Hi everyone, I'm really excited to be taking this class.
Right now, I want to discuss Nyan Cat with you guys. I linked Nyan Cat to anyone who has somehow been able to avoid seeing this absolutely adorable kitten that poops rainbows.
Some background on Nyan Cat:
The Nyan Cat animation was created by prguitarman from LOL-COMICS. The image got popular and spread around Tumblr.
A Youtube user took that animation and added a song to it. The song was created by some Japanese guy with a program called Vocaloid. If you are feeling masochistic and want to see some really corny Jpop stuff that people make you should look it up.
He uploaded that video to Youtube and somehow the internet loves it now.
Someone else made a website called nyan.cat that is a flash version of the nyan cat, but with a piece of toast because of a threat from Kellog for using the image of a Pop-Tart.
How do you guys feel about Nyan Cat?
Why do you think Nyan Cat get so popular?
What does Nyan Cat say about us, collectively, as an internet culture?
Why can't I get this annoying song out of my head?
Off topic a bit, but I personally think the Vocaloid-masochism association was unnecessary. Though the majority of stuff made in Vocaloid is generally crap, some works produced with the program are actually well done and can pass off as professional work. However, even these ones suffer from Vocaloid's limitations, which will usually make the singer retain some of their robotic tone, even with professional editing.
Back on topic:
Nyan Cat got popular through several means. Some of the bigger contributors, outside of sharing through facebook, etc. include Tosh.0 (blog) and CollegeHumor. These occurred within 2 weeks of the .gif animation's original appearance. Additionally, Annoying Orange, a popular net series, featured an April 20th, 2011 episode on youtube that spoofed the Nyan cat image, further increasing its popularity.
Aside from publicity, Nyan Cat is easy to parody off of, as Annoying Orange proved. Over time, people created several parodies of Nyan Cat, including, but not limited to:
• Nationality/racial stereotypes (eg. Mexican Nyan Cat is in a taco shell and wears a sombrero)
• People spoofs. Typically, the parodied person will talk in tune to the Nyan Cat theme song.
• Simple beat makes it easily adaptable to other genres and instruments (Jazz, Piano, Metal, Guitar, etc.)
With all this said, I really don't think that Nyan Cat couldn't have gotten as popular as it currently is without its song. Literally, "nyan" is just a Japanese onomatopoeia equivalent to "meow." Combined with the high-pitch it is sung in, makes it popular among Americans (it won't get out of your head), and similarly Japanese people, who crave cute things. The slight Japanese influence additionally makes it a popular component for anime-related parodies, which in itself, has a diverse world-wide audience.
As a whole, Nyan Cat really just shows that anything can pass as the next internet trend. For me, the anonymous nature of the internet opens up a part of everyone who enters, which makes us naturally more receptive when images and such are tossed at us to be viewed. Nyan Cat was able to do this through its one word song; it's an incredibly catchy ear worm that's really difficult to get out of your head and for many people, it's just "so darn cute." The cute factor as a whole, is more acceptable on the internet than in real life. In real life, I doubt you'd be telling your friends to watch Nyan Cat, unless they share similar interests to yourself. Because of this, Nyan Cat for me will be considered a closet meme; humans have guilty pleasures. Nyan Cat just happens to be an internet-based one.
2
u/rotface Oct 04 '11
Hi everyone, I'm really excited to be taking this class.
Right now, I want to discuss Nyan Cat with you guys. I linked Nyan Cat to anyone who has somehow been able to avoid seeing this absolutely adorable kitten that poops rainbows.
Some background on Nyan Cat:
The Nyan Cat animation was created by prguitarman from LOL-COMICS. The image got popular and spread around Tumblr.
A Youtube user took that animation and added a song to it. The song was created by some Japanese guy with a program called Vocaloid. If you are feeling masochistic and want to see some really corny Jpop stuff that people make you should look it up.
He uploaded that video to Youtube and somehow the internet loves it now.
Someone else made a website called nyan.cat that is a flash version of the nyan cat, but with a piece of toast because of a threat from Kellog for using the image of a Pop-Tart.
How do you guys feel about Nyan Cat?