From Memes To Musicians: How Meme Creators Are Proving To Be More Than Just Comic Relief

Multifaceted creators are a common occurrence in Hollywood. Entertainers such as Donald Glover and Lady Gaga both showcase their talent in many fields, such as music, acting or even directing. As a general rule, those who have a tendency to create do not restrict themselves to a single craft, including those who create memes.

Many online content creators follow this principle, and there's been a trend towards a single creative medium in particular: music. The field of music has drawn in many of these creators who were initially known for memes, and looking at their critical success can give us some additional insight into the depth of talent in this world.

Perhaps some of the most well-known creators, Pewdiepie and Grandayy have each dipped into their love of the game Minecraft to flex their musical muscles. Pewdiepie has written massive hits like "Bitch Lasagna" and "Congratulations" during his feud with T-Series, but his iconic song from last fall, dedicated to one of his favorite games, is one of the best examples of this artistic phenomenon.

"Mine All Day," written by Pewdiepie with the background music of Dutch DJ Party In Backyard, currently has over 26 million views on YouTube and 10 million plays on Spotify. While not as huge as "Bitch Lasagna" or "Congratulations," it shows the prowess of a meme creator pushing into new creative direction.

Grandayy's big break was his Minecraft remix of Darude's “Sandstorm.” On his second channel, Grande1899, which is actually his original, he uses Dave’s Minecraft Note Block Studio to remix popular songs or post meme videos using the game's sounds.

Inspiration can come from beyond gaming too, as creators like NakeyJakey and Matt Watson have demonstrated. The two comedy creators have made music independent from a single source material with solid reception from fans. NakeyJakey is a creator whose primary content is talking-head-style breakdowns of media or concepts such as clothing in video games or online dating. His singles on Spotify, released under the more clothed name "Jakey," are a variety of songs that each has over 4 million plays, with "Moby Dick" currently standing tall at 14 million plays. Similarly, his friend Matt Watson, an online sketch comedian and host of the SuperMega podcast, released his bedroom pop EP Ouch!.

So far, the EP has garnered positive responses with the big hit being "Come Over" at over 400,000 plays on Spotify. In his AMA on /r/Indieheads, Matt described the experience and said:

“It was actually pretty terrifying making the leap from years of crude dick jokes and funny screams to releasing something 'serious.' I was VERY nervous that people would not take it seriously or just laugh it off as cringe. Luckily, so many people were incredibly supportive and now I fully feel like I jumped the hurdle of being able to do both! My advice would be, just do it. Don't take yourself too seriously, have fun.”

Despite their admirable success, the pair still isn't the most famous example of meme creators changing from online comedy to music, as Filthy Frank, who now makes music under the name Joji (George Miller), is easily the most notable example of this.

Filthy Frank is an icon of online sketch comedy with his videos being a mainstay in meme circles to this day. From his viral content, such as the Harlem Shake, to the whole universe of characters in his universe, Filthy Frank was one of the biggest creators in the mid-2010s. It shocked the online world when his last video "Francis of the Filth" dropped on September 27th, 2017.

However, in an interview with Billboard from 2017, Miller stated that he was leaving Filthy Frank behind and starting a new endeavor as "Joji." “It was a humor that I started when I was in high school … So naturally as I got older, I got tired of that humor. People's taste change. People's humor change.” With the partnership of 88Rising, Miller released his first EP as Joji with In Tongues as well as his debut album BALLADS 1 in 2018, which contained his hit song "SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK" (now at over 455 million plays on Spotify). Both of these releases garnered critical success and showed that the comedian was going to be one of those multifaceted creators who could jump media and reinvent themselves.

It might be that music is an easy type of jump, or maybe it's simply that creative people always want to expand their craft. Either way, these former meme creators show it can be done successfully. Of course, having an established base is also a good start, and most of the creators have grown an audience before testing the waters as a musician. But that does not diminish their talent either, as Jakey, Matt and Joji did not directly tie their old content to their new music. As such, it's a creative genre that is deep and wide enough for creators to wade into, so it's no wonder all the above were able to take the plunge.

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