Internet memes are cultural units of digital multimedia content that are spread intensely through the network in a process in which they are intervened, remixed, adapted and transformed by their users over and over again. Its dispersion follows structures, rules, narratives and arguments that are nuanced, intensified or constantly changing, giving rise to different digital conversations. After a general introduction to memetics, in this work some aspects of the meme Cover Heavy Cumbia are analyzed in depth. In this one, prosumers edit images of concert scenes of hard rock bands like Metallica, Korn or Guns N ‘Roses, over music from Latin American local scenes such as cumbia, ballad, Cordoban quartet, narcocorridos or band music from Mexico. The in-depth analysis of their strategies of audiovisual synchronization of such heterogeneous materials will allow us to fully understand their internal functioning, their playful mechanisms, their hooks of cognitive interaction and the paradoxical, intermittent, reflexive or discursive readings that they foster. This is the first of several articles in which fundamental aspects in audiovisual music memetics are addressed.
Keywords:
Internet meme, remix, digital remix, plebeian music, videomeme, memetics, digital music recycling
López-Cano, R. (2020). “The Who live in Sinaloa”: Musical video memes, punctum, cognitive counterpoint and oblique readings. Revista Musical Chilena, 74(233), 151–173. Retrieved from https://revistamusicalchilena.uchile.cl/index.php/RMCH/article/view/51186
