"Drakeposting" - Elena Ajluni

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The meme I chose to analyze is called “Drakeposting” which is an image of Drake taken from his “Hotline Bling” music video. The music video was released on October 19, 2015 and began circling the internet in January 2016. Many memes have come from this music video such as one of his full body in a grey sweatshirt. This meme is a screen shot of him doing a dance move where in one shot he’s looking away in disgust and in the other he is not. This has been used to demonstrate dislike for one item or idea in a comedic way. The meme has been used for many jokes and has had many variations such as covering his face with another character, such as Thanos. Since the meme became popular in January 2016 it has been circulation social media such platforms as Reddit and Twitter fairly steadily with the highest usage at the beginning of January 2017. During this time the meme was used to demonstrate disgust for the year and things that had happened. Since then the usage has continued steadily.



Bratich discusses convergence culture and the need to distinguish between spectators and participants. This meme is simply a meme and not a meme generator. Unlike some of the memes that Bratich discusses, “Drakeposting” did not have contextual factors such as social power nor does it contain political controversy. While it has been used for a variety of jokes it has not been notorious for being offensive nor has it drawn too much controversial attention. Drake and his music has drawn some controversial attention for his actions, but this has stayed mostly separate from the meme. The meme does demonstrate media power and was able to circulate the media in many different ways and forms. It was initially used for simple jokes such as expressing someones dislike for middle seats but has also been used to mock politicians. One version of the meme makes fun of how politicians do not often give straight answers. The meme has been used in many different ways and forms to make jokes about topics completely unrelated to the music video itself.


“Drakeposting.” Drakeposting - Meming Wiki, 2019, en.meming.world/wiki/Drakeposting.



Comments

  1. RosanaOctober 14, 2020 at 11:16 PM

    Wonderful, I'm discovering so many memes reading your entries! I think this is a great example of how random images from popular culture can actually be repurposed to reflect on a whole range of aspects about social and political reality.

    ReplyDelete

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