Going Viral: Then and Now

Kevin Alloca defines virality as: In order for “media content” to go “viral” and become a cultural moment, three things happen: 1) the content is introduced into the mediascape by a “taste maker” (i.e. Jimmy Kimmel and the ‘Double Rainbow” video); 2) community participation that creatively transforms original content (i.e. remixes of NyanCat); 3) the content must be “unexpected” or novel.

When we think of memes that went viral in the 18th century and the 21st century we can see the commonality in aspects which allowed them to be successful within the public eye. If we compare the works of Drake’s Hotline Bling to Thomas Paine’s writings gaining attention on a public scale we see that they gained popularity because of the unique qualities each subject possessed in order to appeal to a common market. 

Drake’s Hotline Bling video attracted the masses to a point where it was remade into several viral memes/vine pages. Each page showcased Drake doing his Hotline Bling dance moves doing different things such as playing tennis or making a pizza. The difference with Drake’s modern day video and Paine’s writings going viral is not only content, but means of production. Today technology is highly accessible, content travels much faster, and the means for altering/remixing original content has become normalized with access to objects such as tablets, PDA’s, laptops etc. 

Of course Drake’s Hotline Bling is a lighthearted video, it’s meant to be personable and touch viewers in an emotional way. On the latter Paine’s writings pertained predominantly to ideologies of politics in the age of Enlightenment, discussing subjects such as slavery. Thomas Paine’s works were popularized because of his usage of the pamphlet, newspapers, etc which made distributing content much easier and forced American’s to utilize something new and different in order to benefit themselves.

The mode of accumulation for each subject is very different (internet vs pamphlet), but both parties needed to create a basis and have a reputation before people took a liking to their content. Drake is already a very popular artist highly watched in the media, and Thomas Paine had a repertoire from his activism. Therefore though their concepts were new and refreshing, allowing them to be distinguished from the masses, allows them to have a current following to propel a buzz surrounding new material.  Though virality can come from a random spur of interest in the community we see often that viral videos come from established members in the video who continue to interest the public with fresh content.