It might have escaped your notice, but at the moment there is a fresh wave of weirdness gripping the Facebook video world. Namely, the near-inesacapable ‘shooting stars’ meme that now permeates every timeline.
You might not know it by that name, but you will have seen videos all over social media of people jumping into water, being photoshopped onto rockets, or Mufasa being dropped into a heard of wildebeest, before the spacey electronic music sends them into the cosmos.
It all started with a video titled ‘Fat man does amazing dive’, and since then it has been plastered all across the internet.
Back in 2008, a little-known Aussie band wrote a song called ‘Shooting Stars’. The band’s name is Bag Raiders, and their track hit 18 on the Billboard Magazine’s Electronic/Dance Digital Song Sales chart – in 2017.
In the nine years since its release, the song has been used as the backing music to a rather disconcerting Harambe tribute video of animated gorillas dancing to the track.
The Bag Raiders’ video for the song has now hit 19.5 million views on YouTube.
Why has it now begun to make an impact? Well, as Behind The Meme put it, “because the internet.”
Music guru and President of Live Music Society Iain Morrison said of the song: “I think the electronic/trance vibe is better than a dubstep song or something.
“I’d seen a couple of the original videos that have now been turned into the meme, and the remix made them better.
“I like how unexpected the song was sometimes, and others it built up to the guy hitting his head on the table or something. The women in the aquarium was my favourite.”
Morgan Simpson, a second year geography student at Stirling said: “I think the meme is pretty funny, and it actually made me go and listen to the actual song, and because it is super catchy it got stuck in my head.”
He added: “I think memes like this are always good for society. It’s a solid meme, but, after a while, you may get bored and actively seek better and better memes.”
Featured Image Credit: Pexels
“It is worth ascending unexiting heights if for nothing else than to see the big ones from nearer their own level.” - Nan Shepherd
