Are Memes the new Graffiti?

For those unfamiliar with the concept; memes are often some form of visual documents acting in a viral behaviour or style. They are often handmade and arrive in a random or spontaneous form, kind of like opinionated artwork that reacts to a major event or trend in pop-culture. It goes without saying that they can be considered a form of expression, perhaps to the extent of how Graffiti is created.

This Drake Meme carries a message about how a Teacher’s authoritarian discipline is either outdated, incorrect or can be misused.. The importance is how the Meme is used to communicate a narrative within a social group.

More importantly, they have been well documented as a means of social interaction that uses a narrative helping to carry with it a form of popular critique amongst those initiated within a certain social group or demographic. Sometimes these messages might have a discreet or coded form of communications similar to Basil Bernstein’s [1971]  restricted or elaborated code.

Dependent on the subject matter, they can be an easy way to send an important message ( to the right audience).

A Drake Meme about how those from outside groups can misunderstand symbols and interaction within youth culture.

How do Memes work?

The best way to answer this is to use an example of a successful ongoing Meme:

Drake’s Hotline Bling music video as seen above.

This meme has been around for a while now. Although the specific visual imagery is obviously taken from a Drake;s 2016 ‘Hotline Bling’ music video: The structure can be extrapolated and used as an external narrative with its own context.

For a further explanation hear the Director of the video explain further here.

The way Memes are constructed often using a familiar structure. In the example of the Drake Meme, certain images were used from a dance sequence in the video. Presumably, because the relevant stages of the sequence contained strong contrasting or opposing positions, they combined to make what is called in photography; a juxtaposition.

Creators of the meme have used this juxtaposition to carry others forms of narrative when taken out of context and provided with a new meaning. Images alone taken from the video cannot provide a context outside of the intended original purpose i.e. Drake dancing in a room. However, when combined with other factors, often carrying a subtext that helps form an external agenda; it changes the entire context of the sequence.

In the world of Semiotics, this action would be considering moving from a denotative to a connotative meaning. (Roland Barthes [1966 ]). The unfiltered Drake video was the denotative (original) meaning and the same sequences used in a meme with additional words is the connotative ( new) meaning. Barthes sometimes referred to a third stage, an entirely new area of visual suggestions that he called ‘Myth’. This was the combination of both denotative and connotative meaning but became something bigger. 

A classic example of this is how a Red Rose flower has been used so much over the years in advertising and promotions by Florists, it has become a symbol of Valentines Day. Now, when you see a Red Rose, it carries a connotative meaning of Romance. Rather than the true denotative meaning –  a literal flower. Now, when people see a Red Rose it can take people’s perception straight to the idea of romance ( or even more). This is what Barthes referred to as ‘Myth’ because a flower is not exactly love or sex. Neither is an image of one, it is just contained in our minds as an understanding.

This ‘understanding’ is an external context with its own agenda that eventually becomes synonymous with the image.

With so many Memes using images from Drake’s video, the actual images of Drake himself has now become understandable more popular as it is also well known. The more an image is used, the more recognised it becomes, carrying the additional meaning of the various memes. It gathers a new meaning and creates a myth that is carried along with the Meme. Thanks to Memes, Myth today is almost a form of speech.

Memes have been known to carry such a strong message that they can also be used to coordinate and rally political support and unity in certain. Whilst the true effect of influence is difficult to measure in ‘adult’ politics. Rather worryingly, they played a large part amongst the varied circumstances that led to the success of the 2016 Trump campaign. Politico magazine wrote an interesting article about the Meme Wars that supposedly went on in the 2016 presidential Trump campaign.

Hence why we, the people need to ‘Seize the memes of production’.