Fun article on a genre I did not know there was a word for, by Ethan Zuckerman in the Atlantic:
… While the braggadocio in these remixes is pure parody, there’s a sense in which each of these videos makes a claim to share the stage with the original. YouTube’s related videos feature means that there’s a chance that some of the 2 billion viewers of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” video will encounter Zigi’s “Ghana Style,” a georemix that relocates Seoul to Accra and replaces PSY’s horse dance with Ghanaian Azonto. (And if not through YouTube, viewers may encounter Zigi through the hundreds of listicles that advertise “10 Best Gangnam Style Parodies.”)
I think of the georemix as a claim to attention, a way of demanding part of the spotlight that shines on a popular video. It’s a very basic demand: accept that we’re part of this phenomenon, too.…
Loïc Fontaine and Julie Fersing deserve much of the credit for the georemixes that made Pharrell cry, though neither has made a video. Fersing, an interior designer in Nantes, began collecting georemixes of “Happy”, searching YouTube to find new material. When she’d located 21 of the videos, she turned to her husband, Fontaine, who’d begun a career in website development nine months earlier. Together, they launched We Are Happy From, a portal that now hosts 1,682 videos from 143 countries…
For me, as a student of civic media, the dissident videos excluded from the We Are Happy Map are the most interesting ones. Fontaine has kindly shared the list of rejected videos with me, and I hope to spend some time this summer watching those 500 remixes in the hopes of developing an understanding of how “Happy” can work as a script for advocacy (or how videomakers think it might act as that script).
But for Fontaine and his wife, the mark of success wasn’t raising awareness for a cause or an issue—it was documenting the spread of happiness globally. When I interviewed Fontaine, he was celebrating the spread of “Happy” to Antarctica, with a video from French research station Dumont d’Urville…
Dee Loralei
I love that most silly “Happy” song. Yea, it makes me happy. No way in hell I’m watching even one second of the Gangnam parodies, I hate that song. Wished the French had shown more of the penguins, maybe doin’ a Happy Feet dance to the Happy song.
MikeJ
Because you watched a video you’re now part of it and making demands about being recognized?
catclub
so Gangnam is a place. huh.
Belafon
@Dee Loralei: The good thing about Gangnam Style is that it kept Call Me Maybe from being the “song of the summer” that year, the song that would have been played over and over for the rest of the year.
MattF
Via MeFi, interesting thoughts about Big Data:
http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm
And cute animal pictures, for the BJ masses.
A Ghost To Most
since this is an open thread, submitted without comment:
trigger warning: mooney times
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
No, they’re part of the phenomenon because they made a response or parody video like the one Anne Laurie embedded.
ranchandsyrup
Mitch the turtle speaks the truth about teabillies and the gop:
NotMax
There’s a bottomless chasm separating a genre from pretentious claptrap.
That was the cue to cease reading the excerpt altogether, much less click through.
ranchandsyrup
Oh noes I am in moderation for quoting Mitch McConnell
Ash Can
The little vid at the link of Pharrell Williams tearing up at the sight of people around the world being happy along with his music had me getting misty-eyed as well. Very sweet.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, the dipshits at Noisemax of course miss the entire point, but what the fuck does one expect from ammosexuals?
Michael Moore: Guns Don’t Kill, Americans Do
Yeah, Americans kill Americans…WITH GUNS!
Read the article, it’s pretty obvious that Moore is not jumping into bed with the small dicked twits of the NRA.
Villago Delenda Est
@ranchandsyrup: What, did McConnell talk about the medical enhancements he needs to get it on with Elaine or something?
ranchandsyrup
@Villago Delenda Est: lulz!
Trollhattan
@A Ghost To Most:
Uh, “Joe,” Andy Warhol for you, line three.
I suppose “Ted” Nugent will chime in, next. Every bottom-dweller surfaces for a gasp, now and then.
Today’s Google doodle celebrates Rachel Carson, who certainly warrants celebrating.
Villago Delenda Est
@ranchandsyrup:
We know to use dog whistles, not to use an air raid siren.
McConnell is racist vermin just like the teahadis.
ranchandsyrup
@ranchandsyrup: aw fornicate me, that is satirical. gonna go sit in the corner for a while.
Villago Delenda Est
@Dee Loralei: Just don’t text while driving about how happy you are from the song.
Villago Delenda Est
@ranchandsyrup: Poe’s law…it’s everywhere you are!
Belafon
@ranchandsyrup: If that’s real, Mitch could finally rate up there with one of the greats: Lee Atwater.
ETA: And it’s not. Oh well.
Amir Khalid
@ranchandsyrup:
It would be uncharitable, I suppose, to think that Mitch McConnell cares about calling out racism among the Tea Party tendency only because his wife is Asian-American.
@A Ghost To Most:
We should all be in awe of John McCain and his talent for choosing friends.
Roger Moore
@ranchandsyrup:
Poe’s Law strikes again!
Amir Khalid
@ranchandsyrup:
Assume that my comment was made in the same spirit as the original story.
BruinKid
Joe the Plumber has opened his mouth about the UCSB massacre.
Go fuck yourself, “Joe”. Weinstein nailed it:
ranchandsyrup
I WANTED TO BELIEVE.
*ashamed*
Dee Loralei
@Villago Delenda Est: yea. No kidding. That poor dumbass woman.
@Belafon: Yea, I hated that song too, and almost mentioned it i my previous comment, but was afraid the ear worm Gods would go on the offensive.
Villago Delenda Est
@BruinKid: The “conservatives” need to be tossed into a jungle naked and see how much they like the lifestyle the want to push on everyone else.
Good meals for tigers and vultures they will make.
NotMax
@BruinKid
JtP, another voice of unreason shoved into the spotlight courtesy of John McCain.
Atilla the Hun had more tact.
Seanly
@ranchandsyrup:
Ummm, there’s a bit more damning stuff in there than tea party is racist. He gives the game away about voter fraud & social net slashing.
On topic – I love that goofy song. The tribute/parody videos are great.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Those folks are definitely management material.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne:
But that’s not what the article claims. It says they made the video because they’re part of the phenomenon, not that they are part of the phenomenon because they made the video.
catclub
@ranchandsyrup: wow. Quite the tape.
Seanly
derp, see now that folks are saying that was satire…
or was it?
Suffern ACE
Who the hell even sought out Joe the Plumber’s opinion on anything?
raven
@ranchandsyrup: dead linky
ranchandsyrup
@raven: I’m glad. It was satire. SORRY everyone.
Tommy
Gosh I am so not hip. I had to Google “Pharrell” and “Happy.” I first heard of this song and the videos made when the folks in Iran got arrested. That video from Antarctica is just off the chart. Wow.
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
What came first, the chicken or the egg? People liked the song and/or video, so they made their own song and/or response to it, and now you have “georemixing.” It seemed pretty clear to me that it was the response song/video that made it a new phenomenon, not just people liking the song.
Frankensteinbeck
@catclub:
It’s the South Korean equivalent of Beverly Hills. The point of the song and the video is that rich people trying to be cool usually look like idiots, and really cool people are the normal folks you meet on the subway.
Comrade Mary
@Dee Loralei: I love both songs and almost all the tributes / remixes / parodies.
Did any of us think back in the 20th century that there would be this kind of global sharing and mixing?
I fucking love the future sometimes.
Origuy
I don’t think anything in the “National Report” can be taken seriously. They seem to mix real news with fake stories indiscriminately. For example, the stories saying that Obama is going to remove “In God We Trust” from currency and that he plans to work for the Muslim Brotherhood are bogus, but some of the others appear real.
Paul in KY
@A Ghost To Most: Boy, he really does messaging well. I hope he keeps em coming.