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Nyan Cat

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Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat is the name of a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animation of a cartoon cat with the body of a Pop-Tart, flying through space, and leaving a rainbow trail behind it.[1]

Origin

Animated GIF

On April 2, 2011, the GIF animation of the cat was posted by 25-year-old Christopher Torres of Dallas, Texas, who uses the name "prguitarman", on his website LOL-Comics.[2] Torres explained in an interview where the idea for the animation came from: "I was doing a donation drive for the Red Cross and in-between drawings in my Livestream video chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a “Pop Tart” and a “cat”." In response, he created a hybrid image of a Pop-Tart and a cat, which was developed a few days later into the animated GIF."[3]

The song

The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell"[4] to the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga on July 25, 2010.[5] The song features the UTAU Momone Momo, and its title refers to the Japanese word for the sound cats make, "nyā" (にゃあ).[6]

A user named "Momo Momo" ("もももも") uploaded a remixed version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", adding the repeating vocal sound "nyan" throughout the song, to Nico Nico Douga on January 31, 2011.[7] The added vocal sound was created using the singing synthesizer software UTAU with the voice preset, "Momone Momo" (error: {{nihongo}}: Japanese or romaji text required (help)).[8] The UTAU voice preset, "Momone Momo", gets its name from the kanji "momo" 桃, meaning "peach", and "ne" 音, meaning "sound".[9] The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was Fujimoto Momoko (藤本萌々子), a Japanese woman who lives in Tokyo.[10]

YouTube video

YouTube user "saraj00n" combined the cat animation with the "Momo Momo" version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", and uploaded it to YouTube on April 5, 2011, three days after Torres had uploaded his animation, giving it the title "Nyan Cat".[1][3] The video rapidly became a success after being featured on websites including G4 and CollegeHumor. Christopher Torres said: "Originally, its name was Pop Tart Cat, and I will continue to call it so, but the Internet has reached a decision to name it Nyan Cat, and I’m happy with that choice, too."[3]

Popularity

The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place in Business Insider's top ten viral videos of April 2011, with 7.2 million total views.[11] The original YouTube video has received over 53 million views As of December 19, 2011. Due to its popularity, many new remixes and cover versions have been made, some hours long. There are also ringtones, wallpapers and applications created for operating systems including Windows 7,[12] Nokia,[13] iPhone, iPad,[14] Android,[15] HP webOS.[16] and Windows Phone 7.[17] On December 13, 2011, Nyan Cat Adventure was released onto the Xbox Live Indie Games market, and is the only officially licensed Nyan Cat game on Xbox.[18] Though "Nyan Cat Adventure" is made by 21st Street Games, the creators of "Techno Kitten Adventure," the games are different[19]

Christopher Torres has criticized the website nyan.cat, which features a similar-looking cat with the same background music. The site, which uses the .cat sponsored top-level domain, has been described by Torres as "plagiarized".[20][21]

Temporary DMCA takedown

On June 27, 2011, the original YouTube video was taken down from the site following a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint from someone claiming to be prguitarman, the creator of the GIF animation. Christopher Torres (prguitarman) immediately denied being the source of the complaint, and contacted Saraj00n and daniwell, who hold the copyright for the video and the song, in order to file a counter-complaint to YouTube. On June 28, 2011, the video was restored to YouTube. During the period that the video was unavailable, Torres received hate mail from people who wrongly believed that he was the person behind the DMCA takedown notice.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Nyan Cat original video on YouTube by saraj00n, April 5, 2011.
  2. ^ "Pop Tart / Nyan Cat! by prguitarman on LOL-comics, April 2, 2011". Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c "POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon "Nyan Cat"". Pop goes the Week. April 19, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  4. ^ "daniwell" is variously credited on the web as daniwellP and Daniwell-P; the account that uploaded the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" uses the name daniwell.
  5. ^ ニコニコ動画(原宿).【初音ミク】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【オリジナループ】. From nicovideo.jp July 25, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  6. ^ From Denshi Jisho. Dictionary definition of "nyā" (にゃあ). Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  7. ^ ニコニコ国際交流".【UTAU】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【桃音モモ】【ミクカバー】 ‐ ニコニコ動画(原宿). From nicovideo.jp, January 31, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  8. ^ Nyan Cat hit 10M views Vocaloidism, May 22, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  9. ^ Momo Momone - UTAU Wiki Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  10. ^ Momone Momo Official Channel YouTube. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  11. ^ "Top viral videos of April: What's A "Nyan Cat"?". May 3, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  12. ^ Brandrick, Chris (2011-07-13). "Nyan Cat Invades Windows 7, Dances Along Progress Bars". PCWorld. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
  13. ^ "Nyan Cat on the Nokia Cell Phone". Pdadevice.com. 2011-07-02. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
  14. ^ Dredge, Stuart (May 14, 2011). "Apps rush: Nutkin, Nyan Cat and more". The Guardian. London. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  15. ^ "Galactic Nyan Cat for Android". Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  16. ^ "Nyan Cat for HP webOS". Developer.palm.com. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  17. ^ "Nyan Cat strays into the Marketplace". wpcentral.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  18. ^ "Nyan Cat Adventure Game Debut" http://news.yahoo.com/nyan-cat-adventure-game-xbox-debut-130039118.html
  19. ^ "Nyan Cat Adventure (Xbox 360 – Indie Game) Review" The Gamerplex, 19 December 2011, http://thegamerplex.com/temp/nyan-cat-adventure-xbox-360-indie-game-review/
  20. ^ nyan.cat Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  21. ^ "Huy Hong: so tremendously humbled, thank you. Lies and thievery". prguitarman.tumblr.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  22. ^ "I did NOT file a Youtube Copyright Complaint". prguitarman.com. June 27, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
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