RickRolling: What's It All About?

by Libby Pelham | More from this Blogger

05 Apr 2008 09:27 AM

Children of the 80's rest easy - you are cool once again! Going along the theme that "what's old is new again" the crazy kids of today have resurrected a most ancient fossil from the 80's - Rick Astley.

Back in the 80's, we knew Rick was never gonna give us up, never gonna let us down, never gonna run around and desert us, never gonna make us cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt us. But, he did say goodbye, along with other 80's phenoms like Spandau Ballet and Kajagoogoo. Rick's reign of pop terror ended around 1993, when he was no long charting on Billboard in the U.S. He was quiet during most of the 1990's and 2000's until he released Body and Soul, which featured "Sleeping," a minor club hit in the U.S.

But now, Rick is back and with a vengeance! There is a new phenomenon known as RickRolling and it uses Rick's best known hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" as part of its allure. Around March of last year, bloggers and fans of social networks such as MySpace decided to start linking to the YouTube video of Rick singing the hit. It started as a trick - around 13 million users were tricked into watching the Astley video when they were sent a message with a hyperlink that was supposed to link to a more popular video.

Now YouTubers are creating their own lip-synced routines and appearing as Astley at public events like a basketball game. They have also created videos that show something such as a board meeting when suddenly the video is interrupted by Rick with his 80's bouffant hair and dated dance moves. The viewer is then told, "You've been RickRolled."

Even YouTube got in on the joke. On April 1st (April Fool's Day), they tricked all users by linking the video to all of its home page features. YouTube had the idea and approached both Rick and his label, Sony BMG, who loved the idea.

What does Rick think about RickRolling? He told the Los Angeles Times "I think it's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it, that's what's brilliant about the internet." He shouldn't mind too much - this whole RickRolling thing has resulted in his song being sold online at a rate of at least 1,000 downloads per week with it spiking to 2,500 during the week of March 9.

Learn more about Libby Pelham

Libby Pelham is a work-at-home mom located in Jacksonville, NC. She has a beautiful little boy, Will, born in July of 2004.

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