Now and since time immemorial, there is a constant state of change, and the meaning of events, things, people and everything else is determined by us. We assign meaning to things to the point of denigrating them until we deem it appropriate: this is what the existentialist would say. More relevant to the essay, it is not surprising that the meaning of a song can also change over time. The goal of this article is to reinvestigate and analyze the reception history of the famous 1980s pop hit. For the sake of play and tension, I will refrain from stating the name of said song until the final part of the article. Until then the song will be called the song. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Just entering the music arena in 1987, the title song was part of the debut album of the artist not known to most people. Interestingly, it was only a year later that the song gained fame and notoriety. The narrative implies that it was only in late 1988 when a certain famous DJ spun the song on his turntables in front of a mass of people, this was DJ Larry Levan. This is when the song really took hold and started its momentum. Very interestingly, we should note that in 1988, our focal song replaced George Michael's controversial hit, Father Figure. The artist's songs would debut at the top of the charts for the remainder of the year, while the focal song specifically spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Top 100; one thing to note is that the song that replaced our main song would also be by the same artist. Unanimously, the title song took first place in various charts around the world. Ultimately, it is a recurring question in music whether the artist was/is appreciated for the type of musical pieces he made or for his personality. In other words, did people really like his music or were they just following a fad/trend? In any case, we can say that at that time he was well liked and well received by the people, given that: Our main song was part of his debut album and reached number 1 for thirteen weeks. The song that replaced our main song was another song by the same artist. Most of the songs released by the artist have peaked in the top 10 of most charts. Since the advent of the Internet has happened in recent years, there isn't much opinion online about our song being 80's provenance. We can however extrapolate that the general population had a positive view of the artist and his songs. As time passed, the song's fame would fade and it would become part of radio stations and nostalgia compilations. It was absent from the public eye until 2007, when a social anomaly occurred that caused the hit song to be resurrected in a similar fashion to Frankenstein. In pop culture in 2007, the video game Grand Theft Auto IV was announced, and a user in the video game section of 4chan claimed to have a preview of the game. When people clicked on the video link, they were taken to a video of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up, our central song for the essay. The song gained notoriety in the late 2000s, ceasing its previous status as a renowned pop dance song to hold a hit. new status of a joke intended to deceive and annoy a person. The meme spread like wildfire and everyone started incorporating it in various ways. It's become one of those social phenomena that started out as a funny gag butthey became a nuisance over time. With the advent of Internet culture, it was usually these people who started the joke. Simply put, it was an inside joke for young people because when the younger generation heard it, it was like a joke and like a meme. We can say this for a few key moments where the song was played publicly or brought to light. The first was during a Mets game in 2008, where people could vote on which song would be played during the eighth inning of the game. One source mentions that the fact that Never Gonna Give You Up won first place for the Mets game song created confusion in management. The second was during the 2008 MTV European Music Awards where he was voted, via electronic voting, as the best act ever; the song had been released 20 years ago at this point. The third was during the Macy's Day Parade, when a cartoon-themed float was performing their songs only to be interrupted by a live performance by Rick Astley; sources say Astley was well received for praising his good sense of humour. Around the late 2000s through the early 2010s, that's when public disdain towards the song developed. By this point, it had been overdone and oversaturated, just as it had lost momentum in the 1980s. Relevantly, this was a meme. In other words, it was a joke among the “kids”. When big brands started playing with the meme and capitalizing on it, it turned out like any joke would if a parent said this to their child: it became corny and the loss is a fun factor. I believe that the phenomena related to the oversaturation of the song through memes contributed to its second downfall. It got to the point that Rick didn't do anything musical in the public eye for a long time. Over the past few years to date, society has progressed and with the trend of times, we can ask ourselves, how is the song viewed Today? Both Rick and his song are seen in a genuine light and with authenticity. Now that he's older, he's back making music independently. It seems like his point of view is to make music because he wants to; he even jokes that no one would listen to him, but he still arrived to commemorate his fiftieth birthday after realizing his luck and gratitude for how things have turned out over the years. The general discussion is that he is a sportsman and shows love for the work he has done at 80 years old. Rick shows respect and gratitude for his work in the 80s stating that it contributes to who he is as a person and as an artist. To contrast Rick's reaction, there is a common discourse regarding the Smashing Pumpkins singer about how he hates and loathes playing some of their hits that originally made them famous. The speech according to the music video of the song says that it has been liked 3 million times and disliked. 141,000 times with a total number of views of 4.5 million. The relatively recent comments all contain positive messages. Most of them are generic positive statements exclaiming love for the song. Particularly interesting is how most comments convey the idea that Never Gonna Give You Up is a really good song and always has been. In 2017, Rick gave an impromptu performance with Foo Fighters during one of their live concerts. Talk of the video says it was well received with comments on how Rick is a good sport, some commenting on how they would have liked a studio version, others saying how Rick is still relevant even to this day. In the video you would see the crowd of rockers and rockers shouting the lyrics to a pop song by.