Music doesn't usually make its way into meme-hood. For the uninitiated, a meme is an idea or item that is spread throughout culture through repetition, much like the biological transmission of genetic material (think "viral" videos). The dancing banana/Peanut Butter Jelly Time meme is the first musical one that comes to mind (and one of the first true Internet memes). The other major music meme that comes to mind is the Trololo guy. If you've ever been "Rickrolled," that's another example of a meme.
The Trololo guy is really Eduard Khil, a popular Soviet singer of the 1960s and 70s, gained worldwide stardom several years ago when a video of him singing nonsense syllables over a chirpy melody hit the YouTubes. The melody Khil is singing is the tune of a song called I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home. The song was written by Arkady Ostrovsky, with sentimental lyrics about a cowboy riding across the prairie, thinking about his sweetheart. These lyrics, apparently, irked the Soviet censors, so Khil removed the lyrics and sang trololos over it. The technical term for this kind of lyric is a "non-lexical vocable". In jazz music, we call it "scat singing," and several other cultures use this type of singing in some form. Other common types of non-lexical vocable-ing include a capella singing, beatboxing, and doo-wop.
Mr. Khil died on June 4 of this year, at age 77. He was largely unaware of his Western popularity, remarking that he "never earned a kopeck" from his sudden fame. He will now be remembered for his rich, baritone voice and radiant, infectious smile.
Trolololololololololo trololololooooooo!!
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