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Caramelldansen
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Caramelldansen
| cover = Caramelldansen.jpg
| alt =
| caption =Caramella Girls release cover, 2008
| type = single
| artist = Caramell
| album = Supergott
| language = Swedish
| released = November 2, 2001
| format =
| recorded = June 2001
| studio = Playhouse Studios (Stockholm, Sweden)
| venue =
| genre =
| length =
| label = Remixed Records
| writer = Jorge "Vasco" Vasconcelo and Juha "Millboy" Myllyl
| producer =
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title =
| next_year =
| misc =
}}
"'Caramelldansen'" (Swedish for "'The Caramell dance'") is the first track and the second single from Swedish music group Caramell's second and final album 'Supergott' released on November 2, 2001. It became a famous Internet meme in the mid-2000s.
Composition
The original 2001 version of the song by Caramell is in the 4/4 time signature, has a tempo of 138 beats per minute and is in the key of E major. However, the more recent 2008 remix version by Caramella Girls has been sped up (in the sense of nightcore) to a tempo of 165 beats per minute and is in the key G major.
Internet phenomenon
The meme started as a fifteen frame Flash animation loop showing Mai and Mii, characters of the Japanese visual novel 'Popotan', doing a hip swing dance with their hands over their heads to imitate rabbit ears, and the chorus of a sped up version of the song.
Background
'Popotan' first appeared as a Japanese PC game on December 12, 2002. After the anime was aired from July 17 to October 2, 2003, short GIF animations clips were created from the opening of the game and posted on the internet. It was not long before parts from the introduction of the PC game were also captured.In late 2005, a 19.3852% sped-up version of the song was posted by "Speedycake" to 4chan. In the same year, its chorus part was combined with the animation loop and posted to 4chan by a "Sven from Sweden" (Sven does not recall using Speedycake's file, but the amount of speedup is identical). As the Caramelldansen video gained popularity, it became a meme. Artists and fans started to copy the animation and include other characters performing the dance. Its boom began at the end of 2007 in Japan (known as the "Uma uma Boom") where an explosion of different Caramelldansen iterations appeared in the Japanese video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga.
The meme soon after spread to YouTube and became a global phenomenon. By 2008, one critic derided YouTube as a chasm filled with "endless versions of 'Caramelldansen'."
Popularity
The meme is not limited to the small Flash animation loops. 3D animation shorts have been released performing the dance, and live action videos made by fans. The idea of the new Swedish concept came from YouTube, showing more than 16,000 different versions of the original flash animation, including small loops, complete song shorts and live action videos.Caramelldansen is known in Japan as "Uma uma dance" (), because the chorus's lyrics "'u-u-ua-ua'" were misheard as ("u- u- umauma"; "uma" has been interpreted as . The Japanese title is sometimes written with the symbol () added to the end. Also, Japanese listeners have interpreted the lyrics, "'Dansa med oss, klappa era hnder'" ('"Dance with us, clap your hands"'), as "'Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de'" ("(I) don't want any Balsamic vinegar after all" in the Kansai dialect). Thus, the song has a different interpretation in Japan than in Sweden.
In April 2008, Japanese music distributor Quake Inc. gained the rights from the original Caramell producers, Remixed Records, to distribute the sped-up version of the original song in Asia, releasing first an album which included Caramelldansen and other popular meme songs at the time, this follows up an album sung by Toromi, the voice actor who played Mii in Popotan who sang her own version of the song, and follows a single and an album dedicated to the Swedish band. On May 25, 2008, Caramelldansen achieved number one in the international music chart in Japan for two weeks, and on June 2 managed to obtain number sixteen in the Japanese combined chart, beating Bon Jovi with their song "Have a Nice Day" the last one who entered that chart three years ago. One part of the song predicts its worldwide popularity.
On May 1, 2008, Remixed Records released the sped-up version of the original 'Supergott' album on Apple's iTunes Store. The album was called "Supergott Speedy Mixes". This was followed by the single "Caramelldansen Speedy Mixes" and on September 16 a single with the English version of the song called "Caramelldancing". A German version of the song, "Caramelltanzen", was released on April 15, 2009. On March 2, 2009, Caramelldansen was awarded single of the year (international section) in the 23rd Japan Gold Disc Award.
As the "U-u-uma uma[Maxi]" single was released in Japan on May 21, 2008, the original concept of the Caramell group changed. First in Japan, Malin Sundstrm and Katia Lfgren were replaced by their anime character counterparts, removing the rest of the band members, and later for the original Swedish release, all members were replaced by 3 anime-like girls called "Caramella Girls", two of which resemble the Japanese characters. Remixed Records has further rebranded all related releases on music platforms from Caramell to "Caramella Girls".
While the group Caramell disbanded in 2002, the group's music started to spread widely across the Internet thanks to the popularity of this Internet meme. Malin Sundstrm commented on the popularity of the meme: "We felt that it was time to move on; that one of our songs now may be a breakthrough is just a bonus." Caramell's Juha "Millboy" Myllyl, responding to questions from Japanese show Netstar NHK, said that he first learned of the dance on YouTube. When asked if he does the dance himself, he responded, "Yeah, well, the dance is very funny to do, so I used to do it every time, I mean in the shower, and I used to show my family and my friends to make them dance. I like it. It's very funny."
In July 2009, the Taiwanese gaming company Gamania launched an advertising campaign with the "Caramelldansen" song for the Japanese version of its online game 'Lucent Heart'. "Caramelldansen" has also been used in Japanese arcade games. On November 18, 2009, an interactive game version of the dance was released for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. On November 23, 2009, the team behind popular comedy site LoadingReadyRun performed the dance as part of a task in the Desert Bus charity appeal. The team chose to perform the dance to raise money for the charity Child's Play, founded by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik in 2003. The dance was also streamed by live web cam to those following the Desert Bus appeal through LoadingReadyRun and online gaming magazine 'The Escapist'. In August 2010, the American Disney Channel program 'Phineas and Ferb' used an imitation of the dance in their "Summer Belongs to You" special, during their characters' stop in Tokyo, Japan.
After the boom
On March 18, 2011, Caramella Girls launched their first original song as a virtual group, the song "Boogie Bam Dance" was recorded by Caramell's original vocalists Malin and Katia and is available in 3 different languages (English, Spanish, and German).
In October 2012, the band released the "Caramelldancing Remixes EP", which features remixes of the English version of the Caramelldansen song by Crazy 1, No Trixx, and DJ Triplestar.
In 2019, Remixed Records owner Giovanni Sconfienza retroactively changed the credits for Caramelldansen and its various remixes from Caramell to the Caramella Girls on digital streaming platforms including Spotify and iTunes, as well as the official Caramelldansen YouTube channel. YouTuber jan Misali released a video essay investigating this change in October 2021, with the aim of explaining the true authorship of the song. Sconfienza issued a copyright strike on the video in an attempt to suppress the information and delete Misali's channel. As of February 2022, the video has been restored.
In March 2022, the official Caramella Girls YouTube channel released a video clarifying "Who Wrote Caramelldansen?"
Media
After 2008, official releases of the song and animation from this meme started to appear and different language version were released.
Music
Japanese
* Uma Uma Dekiru Trance wo Tsukutte Mita ("Tried making a trance you can Uma Uma to" ) (Album April 16, 2008)
* ToroUma () (Album May 11, 2008)
* U-u-uma uma[Maxi] ([Maxi]) (Single May 21, 2008)
* U-u-uma uma[Speed] (()SPEED) (Album June 18, 2008)
* Caramelldansen (Official Japanese Version) (Single December 3, 2009) – A soramimi
Swedish
* Supergott (Album - November 16, 2001)
* Supergott Speedy Mixes (Album May 1, 2008)
* Caramelldansen Maxi (Single June 25, 2008)
English
* Caramelldancing (Single September 16, 2008)
* Caramelldancing (Christmas Version) (Single November 26, 2009)
* Caramelldancing Remixes EP (Single - October 30, 2012)
* Caramelldansen 2018 (Official) (Single - May 22, 2018)
* Carmelladansen 4K (single - March 27, 2021)
German
* Caramelltanzen (Single April 15, 2009)
Spanish
* Caramelldansen Espaol 4K (Single - April 2, 2021)
Portuguese
* Caramelldansen em Portugus (Not released)
Television
* TV commercial for Gamania's 'Lucent Heart' video game.
* Clubland TV has the track with original Swedish lyrics on the playlist with a partially 3D animated video with the Caramella Girls, the Music Video was internationally released in Theaters with the 2008 Pixar Film 'WALL-E' replacing 'Presto' .
* 'Phineas and Ferb': "Summer Belongs to You" references the dance when Phineas, Ferb, Isabella and the gang arrive in Tokyo on their way around the world in one day.
Video games
* In 'Eden Eternal', a free-to-play MMORPG from X-Legend and Aeria Games, the Dance 1 character animation is identical to the Caramelldansen.
* In 'Lucent Heart', another free-to-play MMORPG from Gamania and Beanfun!, Dance 6's animation is identical to the Caramelldansen, and a remix to the song is also played.
* In 'Sanctum', a first person shooter/Tower Defence game, the protagonist may randomly perform the dance upon victory of a stage.
* In the 'World of Warcraft' "Mists of Pandaria" expansion pack, the choreography for the female Pandaren dance emote is derived from this meme.
* In 'Smite', the character Neith performs this dance in the after-game victory screen.
* It appears in 'maimai' as a playable song.
* The song's Speedycake remix is featured in Konami's 'Dance Dance Revolution' series, beginning with the 2013 release. It was also available in the 2014 release, but it was removed on March 7, 2016.
* The song was one of the few audio files included on Roblox before users could upload their own audio files.
* In the popular MOBA League of Legends, one of the skins of Sona (DJ Sona) performs the dance in one of her taunts.
* In 'Destiny 2', a first person shooter from Bungie, the emote "Cat Ear Dance" with the flavor text "Nyah!" is identical to the Caramelldansen dance.
* In 'Phantasy Star Online 2', a free-to-play MMO from Sega, the Type 2 variant of the "Animal" emote is based on the Caramelldansen dance.
* In osu!, a free to play rhythm game produced by Dean "peppy" Herbert. It can be downloaded to be used as one of the game's [https://osu.ppy.sh/wiki/en/Beatmap beatmaps].
See also
* List of Internet phenomena
* 2 Pht Hn
* Loituma Girl
* Nyan Cat
References
Buy Caramelldansen now from Amazon
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