Introduction

1In a context described by Frédéric Vanderberghe as one of “contemporary techno-capitalistic digitalization” (2006, p. 12), hyperlinked, hyperconnected, and hyperstimulated humans have given Meow Cat Memes a prominent place in their social-digital spaces.

2The presence of these four-legged pets interrogates humans’ relationship to animals and how this relationship is made visible on social-digital media. Cats are photographed, filmed, appropriated, memefied, and remixed. Cat memes, once a hallmark of geek culture, have become available to all.

4More precisely, these participatory practices call attention to the role images and music play in online interactions. This article suggests the existence of a musical turn affecting memetic processes and through which the attentional capital of content is enhanced. While emotions are central to participatory interactions of this kind, this is especially true of musical memes. The sharing of music within digital communities coincides with a convergence of individuals’ emotional states. Because of this, the emotional infectiousness of shared music can be described as an engine of virality. In bringing emotions to the fore and eliciting other reactions in return, sharing music is part of a viral memetic experience. It follows from this that musical emotion can be orchestrated by algorithms in the service of affective capitalism. Because music conveys affective values, it is a powerful indicator of what affects individuals: processed into data, it provides platforms and their economic partners with valuable capital. By exploring the different forms of interaction made possible by Meow Cat Memes, this paper examines the different ways in which they affect individuals.

How cats inspire musical worlds (and back?)

5For centuries, cats have been a source of inspiration in a number of musical genres (classical, jazz, popular). These musical “sites of memory,” to borrow from Pierre Nora (1984), have inspired an artistic production which sometimes embraces memetic processes.

6Some references, such as the “Cat Organ,” stretch back in time. In the 16^th century, during a religious celebration in Brussels, cats were locked up into separate narrow boxes to form a living pipe organ [fig.1]. Their tails were tied to cords, with each cord attached to a key. Pressing the instrument’s keys would pull the cats’ tails and produce a melody (or rather, cries of pain). Each animal had a distinctive pitch. In this first example, the material of musical creation is provided by cats’ actual meows.

Source: Gallica, BnF (ark:/12148/btv1b8434054p)

7Throughout the history of classical music, cats have also been a prominent figure. One example is the musical parody attributed to Gioachino Rossini, Cat Duet, a well-known piece for two sopranos in which the entirety of the lyrics are onomatopoeias of cat cries. This form of imitation, which transforms the singers into cats, accounts for the humour of the piece. Nowadays, the animalization of humans is also a common feature of Meow Cat Memes.

8In some cases, cats can be represented as musical instruments. On example is Sergei Prokofiev’s musical tale Peter and the Wolf, in which each protagonist is paired with an instrument. The instrument chosen to give musical life to the cat is the clarinet.

10Cats are also a mainstay of popular music. Depending on the genre, cats can be a source of admiration or affectionate mockery. The French singer Georges Brassens expressed deep affection for cats in his songs. Cats are also recurring protagonists in Anne Sylvestre’s Fabulettes. Other examples include Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle,” David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” and, circling back to French-language performers, Joe Dassin’s “Viens là joli minou,” Pow Wow’s “Le Chat,” and Steve Waring’s “Le Matou revient,” a song revisited by Aldebert with “Le Retour de Pépette.” Far from being exhaustive, this list highlights the ubiquity of cats in our collective musical imagination.

11In fictional worlds too, strong ties have been woven between cats and music. Various areas of popular culture—from video games to films and TV series—bring cats and music together. Examples include music from Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat, as well as the theme song from the TV show Téléchat (“Y’a qu’une télé, c’est téléchat”) and, in a different style, the song “Smelly Cat” performed by Phoebe on the TV show Friends. Here too, a complete list of musical references bearing a connection with a production where a cat is featured appears unnecessary, although it is worth noting that all are not equally popular. Big productions loom larger in our collective memory, and are therefore more likely to inspire memetic practices.

13Meow Cat Memes tap into these sites of memory to create new memetic forms defined by the melody of meows and/or by rhythm (and, by extension, dance). Remixing actual cat meows, animalizing songs, and/or reappropriating musical references are all primary ingredients of (inter-)musical memetics.

Music in the Meow Cat Memes research project

15As part of a research project that aims to identify the ingredients of virality (Simon, 2024), a corpus of 4,000 posts sharing cat images was delineated (mixed method combining daily monitoring and keyword queries on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, carried out over four months, from October 2021 to January 2022). Importantly, a fourth of this general corpus consisted of memes. The Instagram corpus consisted entirely of still images (without background music, a function added to the app in 2023). The TikTok corpus contained 1,306 posts, a majority of which featured background music. This (inter-)musicality, which is precisely the focus of our study, will be investigated in connection with the evolution of memes and of how they are shared.

Techno-discursive affordances and audio creation on TikTok

17Property of the Chinese company Bytedance, the TikTok app was first released in 2016, in China. In 2020, it became the most downloaded app in the world, ahead of Facebook. By 2022, it boasted close to two billion users. Its Chinese name, Douyin, means “short vibrato video.”

18TikTok allows users to create and share short videos in which audio plays a central role. The pluri-semiotic richness of this social-digital platform draws on visual and textual components, as well as on elements of sound (sound effects and/or music).

19To create “clips,” users select a soundtrack before adding an image. Audio can take several forms:

• Audio from TikTok’s royalty-free sounds library (sorted by theme: “game,” “chill,” “cute,” etc.; by musical genre: “electronic,” “hip hop,” etc.; or by popularity: “TikTok Viral” or “Trends” of the most viral tracks), potentially remixed;

• Audio that is automatically added because it is built into the shared video (original sound);

• Different original audio added to the video (original recording);

• Uncleared music, added by hijacking the platform’s functions (by sharing original sound that contains a well-known song, for instance—a kind of reverse affordance).

20Furthermore, users can choose between different ways of publishing content (private, public, business) and different ways of editing it (for the visual part: video, slideshow, filters; for the audio: voice effects, computer voice generator, trimming sound to the desired length, and settings, which include volume, speed, sound sync, etc.). Like animated GIFs (Gomez-Mejia, 2019), music runs on a loop and creates a sense of endlessness, ingraining tunes into people’s memories and driving their virality.

21The popularity of the social-digital platform TikTok can in large part be attributed to its use of sound. By harnessing music’s memetic potential, TikTok has given music a new status in the way content is shared. In everyday language, “memes” have come to refer to famous musical themes. The importance of music is largely due to the “trends” showcased by the platform via its sound-specific search engine. This function makes it possible to reuse audio from one video while having knowledge of other videos that have featured it. Reusing sounds and music hence takes on social value and expresses the desire to become a part of a digital community.

22This practice also demonstrates a desire to be seen and to enhance one’s attentional capital. TikTok’s popularity has had a deeply transformative impact on the music industry: although TikTok has launched many celebrities (Doja Cat, Kimberly Loaiza, Gayle, DJ Alan Walker, Pacil, etc.), established music stars have also taken to the platform. In 2022, TikTok made a foray into the traditional music marketplace with the release of an album available in CD, vinyl, and streaming format (TikTok Classics. Meme and Viral Hits, 2022). Ordinary users too want to be seen and to become famous. Keeping track of “trends,” using “TikTok Viral” sounds, and remixing hit songs (often by speeding them up into so-called sped-up songs typical of TikTok) are common practices among TikTok users seeking attention and, in techno-discursive terms, engagement (i.e., followers, likes, shares, comments, etc.). The quest for attention is one pursued by regular users, influencers, celebrities, producers, and platforms which profit from the marketing of user data.

23The dynamics of affordance playing out on TikTok throw light on several technological and social mechanisms which can be examined through the lens of (inter-)musicality. While the technology allows for various degrees of freedom and creativity in crafting audio, it also relies on its sound-specific search engine to foster complicity among users. Because it prioritizes musical “trends,” TikTok’s algorithm is designed to capture attention.

24Altogether, analysing a corpus of TikTok Meow Cat Memes has helped us refine our understanding of the interrelation between music, sociability, affectivity, and attentional capital.

Meow Cat Memes: Memetic (inter-)musicality

25The audio practices we observed are varied (as a reminder, the initial TikTok corpus consisted of 1,306 posts). In several posts, the audio is primarily derived from the video itself (original sound), so that music is not considered a central aspect. Other audio designs involve computer-generated voices, making it possible to coordinate text-to-speech with the image, with or without music.

26The corpus also features artistic creations with actual cat cries remixed in an original way. These productions belong to a different regime of visibility: remixing actual meows is a practice largely appropriated by professionals, whereas ordinary users merely share the content. The artist The Kiffness produces original musical creations of this type—as illustrated by the NumNum Cat Remix—and reinterprets hit musical themes, for instance through a meow version of the theme music from the TV series Squid Game. Similarly, the musical duo French Fuse has remixed the theme from the Harry Potter film series using cat “voices.” This anthropomorphic process of musicalization, based on actual meows, is called “meow magic.”

27Other practices recall the musical parody Cat Duet, with compositions made up of onomatopoeias of cat cries (no longer authentic but artificial). These humorous imitations are produced using computer tools, and while the use of artificial intelligence cannot be ascertained, practices of this kind would not come as a surprise. Part of the “magic” of the meows comes from the use of digital technology, which also makes memetic practices available to a wider audience. Some famous cat memes make a comeback in these humorous reboots. Bongo Cat, Mallow Meme Cat, and Pop Cat are featured in a large number of videos, performing hit songs such as “Believer” (by Imagine Dragons). Meow-style covers are made hugely popular by the combination of inter-pictoriality (the reappropriation of famous images) and inter-musicality (musical reinterpretation). The animalization of songs is a distinctive feature of memetic inter-musicality, whether in recurring contexts (for instance with the meow magic version of the Christmas carol “Chtchedryk,” or “Carol of the Bells”) or in contexts marked by nostalgia (playful renderings of old hits, like in the cat version of “Voyage Voyage,” by Desireless).

28It is worth noting that this memetic practice stretches beyond social-digital platforms. The “Meow” style is present in advertising (e.g., in adverts by brands such as Catsan and Whiskas, both specialized in cat products). Several video games offer entertaining approaches to musical creation (for example My Singing Monsters, where the players are in fact invited to play music). The video game Duet Cats is another prime example of this Meow Magic remix culture. The concept of musical game is exemplified by the famous Pop Cat meme.

29Our corpus also includes the use of sound effects or music taken from TikTok’s royalty-free sounds library. These sounds can either be used in their original version, remixed, and/or mashed up. The most popular style is commercial or entertainment music produced by the music industry to appeal to a wide audience.

30In some cases, hit songs from mass popular culture are taken up by users to boost the visibility of their posts. This process of quotation can take multiple forms: sample covers, remixes (often sped up), mashups, or creation through imitation. These inter-musical references harbour a viral potential and taking them up is a form of memetic reappropriation. Examples include music from cartoons (Tom and Jerry), horror films (for Halloween, images of black cats were set to horror music and spooky sound effects; see Simon & Bigey, 2023), popular films old and new (Harry Potter, Squid Game, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ghostbusters, etc.), and hits from famous bands and singers (Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees, etc.). One post shared a song produced on Minecraft, where note blocks were used to recreate the Nyan Cat theme song.

31“Cute” music is also taken up because of its associations with Meow Cat Memes, with songs like “Baby Shark” or “The Cuppycake Song” sung in high-pitched children’s voices. The affective tone of the songs often matches the content (funny video paired with cheerful audio, intriguing video with tense music, etc.).

32Combining two soundtracks can also serve the narrative tension created by the images. Practices of this kind can be described as modes of inter-musical comparison, serving the narrative in a humorous way. One post used soft music paired with a Meow Cat meme, followed by energetic music playing along to a much more ferocious feline. The playful comparison between two “opposite” realities creates a humorous fiction in which users are expected to take part collectively. This comparative approach is one of the recipes of memetic construction.

33More than half of the music reused could be qualified as viral, meaning that these tracks were taken up over 1,000 times again in other posts (the 1,000 mark is arbitrary, and suggests that these soundtracks were listed in the “TikTok Viral” category). Examples include “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys,” which TikTok helped propel (over 26 million videos using this audio were released in January 2024). Musical reuses of this kind can be defined as memetic: through music, TikTok users become part of a digital community while pursuing virality.

34Several songs featured in our corpus of cat memes were listed among the ten most popular “music trends” of 2022 (according to a TikTok ranking): “Astronomia,” a Russian song released by Tony Igy in 2020 and featured in video memes (the initial video featured dancing pall bearers); “Oh No,” a music sample remixed by Capone and based on the hit “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” (released by The Shangri-Las in 1964). For those familiar with the song, it expresses a sense that things did not happen as planned. The result is often comical, as shown by “Ievan Polkka,” a song taken from a Japanese anime and performed by the popular character Hastune Miku. This song is best known for its use in a 2007 video meme in which a white cat (dubbed Vibing Cat) danced to the rhythm of a street musician’s drum. Several videos in our corpus take up this meme on a meta-level. A pet cat sitting in front of a screen (mobile or tablet) where the viral video is playing is filmed “dancing” like Vibing Cat. In this case, dance amplifies the power of memetic inter-musicality.

35These categories show that memetic construction can be informed by different objectives which can nevertheless be interconnected and where emotion plays a central part: the challenge of creativity, the desire to belong to a community, and the pursuit of virality.

37Importantly, in these creations, the pace of the video often matches the tempo of the music. For instance, an up-tempo track will play along to a photo montage of cats. Most of the melodies are in the major scale. The tempo and the melody can be correlated with the content’s affective value. Meow Cat Memes use lively music and convey positive emotions (joy, surprise, excitement). It seems that the positive emotional charge of the music is directly connected to its viral potential.

38The possible correlation between musical features and affective values is examined in the diagram below [fig. 3]. “Groovy Click&Cat” marks the intersection between major scale and fast tempo, designed to elicit positive emotions and to drive up clicks.

39The notion of “Click&Cat” (Simon, 2024), defined as an attention-generating action involving cat content, can evolve into “Groovy Click&Cat,” referring to an attention-generating action involving cat-based music with a positive emotional charge.

40The suggestion that musical features convey positive emotions is supported by a recent wave of (wildly) viral memes (dating from December 2023) emulating the Nyan Cat meme. These include “Maxwell the Cat Theme,” “Happy Happy Happy Cat,” and “Chipichipichapachapadubidubidabadaba.” In these cat memes, an image playing on a loop and a cheery song are combined into a seamless whole (the meme consisting of the image and the music). The cut-out image makes creative reuse easier, with music serving as a motor of participation.

41Finally, and on a different note, viral music can be used to support digital activism, i.e., forms of dissent taken up by activist groups with more or less virtuous goals (ranging from antiracist to far right).

42This element of activism in relation to TikTok music has been investigated by Laurence Allard (2021). Drawing on philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1980), Allard uses the notion of “refrain” (ritournelle) to describe an act that brings audiences together in a way that can be put in the service of a cause. In a similar vein, this paper calls attention to the possible links between a song’s emotional charge, its infectiousness, and the embrace of ideological values.

43One example of this is the audio “This is… Éric Zemmour,” used in over 600 posts denouncing the values championed by the political candidate (racism, misogyny, homophobia, and so on). One post from our corpus consisted of the image of a cat fight with the following caption: “When your cat is friends with all the other cats except the darkest.”

44Conversely, a memetic use of the German military marching song “Erika” (banned in Germany since WWII) was linked to discourses which could be associated with neo-Nazism. This song, edited or in its original version, is set to cat imagery evoking Adolf Hitler, such as #Catolf and #Kittler, representing a cat with a short black moustache or stretching out its paw in a Nazi salute (Simon, 2023). The ideology is simultaneously conveyed by the image and by the music.

Conclusion

45The production and circulation of Meow Cat Memes on social-digital media conveys aesthetical, social-affective, and collaborative values. Focusing on a corpus of Meow Cat Memes, this paper throws light on the processes shaping the life of memes in a broad sense, and on the role of music in particular. In affective communities where internet users are constantly engaged in sharing, circulating, and liking content that affects them, music occupies pride of place. It allows users to forge strong connections that can extend into digital activism (the viral dissemination of “Erika” is a striking example of this).