As Internet (and especially social media) have become more and more popular, music has begun making its way around the world in record time. It’s not surprising that many artists and bands now get their start via the Internet, given that it’s fairly cheap to use and promote your songs, garnering the attention of record labels if you’re very lucky.

But the Internet is also great for circulating music that makes us laugh, makes us cry, or even makes us put our hands over our ears (but not before we share it with our friends so that we can commiserate). Here below is a small playlist of some of the songs and memes that have made it big because of the Internet:

Gangnam Style – PSY

Can’t leave this one off the list! Even the radio stations in my little section of North Carolina played this dancey little K-pop tune, which also popularized the dance (and many hilarious attempts at imitating it).

Link to Video
Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley

I couldn’t directly embed this video, but the link above is the original 80s song from which all Rickroll memes spawned. 😀

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

You know what time it is. (I’ve always thought this would be a great official song for preschools everywhere… XD)

This is the infamous “Leekspin” meme; image is Inoue from the anime Bleach, song is “Ieva’s Polokka” by Loituma. As addictive as it is repetitive, this little song started as a website and grew quickly to an Internet phenomenon.

Link to Game
Surrealism (from Loops of Zen) – XGamer

A user by the screenname of XGamer created this darkly ethereal tune for a Flash game called Loops of Zen, and the song went on to become just about as popular as the game.

Call on Me – Eric Prydz

Using just the chorus from “Valerie” by Steve Winwood, Eric Prydz created this upbeat little dance track, and it caught the Internet on fire soon after.

Red Solo Cup – Toby Keith

You can’t watch this video or listen to this song without snickering–it’s a hilarious (and eerily accurate) depiction of a casual party, complete with (you guessed it) red Solo cups for the drinks.

I Dreamed a Dream (performed by Susan Boyle)

We all laughed with the judges and the audience as Boyle introduced herself…and then, our jaws dropped along with everyone else’s as she began to sing. :’)

Canon Rock – JerryC

An absolutely amazing arrangement of Canon in D by Pachelbel–adding a heavy metal guitar to the graceful, liquid chords gives this placid little song a modern, rockin’ edge. 😀

Moskau – Dschinghis Khan

Nobody on the Internet seemed to know what this was or who was singing it for the longest time, but it seemed we ALL knew this disco dance song!

Numa Numa (also known as Dragostea Din Tei, by the Romanian band O-Zone)

As with Moskau, no one seemed to know the name of this song, the band’s name, or anything–we all got to know this song because of one internet user who happened to record himself singing (funnily) along with the song. 🙂

Friday – Rebecca Black

Yes, yes, I know, cringe in horror and run away from the computer screen if you must, but this song did get popular mainly because of the Internet (and because of all the parodies surrounding it, too!).

Threw It On the Ground – The Lonely Island

One of this band’s many online hits, this song is a satire of the “thug” and “gangsta” attitudes as much as it is funny for the sight gags in it.

Tunak Tunak Tun – Daler Mehndi

This Indian artist was critiqued so much for his videos starring beautiful women as dancers that he decided to play a trick on his critics; he did this song’s entire music video using only himself as all the “dancers,” with all the latest in video-editing and green-screen technologies. It soon became his largest hit because of the Internet. Funny how that worked! 😛