watch the video.
Brianna, I have to totally agree with you, I have no idea why it got so popular. I visited my home one day and my younger siblings were singing it all day. Even my dad was singing it, and he had yet to see the video. I think that it is weird that sometimes the strangest things get super popular through the media.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting fact about this song: "fox" in Norwegian means "marijuana" or "taking a smoke." Ylvis was on Ellen this time last year talking about their song "The Fox Say." Here is the link if you are interested in watching it: http://youtu.be/DgelSXmBII8
ReplyDeleteMedia is sneaky in the way it hides messages in between fancy words and catchy tunes. How much do we pay attention to what we are listening to? Do we take time to look up the lyrics to a song? Or do we just jump on the "this is what's popular" bandwagon without doing some research on our own?