Wen | Jing Zhe Institute, author | Xiao Dong
During the Qingming holiday, when Disney in Hong Kong and Shanghai welcomed thousands of tourists, Chengdu Yulin Baxiang Community, dubbed by netizens as the third Disney in China, became a popular punching place. Although there is only one project, the waiting team has been extended to the intersection. In order to prevent accidents, the street staff also organized volunteers to limit the flow at the scene, and only 20 people can enter at a time.
According to the online video, people gathered around the riding machine, including local old people and children, as well as tourists from other places. People were waiting in line to sit on the healthy riding chair while holding mobile phone videos, imitating the rapper Naomi’s "Xie Tian Boss Shady" MV and shouting "Boss Shady Boss Shady, I want to diss you".
At the same time as "Chengdu Disney", there is also its "initiator"-rapper Naomi. According to the observation of the Institute of Stings, up to now, the number of fans of Naomi’s Tik Tok account has exceeded 1.62 million, which is 1.2 million more than that of Boss Shady, the target of MVdiss. It is noteworthy that in addition to this imitation carnival from online to offline, Naomi’s earlier personal experience is constantly being dug up, and he also makes more people see another popular way of "online celebrity".
The phenomenon that rapper Naomi brought fire to "Chengdu Disney" by herself can only be described as "abstract".
Not long ago, Naomi, as a contestant in the variety show "New Rap", failed to pass the audition. Boss Shady, who was also an auditor and a rapper, suggested "forget rap as a hobby" and said that the songs he wrote to grandpa were for grandma. So, in order to express her dissatisfaction, Naomi specially wrote a work called "Xie Tian Boss Shady" and filmed a MV for it.
In the MV, Naomi sat on a healthy riding chair in the Baxiang residential area in Yulin, Chengdu, and kept repeating "Boss Shady, Boss Shady, I want to diss you", and because her pronunciation was too similar to that of "Boss Shady, Boss Shady, I want Disney", it quickly spread on the Internet and became a popular hot spot. And on the short video platform, a wave of imitation quickly emerged, pushing "I want Disney imitation contest" to the TOP6 of the challenge list. The only unexpected thing is that the fitness equipment in the community has become a "popular scenic spot", attracting young people to punch in at the scene.
In fact, before "Xie Tian Boss Shady" MV brought fire to "Chengdu Disney", Naomi had attracted some attention on the Internet because of abstract behavior. For example, in the interview session after the audition of "New Rap", Naomi will end every sentence with "you know what I am saying".Naomi also calls herself an "American boy" and compares herself to a black American, which is very consistent with the stereotype of rappers in terms of behavior and behavior.
In addition, Naomi suffered another dramatic scene when she decided to record the new song diss program auditor Xie Di in the audition of "New Rap". At that time, Naomi was resting on the sofa in the recording studio, and Boss Shady fans were standing beside her, who were recording the song diss Naomi, and this scene was broadcast live by the sound engineer.
In connection with the release of the MV "Xie Tian Boss Shady", around the clue that Naomi participated in the "New Rap" competition, a very happy continuous plot was formed: the rapper was eliminated from the competition, and the judges recorded the song diss, but they were "faced up" by the judges’ fans. After the release of the MV, the brainwashing magic chorus "Boss Shady Boss Shady, I want to diss you" was changed to "Boss Shady Boss Shady, I want Disney" by netizens and imitated.
Therefore, in the eyes of passers-by, Naomi, who was initially eliminated by "New Rap", may still be just a rap enthusiast similar to "Super Girl’s Sea Election Data".However, after experiencing a series of abstract events, Naomi herself gained a particularly "abstract" network image.
People who imitate Naomi may not know him at all, but the imitation itself is very hot and joyful. Therefore, a large number of spontaneous traffic flows in a short period of time, and the MV "Xie Tian Boss Shady" has become the top IP of the network, which has ignited "Chengdu Disney" and helped Naomi who failed to participate in the program to quickly get out of the circle in another way.
Not long ago, the research institute of Jing Zhe discussed the possibility of dramatic short video content driving the emergence of "scenic spots" in online celebrity. However, the reason for the emergence of "Chengdu Disney" can not be simply summarized as the traffic effect brought by short video content, but the new online celebrity effect produced by Naomi as an "abstract online celebrity" in constant concretization.
In fact, according to the development law of general network events, most online celebrity, who suddenly burst into flames, will probably be like Mr. Huang, who "digs and digs", because a short video became popular and was quickly forgotten by netizens.But what makes Naomi special is her abstract behavior, which leads to a wide range of imitation.
Just like "Ye Smola" in "Guo Yan Guo Yu" and ChristianRandPhillips’s line "Xiang ray" when he plays Zhou Wang in "Feng Shen I: Song of the Wind". Originally, it was just a meaningless sentence, or a line with an accent, but because of the interest brought by abstract expression, it became an online pop stalk and caused netizens to follow suit.
People shouting "I want Disney" on fitness equipment may just be for fun. However, this kind of collectivized abstract behavior, to some extent, shows the preference of Internet users for "abstract content" and "abstract expression" in the current network context, and also reflects another way to gain the attention of netizens and obtain network traffic.
In fact, around 2015, the popularity of "abstract culture" began to take shape in the live broadcast era centered on platforms such as fighting fish and tiger teeth.At that time, Sun Xiaochuan (banned), the anchor of the betta platform, used a lot of emoji expressions, character symbols, swearing words and dialects in the interaction with netizens in the live broadcast room, which resulted in "abstract words".
Although the behavior itself lacks certain logic and is slightly crazy in expression, this nonsense behavior is extremely entertaining, which makes the anchor itself an "abstract incarnation" to meet the entertainment needs of netizens. Therefore, during this period, a lot of online celebrity, who was famous for his "abstract art", came into being.
Among them, one of the most representative examples is the "potion brother", the anchor of Huya’s front head. The official appearance of "Brother Potion" originated from a live broadcast with netizens from 8: 00 pm to 3: 00 am, and repeated "Do you deserve it?". This time, the live broadcast content not only became the second-generation material of netizens, but also made "Medicine Brother" gain an abstract and crazy person and huge network traffic.
In the same period, the short video blogger "Brother giao, the black cat police chief" also became popular on the Internet with a nonsense sentence "giaogiao", and even participated in "China New Rap" in 2018 and 2020. Although it failed to make a successful debut, the huge network traffic allowed him to successfully release his single and even cooperate with famous rappers.
As can be seen from the above-mentioned popular track in online celebrity, the imitation of "I want Disney" by netizens is totally a collective behavior based on "abstract culture".This kind of mass entertainment carnival, which is created in the network and even in reality, aims at consuming authority and deconstructing idols, and opposes the mainstream aesthetics through spoofing and playing tricks.
For example, Boss Shady, the auditor in New Rap, represents the mainstream image of the current rap circle, while Naomi’s MV "Xie Tian Boss Shady" deconstructs this "mainstream". Netizens used crazy tricks to confront and satirize the mainstream market represented by "Boss Shady", and in the process, they achieved the purpose of venting negative emotions and having fun.
It should be pointed out that the behavior of "Chengdu Disney" with fire and collective imitation of Naomi is just another vivid interpretation of "abstract culture".Naomi’s constant attention after she left the circle attracted users to explore her personal experience, which made netizens start to "examine" online celebrity in a new way.
After Naomi went out of the circle because of a series of continuous plots, the attention from the outside world also exposed his true identity to people.. However, unlike ordinary stars and online celebrity, who are often exposed to black material, Naomi, who has been "snooped" by netizens in all directions, presents a simple and simple positive image.
According to online reports, Naomi is from Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and her mother works as a cashier in a convenience store. Before playing rap, Naomi worked as a cook and sold fruit on a tricycle. He also worked as a scaffolder on the construction site with his father and lost a little finger because of an accident. Because of the poor family conditions, Naomi borrowed the ticket money from her neighbors for the new rap.
There are also netizens who took photos of Naomi when she was a child, helping her family to do farm work and studying at school. Naomi in the photo is a particularly simple child at first glance. There are also many netizens who have exposed photos and videos of him before. In these online exposure materials, Naomi always wears a hat, carries a backpack, and has wired headphones in her ears, practicing her rap while walking. It looks particularly lonely, which further deepens his weak image in the eyes of netizens.
In addition, there are online articles that Naomi was not famous in her early days, and it took money to make music, so she often couldn’t even afford to stay in a hotel and had to sleep on the street, and even was beaten. There are also netizens who have a chat record, showing that they invited Naomi to live in their dormitory, but they were rejected. Naomi just took a shower and left. And some fans gave Naomi a red envelope, which was also declined. He also told fans not to give money casually to avoid being cheated.
Even after the "Chengdu Disney" exploded, Naomi only released a video on April 5 to appeal to netizens who went to punch in. "There are grandfathers and grandmothers living around, so I hope everyone will not disturb the people."
Although most of the information from the Internet has not been further confirmed, after the success of "I want Disney", the contents exposed by these networks have "filled in" Naomi’s kind and innocent people.As a result, Naomi’s "abstract" persona on the Internet has also become concrete.
Before "I want Disney", rapper was eliminated by New Rap, a self-proclaimed "American boy", but now he is a big Liangshan boy who still pursues rap dreams despite his poor family. Even the song "Miss Apu" he wrote to his grandfather was also "flipped" by CCTV Travel and Liangshan Travel as the soundtrack of local propaganda films.
At this point, the netizen’s attitude towards Naomi has changed from the whole life and jokes at the beginning to the concern after being impressed by the figurative realism. This is very different from "Teacher Guo" and "Brother giao, the black cat sheriff" who became famous in the early days of the live broadcast industry with "abstract culture".
It is not difficult to understand that in the early days, online celebrity relied on the "abstract whole work" of seeking novelty and appreciating ugliness, but now users will start to "dig" online celebrity’s real identity through the abstract appearance and find its concrete and life-oriented side, so online celebrity is becoming more "real".
In addition, the contrast between Naomi and the stereotype of traditional rappers, as well as the simple artificial design of "getting poorer and poorer" discovered by netizens after becoming "online celebrity", itself is another deconstruction of the image of "online celebrity" in the past. When people are not surprised by the collapse of the star’s house and watch more rap singers with bad records, this somewhat "abstract" Naomi looks more real and pleasing to the eye.
In other words, in this mass entertainment carnival event from cyberspace to real space, young people who are keen on "abstract culture" use Naomi as a sharp sword against the mainstream, breaking the inherent camp of "online celebrity" and attracting the attention of the whole social network to Naomi, thus completing a new round of "online celebrity" model reform.
"Abstract whole work" can indeed be used for fun, but people still expect the "idol" value behind traffic.