Social media has clearly permeated out lives so much that it is now influencing the other media that we consume. This is extremely clear in the world of music. I see the songs popping up on my Facebook news ticker and it seems like my entire friends list is listening to the same songs. For the most part people have always listened to very similar music, but more and more I am seeing an increasing trend of the “ironic” hit.
I don’t know if this is a new phenomenon, but I first noticed it with the rise in popularity of Rebecca Black’s song Friday. We all know and love (or hate) it. The song features timeless lyrics like “Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs, gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal” and “Tomorrow is Saturday And Sunday comes afterwards”. This song gained popularity initially for being incredibly awful, but then a funny thing happened. People heard the song so much that they began to like it and listen to it often. It was a phenomenon I had never seen. A terrible song is made fun of and then people begin to actually like the song, but in an ironic way.
I believe we are currently seeing the same phenomenon take place with the dramatic rise in popularity of Carly Rae Jensen’s song “Call Me Maybe”. I’ve heard for weeks how stupid the song is while I’ve been playing it loudly and proudly. It’s a well known fact that I only listen to one genre of music: the hits. Now after weeks of being ridiculed more and more of my friends are listening to Call Me Maybe and rocking out to it. Another ironic hit has been born. 120 million YouTube views don’t lie.
Am I onto something here? I think so. The next time you see the meteoric rise of an ironic hit remember where you first heard the theory, then turn up the radio and sing along.
