By becoming world-famous at 21, retiring at 27, and being reactivated by good-natured internet trolls at 41, the now 52-year-old British singer Rick Astley illustrates how an unimpeachable reputation grants you eternal youth.
In some ways, 2007 was a completely different time. Trolls only existed in Germanic sagas and memes were still just innocent fun, especially when in the heat of battle on some internet discussion platform, somebody would post a hyperlink to the music video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”. It was hilarious because self-relativization is a powerful talent, and particularly in dark times like these, when trolls find the murkiest corners of the world wide web to express sympathies that should never see the light of day.
Rick Astley started as a coffee boy in the studio of the successful trio of producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman, but in addition to his clean-cut look, he also had a fine white soul-pop voice. Before he even knew what was happening, he rocketed to number one in two dozen countries in 1987 with his debut single, which had been written by his producers. “Never Gonna Give You Up”, that harmless dance pop song whose lyrics started popping up after a few elections as a meme that we would have liked to invent ourselves. “You should have voted for me,” the campaign slogan ran above a groomed portrait. “I would never: give you up. Let you down. Run around. Desert you. Make you cry. Say goodbye. Tell a lie. Hurt you.”
From meme to man
The video didn’t show anything more than a friendly singer dressed in a smart off-the-rack suit sweetly swaying his arms and legs while singing to his crush in a way that would make any mother-in-law melt. But never you fear, after a tirade about politics, religion, or any other hot-button issue, you will feel seriously rickrolled when you see so much immaculate enthusiasm.
In the early 1990s, after about a dozen hit singles that were as innocent as they were infectious, Astley retired. But he had not reckoned with the internet community. A dance pop album and a cover album of standards appeared at the beginning of this century and were soon forgotten, but after the rickroll hype, the singer was declared “Best Act Ever” at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and his comeback was a definitive reality. At first, he was simply one of several revival acts from the 1980s, but he eventually started great new songs himself. “Keep Singing” off 50, the album that hit the top of the British album charts two years ago, was an incredibly soulful track in which the lyrics and baritone cut deeper than the – now fatherly – innocence in a suit. And on his new album Beautiful Life, he wrote every song, sang every note, and played every instrument himself. The meme just turned into a real man, somebody wrote on the internet. It’s a beautiful life: that never sounded so credible as from the mouth of this clean slate with eternal youth.
> Rick Astley. 21/9, 20.00, Ancienne Belgique
Read more about: Muziek
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