VIRAL VIDEOS AND SPREDABILITY

By: Joe Zanca

Nowadays it doesn't take much to make a viral video. Just film yourself doing something stupid and you'll most likely gain your 15 minutes of fame on the internet. Sites like YouTube allow anyone the chance to make a viral video. But the creators of viral videos never seem to have the intentions of going viral. For example, the viral video “leave Britney alone”. Chris Crocker (the creator of Leave Britney alone) never intended to go viral when making the video.  Chris was simply expressing his emotions about the way Britney Spears was being treated. Going viral in today's world is easy thanks to video sites like YouTube. The idea of a viral video can be perplexing.  What makes a viral video?  Is it the number of views it has or how fast it spread across all forms of media.  Or is it both of those things?  Viral Videos are described as “the phenomenon in which video clips become highly popular through rapid, user-led distribution via the Internet’’ (Mosebo,2009).  One thing is for sure these videos go viral because of media sites like Youtube.  Videos become viral and popular through sharing.  People can view a video on their phone and then text the link to their friends or group chats.  Technology and media make things very spreadable in today's world.  Music videos are a large category of viral videos.  There are viral videos made by superstars and nobodies. But the videos made by superstars can become viral for different reasons than a video made by a regular person. For example, the music video chocolate rain made by Tay Zonday. The video has received 119,266,469 views to date. The video is low quality and shows the young Tay Zonday (real name Adam Bahner) singing into a microphone, and from time to time pans to his hands playing the keyboard. According to Zonday, he didn't expect the video to go viral. But why did this video become viral? There might not be an exact explanation but there are some reasons. One the beat is very catchy and simple and the lyrics are relatively simple,
Chocolate Rain Raised your neighborhood insurance rates
Chocolate Rain Makes us happy livin‘ in a gate
Chocolate Rain Made me cross the street the other day
Chocolate Rain Made you turn your head the other way
(Chorus) Chocolate Rain History quickly crashing through your veins
Chocolate Rain Using you to fall back down again [Repeat] (Mosebo,2009).

Two there is a certain hilarity of watching the guy almost awkwardly singing into the microphone and moving away from every now and then to take a breath. Three the video was a very popular joke on 4chan. The members of 4chan pushed its popularity on YouTube. This is an example of how powerful media sites can be. What was once a joke is now one of the highest viewed videos on Youtube, and turned Zonday into a celebrity. Youtube is undoubtedly one of the largest sources of videos on the internet. It contains famous and viral videos along with irrelevant videos. Videos like Leave Britney Alone and Chocolate Rain probably have no business being popular or talked about. But because of Youtube and people sharing and talking about the video they are famous and the people who made the videos went from nobodies to somebodies. Youtube makes it easy for videos to go viral.

References Mosebo, T. (2009). Jean Burgess & Joshua Green: YouTube – Online video and participatory culture. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 25(47), 3. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18431/1/18431.pdf


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