This is the story of the video I played in the CSI classroom in response to Professor Soysal's fascinating lecture about youth culture and globalization. It seems an interesting example of the phenomenon that he identified especially with Rap and Hip-Hop, but in this case, it is a case of Techno/Dance music. It is a kind of viral culture or "meme," which has spread seemingly on its own from contact to contact (it doesn't hurt that it was shown around the world on CNN!) -- C. Lavender.
In 2003, a Moldovan band called O-Zone released a song, "Dragostea Din Tei," in Romania (original O-Zone video) (a Google.com search for the phrase "'Dragostea Din Tei'" yields around 2,040,000 hits).
It became a big hit in dance clubs throughout Europe and then in the U.S. -- it was so popular that it was immediately covered by an Italian group, Haiducii, and was converted into ringtones for cellphones (A Google.com search for the phrase "'Dragostea Din Tei' ringtone" yields around 217,000 hits).
Then an American youth named Gary Brolsma decided to make a video for his friends of himself lip-synching to the song. He sent it to some friends who uploaded it and encouraged others to view it (See it here).
Quickly news of Brolsma's video spread, under the term "Numa Numa," a phrase from the chorus of the song (A Google.com search for the phrase "'Numa Numa'" yields around 301,000 hits).
Soon Brolsma's video spawned imitations, as well as depictions of its ubiquitousness, such as this middle school classroom breaking into song and dance while watching Brolsma's video. In addition, a number of new versions of the original O-Zone video and Brolsma's video appeared in several formats, including Lego, flash animation, Japanese animation, and even a clip from the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. The website "Fresh Grounds" has an entire "Numa Numa" section.
In February, 2005, Gary Brolsma was interviewed by The New York Times, which chronicled his embarrassment at becoming an unwilling internet celebrity. See: Gary Brolsma in NYT.doc
