I feel like Gangnam Style was a watershed moment in some way. It was the first time someone in my office said to me, “FishFace, have you seen this video…”. It was a break-out of internet culture into mainstream culture in a way I’d never experienced before. A few years later, 2017, I was in a sports club where most of the members were a fair bit younger than me, and they were all talking constantly in memes and I (as someone who had been talking in memes to my fellow terminally-online nerd friends forever) felt instantly at home - but I realised that the change had truly happened; internet memes and culture were no longer the niche preserve of nerds, but were well and truly mainstream.
So at the same time as I was enjoying having “my culture” something I could share with more people and be understood, there was a sad aspect that it was no longer special either.
Harlem Shake -> Gangnam Style -> …Despacito maybe?
I had the same experience. This guy truly ruled the world for a brief moment. I don’t think anything has come close to how this broke out, I guess because it all became so normal after that.


