Chipmunking

"Chipmunking" or "Chipmunk versions" are songs that have been sped up (or just had the pitch changed directly) to be high pitched, done easily with Audacity. The name derives from "Alvin and the Chipmunks", a cartoon show created in the late 1950's about three chipmunks that sung with high pitched voices.

This cartoon was eventually adapted to a movie, released in 2007, that increased the Chipmunks popularity even more.

Popularity on Youtube

A while after the release of this movie, along with its sequel "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squequel", it became popular on Youtube to remix different songs by making them high pitched or "Chipmunking" it. These videos were called the "Chipmunk Version", and usually had a picture from the Chipmunk's 2007 movie to go along with it. The songs used ranged from current to classic.

There are vast amounts of them, too. Google search comes up with over 1.5 million results just for "chipmunk version".

Kesha's "Tik Tok" Chipmunk version has over 15 million views, which seems to be the most viewed one at the moment.

And some others..

Even some of the most recent songs have been chipmunked, which shows that meme is still alive and well.

Due to the meme's extreme popularity, as long as there are new songs to chipmunk, this meme will continue to live on.