"Somebody That I Used to Know" (Tronicbox '80s Remix) by Gotye ft. Kimbra, Sunday, May 29, 2022 (partial repost)

A few years ago, YouTuber Nick Canovas, or Mic the Snare, made a video about the characteristics of meme songs and why some songs go viral. Not all meme songs are created equal. Some annoyingly catchy songs get stuck in enough heads to become a hit. These are so bad that they’re almost good. Then there are old songs that become renewed for the TikTok generation. These songs had a solid presence before taking off on social media. Some of these songs are laughable in a modern context—the swanky sax solo from “Careless Whisper,” Rick Astley’s shoulder dance when he sings “Never Gonna Give You Up.” But some meme songs are what music critics still call legitimately good. A-ha’s “Take On Me,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” and today’s song can be legitimately enjoyed with an extra dose of irony once it has soundtracked a meme.

YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CUT ME OFF. In the spring and summer of 2012, I did a lot of driving. I had to get my paperwork together to go to Korea, and I couldn't hack American bureaucracy by using the mail or courier services. Two trips to Johnson City, Tennessee to get stamps from the state in which I graduated college, two trips to Atlanta, and countless trips to around Western North Carolina to get the paperwork together, I listened to a lot of radio. I listened to the radio mostly because I had an old radio-turner device to play my iPod on the stereo. My 2001 Toyota Corolla came with a CD player, that had died some time before. If I drove a long distance, the radio stations would change, and I would have to find a new frequency to broadcast my iPod. However, this got old, so I just listened to the radio. At that time, I remember a few songs that would play constantly--Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," "Lights," by Ellie Goulding, and "Somebody That I Used to Know." This song will always remind me of those trips in early summer, before my life changed forever.

Old television set with fake wood 
encasing, popular in the ‘80s
source: Flickr, photographer Seth Keen.

YOU CAN GET ADDICTED TO A CERTAIN KIND OF SADNESS. The YouTube channel Middle 8 released a video giving the history of this “Somebody That I Used to Know” and a musical breakdown of why it became such an ear worm. The Gotye original is built on a 1957 Luis Bonfiá jazz instrumental, “Seville.” The song topped both the Alternate chart and the Hot 100, a rare occurrence as the Alternative chart boasts very few pop songs. But while it may have been the elements of “Seville” that got listeners addicted to this art pop song, remixes and covers that take the song in a completely different musical direction may give us the same enduring effect despite only the lyrics staying mostly intact. Take for example YouTuber Hildegard von Blingin' “bardcore" version of the song. Bardcore is a style of music imitating Medieval/Renaissance music, using older instruments and often adapting lyrics to sound more Chaucerian. With the line: “send a wagon for thy minstrel and refuse my letters" the spirit of the song is transformed into an earlier time. It’s witty, but there’s enough homage to the original spirit of a break-up song. Today’s song also loses many of the element that made the original great. Instead of the latin guitar and the xylophone which help to carry the original song listeners are treated to electronic drums, synths, and a raucous guitar solo--all absent from the original tune.  Essentially, the Tronicbox remix is a meme of the original song. This song might have you looking through the garage for some old VHS tapes beside the lacquered wooden vacuum-tubed TV set. But before you book that perm and change to bigger rims on your glasses, just consider how ridiculous you'll look. This song brings to mind everything awful about the '80s, and that's why it's so fun. 

Tronicbox ‘80s Remix:

 

Original Music Video:

Original song by Gotye