Michael SmashSon - Thrill Star

Intention

The intention for my project is to make an audio file that would be shared online and hopefully go viral. Because of this purpose, I had to make my project strike a balance of effort, familiarity, and humor.

Context

In the viral age of the Internet, familiarity is the core of humor. Taking something that is recognizable and combining it creates instant shareable content. Certain songs are memes. The are remixed and shared in incredibly high volumes. In particular, I was looking for one song that is a meme and one song that is just pop culture. This is because the meme song will promote sharing, while the popular song will allow help with recognizably. Remixing two meme songs isn't as creative, and probably has been done before.

Process

I used two songs, All Star by Smash Mouth and Thriller by Michael Jackson

Thriller is part of Michael Jackson's album of the same name. As the highest selling album ever, the album cements Michael Jackson's career as well as his influence on pop culture.

All Star by Smash Mouth was featured heavily in the movie Shrek. Due to the intense ironic fandom behind the movie, All Star has become part of the inside joke of the Shrek memes.

I picked All Star due to its viral nature. Its a song that is part of internet fandom and viral culture. Its an easy song to remix and share, and it has definitely been remixed many times before. I picked Thriller, not due to its viral nature, but because its a song that has a huge basis in mainstream pop culture.

Product

I combined the two songs together in FL Studio. Audio syncing became quite a hassle, as there are parts where the songs go out of beat rather noticeably. In order to fix this, i had to make millisecond-long cuts in both pieces to cover up occasional timing errors. I tried to make the songs as unedited as possible, but I ended up changing a few parts near the beginning and end to help give the song a better opening and ending.

In regards to spread, I would share this on Soundcloud and Youtube. The Shrek meme's tend to get spread on soundcloud, youtube, and 4chan the most. However, 4chan is not useful for spreading audio. In regards to Soundcloud and Youtube, both are useful at spreading viral content. I believe that using Soundcloud in particular is better suited for my project, because it provides a platform for audio sharing.

Critique

I REALLY liked the second half of this song. During that part, Thriller changes chords and All Star changes song structure. And it all leads up to a massive build up that gets resolved perfectly. I'm actually really proud that it just ended up working out like that.

Reflection

Actually, viral content is not too hard to make. Rather than the effort, viral content focuses on the potential humor derived from the work. I feel like this song works very well with what I aimed to make out of my final product. I'd say if I were to do this project again, I would try finding more creative ways to make the songs match up. However, I find the current song pretty good in that aspect.

Sources

Michael Jackson - Thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H3pBbk1JS4

Smash Mouth - All Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo2FxCXDTPM