Top 5 Viral Trends And What Made Them Viral

From ‘Charlie bit my finger’ to ‘surprised kitty’ to ‘sneezing panda’, we have seen a lot of videos go viral in the last couple of years. But which are the ones that got the most attention? Which ones had the most views? Why did they go viral in first place? We’ve asked the same questions too!

We’ve taken a look at the top 5 viral trends each year from 2011 to 2015 and observed what made each of it garner the attention that it did:

1. 2011: Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’

Rebecca Black was previously unknown when she rose to her one-hit-wonder fame. One of the reasons that her video got so famous was because several known twitter celebrities tweeted about her video (One of them even mentioning how it was the ‘worst video ever made’). Her song, even though it had a catchy tune, got the reputation of a bad production and people started perceiving it as something that’s not celebrated but rather mocked. Rebecca Black’s Friday today stands at 94 million views on Youtube. Watch her video here.

2. 2012: Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’

Gangnam Style is a Korean song that went viral in 2012. In fact, it was the first video on YouTube to ever hit 1 billion views. The video became very popular simply because it was quirky, different and had a very catchy tune. The fact that it came from a country we don’t usually hear about added to its popularity.

People liked it for its funny dance as well as silliness, all depicted in the video. Another reason that the video became so popular was because of ‘word of mouth’. This was the only reason that the video hit 1 billion views in the first place. Think about the first time you watched the video. It’s probably because your friend asked you, “Hey, have you watched this crazy video.

3. 2013: Harlem Shake

You may remember the Harlem Shake from 2013, when it blew up the internet. It became an internet sensation with 70 million videos from other users uploaded in just one month. On February 2^nd, 2013, the first Harlem Shake video got released. It featured five boys moving to some music, and when the beat drops, they all start dancing, jumping, flailing their hands and feet around in an uncoordinated manner.

The Harlem Shake became so popular that people went to different heights of doing the Harlem Shake even when underwater or while skydiving. Why it became so popular, you may ask… well, it was because of the catchy music and also because it could be done by any group anywhere in the world! Watch the best of the Harlem Shake here.

4. 2014: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS foundation in the USA came up with a very interesting and viral idea to spread awareness about the disease. They asked people to donate money, or do the ice bucket challenge, donate and nominate friends and family to do the same. The ice bucket challenge simply involved people standing in front of a camera, completely dry, and pouring a bucket of ice cold water on themselves. The viral content was generated from the reactions different people had when water was thrown on them.

It also went viral because a lot of celebrities also took part in the challenge – Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Selena Gomez and many more were a part of the challenge. As a result of the campaign, the ALS foundation raised a lot of money for the research and development for the cure of ALS. Watch Bill Gate’s famous ALS Ice Bucket Challenge here.

5. 2015: The (Blue) Dress

In 2015, the whole world was confused and curious about one dress. A Tumblr user posted a low resolution picture of a dress that was actually black and blue, but in the picture, the dress looked white and gold. People started analysing the situation getting into long debates about this dress. This dress truly went viral. There were hundreds of articles written on the dress and its unknown colour. Celebrities also started talking about what they thought about the dress.

Kim Kardashian asked her Twitter followers to choose a side – black and blue or white and gold. The reason why this dress went viral was the mystery behind its color and because it was not easily solved. But the result was, to people’s amusement, that the dress was indeed black and blue! Read more about it here.

Conclusion

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