Caramelldansen

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"Caramelldansen"
Supergott Album
Song by Caramell
Album Supergott
Released November 2001
Genre Bubblegum dance
Language Swedish
Length 3:30 (original)

2:55 (speedycake remix/sped up version)
Supergott track listing
"Caramelldansen"
(1)		 "Vad Heter Du?"
(2)
"Caramelldansen"
"Caramelldansen" chorus (Original Version).
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"Caramelldansen" (Swedish for The Caramell Dance) is the first track of the album Supergott released in November 2001 by the Swedish music group Caramell.

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 imitating rabbit ears), and the chorus of the sped up version of the song "Caramelldansen" sung by Malin and Katia from Swedish music group Caramell. The sped up version of the song is now known as "Caramelldansen Speedycake Remix".

Contents

[edit] Internet phenomenon

Animation loop from the visual novel Popotan, used in the internet meme known as "Caramelldansen".

[edit] Background

Popotan first appeared as a Japanese PC game on December 12, 2002. After the anime was aired from July 17, 2003 to October 2, 2003,[1] short GIF animations clips were created from the opening of the game and posted on the internet.[citation needed] It was not long before parts from the introduction of the PC game were captured too. Caramelldansen is also known as the "Uma uma dance"(ウマウマダンス) in Japan.[2]

As the meme gained popularity, artists and fans started to copy the animation and include other characters performing the dance. The first ones were based only on the GIF animation loop. After Caramelldansen was released, most of the later animations were based on it. The real boom of the meme began at the end of 2007 in Japan (formally known as the "Uma uma Boom") where an explosion of different Caramelldansen versions appeared first in Japanese video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga[3] and later reposted in YouTube by the original authors or by fans.

[edit] 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.[4][5][6][7][8]

Caramelldansen is known in Japan as "Uma uma dance" (ウマウマダンス), because of the song chorus misheard lyrics (soramimi) of "u-u-ua-ua", ウッーウッーウマウマ (u- u- umauma, "uma" is suggested to mean "yummy", "nice" or "horse" in Japanese). The title sometimes adds (ﾟ∀ﾟ) to the end. Also part of the misheard lyrics "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" ("Dance with us, clap your hands") make reference to "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" ("(I) don't want any Balsamic vinegar after all" in the Kansai dialect) so the song has a different interpretation in Japanese than the original Swedish lyrics.[9]

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 songs, followed by a single and album dedicated to the Caramell band.[10]

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 his song "Have A Nice Day" the last one who entered that chart three years ago.[11][12][13][14]

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 in September 16 a single with the English version of the song called "Caramelldancing".[15] A German version of the song, "Caramelltanzen", was released on April 15, 2009.

This release was followed by the change of the original Caramell group concept. In Japan, Malin and Katia were replaced by their anime character counterparts, and for the original Swedish release they are 3 anime like girls called "Caramellagirls".[16][17] The idea of this 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.[18][19] "We are definitely not disappointed and we were never able to sing the song at this pace", said Katia Löfgren. "We do not know who developed the dance, but it is simple and is apparently very well-liked in Japan", said Malin Sundström.

While the group Caramell disbanded in 2002, the popularity of this internet meme their music started to spread widely across the Internet. Malin Sundström, one of the former singers of the group, 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" Myllylä, responding to questions posed by the NHK, said that he first learned of the dance on YouTube. When asked if he does the dance himself, he responded [20] "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 learn [sic] my family and my friends to make them dance. I like it. It's very funny."

[edit] Media

After 2008 official releases of the song and animation from this meme started to appear.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]

[edit] Music (Japan)

  • Uma Uma Dekiru Trance wo Tsukutte Mita ("Tried to make a trance you can Uma Uma to" ウマウマできるトランスを作ってみた) (Album - April 16, 2008)
  • U-u-uma uma[Maxi] (ウッーウッーウマウマ[Maxi]) (Single - May 21, 2008)
  • U-u-uma uma[Speed] (ウッーウッーウマウマ(゜∀゜)SPEEDアルバム) (Album - June 18, 2008)

[edit] Music (Sweden)

  • Supergott Speedy Mixes (Album - May 1, 2008)
  • Caramelldansen Maxi (Single - June 25, 2008)
  • Caramelldancing (Single - September 16, 2008)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Popotan (TV)". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2082. Retrieved on 2008-07-25. 
  2. ^ Video documental of Caramelldansen popularity in Japan.
  3. ^ Japanese page Niconico showing a large number of Caramelldansen versions
  4. ^ Caramelldansen Around the World
  5. ^ Caramelldansen at Anime Convention
  6. ^ Miku Hatsune(Vocaloid Mascot) performing caramelldansen
  7. ^ Miku Hatsune performing Caramelldansen for ARToolKit test
  8. ^ Star Wars Storm Trooper doing Caramelldansen in Tokyo
  9. ^ Video documentary of Caramelldansen popularity in Japan.
  10. ^ Japanese Caramelldansen discography
  11. ^ - Caramelldansen at number one on the Japanese International chart
  12. ^ - Caramelldansen at number sixteen on the Japanese combined chart
  13. ^ - oricon.co.jp music charts rank for Caramelldansen
  14. ^ - zip-fm.co.jp music charts rank for Caramelldansen
  15. ^ Swedish Caramelldansen discography
  16. ^ - New Carammel Japanese concept
  17. ^ - New Carammel Swedish concept
  18. ^ - Article(Swedish) - Caramelldansen hit and interview to Malin and Katia
  19. ^ - Youtube search for caramelldansen
  20. ^ Juha "Millboy" Myllylä. (September 2008). The Net Star. NHK. Event occurs at 23:05. 
  21. ^ Uma uma soramimi compilation track list
  22. ^ www.jcast.com - Article about Caramelldansen
  23. ^ www.itmedia.co.jp - Article about uma uma CD
  24. ^ www.barks.jp - Article about uma uma CD
  25. ^ www.barks.jp - Uma uma CD track list
  26. ^ Official page of uma uma cd
  27. ^ QUAKE HOLDINGS INC. Uma Uma cd page
  28. ^ Uma uma Speed up track list
  29. ^ http://caramell.nu/?page=media&subpage=music&album=caramelldancing

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelldansen"
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