Dhinchak Pooja
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The Cringe-Pop sensation
Over a period of 3 to 4 months [in 2017], Dhinchak Pooja [became] a name that has been on almost everyone's tongue all thanks to her 'out of this world' songs that went viral on the internet.
Here's a little history about the singing sensation-
Dhinchak Pooja's real name is Pooja Jain. She was born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh and is currently living in Delhi. Pooja discovered her singing talent when her friends (who we bet were total audiophiles) liked how she sang songs.
Pooja made her music debut with the song 'Swag Wali Topi' over a year ago. The video was shared a lot of times on Facebook and other social networking sites. This probably made Pooja believe that people really liked her songs.
She then came out with a new single named 'Daaru Daaru Daaru' where she made a song about beating up people who won't drink and dance with her. This video was also shared by a lot of people but only because it made them cringe.
Pooja then dropped her 'Mother of all bombs', Selfie Maine Le Li Aaj. This song was so bad that people viewed it over and over again. More than 18 million times to be precise. [That her voice and singing is terrible cannot be disputed. However, Indpaedia cannot accept that people view her songs, and 18 million times at that, because the songs are bad. Are there 1.8 crore masochists in India? Maybe people find her horny in some earthy small- town way. Incidentally, she is always fully clothed.]
While people kept sharing and viewing her songs, Pooja failed to realise that they were actually making fun of her and are not actually promoting her. Pooja has earned over Rs 7 lakh thanks to the selfie song via Youtube revenue.
Pooja recently dropped a new single named 'Dilon Ka Shooter' that has gone viral as well. However, Pooja may get into trouble this time as the Delhi Traffic Police has decided to take action against her for ignoring basic traffic rules like not wearing a helmet.
Dhinchak Pooja is not the first Cringe-Pop star to have gone viral. There have been Cover artists like Nasir Khan Jan and original artists like Taher Shah who have earlier made similar content.
The Arnab Goswami of Hindi pop?
Everyone claims to hate Arnab Goswami. Then why has he been India’s most viewed and highest paid news anchor of the 2010s?
Everyone claims to have contempt for Dhinchak Pooja’s singing. Then what explains these figures:
• Selfie Maine Leli Aaj > 1.8 crore (18.5 million) views in one month (May-June 2017)
• Dilon Ka Shooter (On public demand ) 43 lakh (4,370,985) views in one month (May-June 2017)
• Daaru 63 lakh (6,388,438) views in five months (Jan-June 2017)
• Swag Wali Topi 37 lakh (3,707,005) views in eleven months (July 2016- June 2017)
In addition, each of her masterpieces has spawned parodies, roasts, vulgar versions and cover versions.
Here are some explanations about this phenomenon:
Samiksha Pattanaik/ Hindustan Times
Dhinchak Pooja’s latest video, ‘Selfie maine leli aaj’ is breaking the Internet. Music videos that are ‘so-bad-they-are-good’ are popular because they are engaging and whimsical.
From Taher Shah and Vennu Mallesh to Dhinchak Pooja, there seems to be no relief from a continuous barrage of mind-numbingly cringeworthy videos and memes on the Internet. Some love them and others hate them, but no one can ignore them.
The latest reason for the Internet going berserk again is the release of YouTuber Dhinchak Pooja’s recent song ‘Selfie maine leli aaj’. And her viral stardom makes us wonder: Why are we hooked to videos like these when they are so annoying or absurd?
“Typically, a cringe video is one involving an awkward or embarrassing situation for one person or more. And the reason for its popularity is people deriving a sadistic pleasure from seeing the humiliation of others,” explains Prerna Kohli, a Delhi-based clinical psychologist who has worked extensively with patients suffering from social media addiction.
No helmet (and no seat belt either)
She says that a person who enjoys watching such videos, or is obsessed by them, most likely suffers from low self-esteem and thereby enjoys the discomfort and humiliation of others. “There is also a high probability that this person is a bully, or has latent bully tendencies,” she says.
These videos and memes undoubtedly have a peculiar ability to go viral. They appeal to the human psyche in a way that one cannot help but watch and share, making them spread through the web.
Several studies have attempted to explore the viral nature of Internet memes and videos. According to a study by Prof Shifman from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the most successful video memes share six common features: a focus on ordinary people, flawed masculinity, humour, simplicity, repetitiveness and whimsical content.
Take Taher Shah, Vennu Mallesh or Bhim Niroula. They are all ordinary folk who have relied on YouTube videos to attain the stardom they enjoy today. This makes them more relatable and engaging. Their songs have simple lyrics with catchy phrases that turn earworms. Dhinchak Pooja breaks the gender stereotype of the cringe block, but her videos share all the other elements.
As do the videos of American singer and vlogger (video blogger) Rebecca Black, who is often credited as the original cringe-pop star. In 2011, her music video, ‘Friday’, received millions of views on YouTube within days, and became the most talked-about topic (or, should we say, the butt of all jokes) on Twitter. She was bombarded with criticism over her bad lyrics (Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday/ Today is Friday, Friday) and her equally bad rapping. But her song was too bad to be missed.
“The fascination for so-bad-it’s-almost-surreal things is part of basic human nature,” says Bhanuj Kappal, a freelance journalist and culture writer. “And with the Internet allowing anyone to create and put up their photos/videos for the rest of us to watch and share, that tendency has given birth to these viral video memes.”
“The reason such videos go viral are basically the same as that for any meme — a little bit of schadenfreude and human meanness mixed with the Internet culture’s inbuilt obsession with the ironic and the absurd,” he adds.
Interestingly, these videos seem to be getting more attention in India. The increasing penetration of the Internet in the country allows people to watch and share these videos, providing a favourable ground for cringe-pop stars like Dhinchak Pooja and Vennu Mallesh to thrive.
Rooshi Syed, a young professional from Delhi, gives a fan’s take on why cringe videos are popular. “My favourite is Taher Shah. I look forward to his songs because they instil an element of hope in me. It’s not the hope and love that his songs are all about, but the hope one gets upon seeing a man with no real talent doing exactly what he wants to do. Isn’t it inspiring to see the ‘don’t-give-a-damn’ sentiment being taken to a different level altogether? Same is the case with Dhinchak Pooja.”
The amount of buzz around ‘Selfie maine le li aaj’ is proof enough that this viral trend is nowhere close its saturation point. Instead, more Dhinchak Poojas seem to be waiting in the wings — all set to pounce on netizens when they least expect it.
Chaitanya Sethi of Delhi Technological University
Chaitanya Sethi |June 5, 2017| Candid Wallflowers
After the roaring success of her previous singles ‘Swag Wali Topi’ and ‘Daaru Daaru Daaru’ (sigh) ,Dhinchak Pooja has been kind enough to grace all ‘Dhinchakians’ ( a term that she has coined for her followers) with her latest artistic endeavour ‘Selfie Maine Leli Aaj’. The video on her YouTube channel, which has 70,000+ followers, has well over 11 million views. It doesn’t surprise me that the comment section has been disabled. I doubt it has anyone recommending her a good voice coach or lessons on songwriting. Nonetheless, 11 million views is no joke and it makes me wonder about two things – A. What’s so Dhinchak about Pooja? B. Why does everyone love to hate her?
To understand the first question, we need to delve into the cult of internet sensations. Within the Indian subcontinent, we’ve seen multiple internet sensations emerge and wither. Of the current lot, the ones that have survived include BB ki Vines, AIB, Shirley Setia, Superwoman, Taher Shah, Balaji Vishwanathan, Nasir Khan Jan and many more. There is an immediately visible disparity in the quality of work they respectively produce in their fields. Yet, they all boast of an insane followership. What’s the reason?
Social Triggers rationalizes the success of viral content by attributing it to high emotional arousal. Any product that can evoke a heightened sense of Awe/Anger/Anxiety/Fear/Lust/Surprise/Joy is already a step ahead of its peer group. A combination of these emotions can only do wonders for the creator. It’s apparent that artists (I use this term very loosely) like Pooja rely on a combination of Anger and Surprise to fetch that elusive popularity that so many desire. And credit where it is due, she got it. In truckloads.
But why is her cringeworthy music something that makes us click on her videos and then forward it to others on our Friend lists? Time for some Neuroscience. WIRED explains in the appropriately titled article, ’The Science of Bad Music Playlists’, it turns out, the D is to be blamed. Dopamine. Dopamine is triggered everytime you do something immensely pleasurable. This involves listening to music as well. However, dopamine responses are also triggered by an element of uncertainty. This is what viral videos capitalize on. To further add to this, Mic.com elaborates on how pop music in general exploits something akin to a ‘Musical Stockholm syndrome’ via repeated exposure to the tune. Furthermore, they add,
“The context in which you hear a song is often just as important as the qualities of the song itself in communicating meaning, and the more times it’s forced upon us, the more opportunities we have to make positive associations. If someone hears Ariana Grande’s smash hit “Problem” every time they’re out with their friends, they will likely start to associate it with good times and good feelings regardless of the song’s actual lyrics”.
Moving onto the vitriolic hate Pooja has been getting online, try as you may, you cannot blame this on her. For all the nasty comments she has been receiving, the commenters are solely to blame. It is no secret that the internet offers a sense of freedom one doesn’t experience in real life. This ‘Online Disinhibition’ effect not only encourages anonymity, but also fuels an empathy deficit, cyberbullying and deindividuation. No one is accountable for a comment that labels Pooja as a prostitute or mentions her as a promiscuous woman (I’ve mellowed down the actual comments a great deal) and at the same time, there is no reward for a positive, encouraging comment equating her music to the next best thing after Beethoven. There is no regulation! As the psychologists Marco Yzer and Brian Southwell put it, “New communication technologies do not fundamentally alter the theoretical bounds of human interaction; such interaction continues to be governed by basic human tendencies.” So the chances are, that the nasty, vile troll on her YouTube channel is very much a nasty, vile person in life. And he can’t help himself.
But that’s just the percentage of people who are angry, bitter and offensive. What about the rest of us? The supposedly emotionally stable, rational and intelligent people? What grudge do we hold against her and her success?(Again, I use success very lightly). As much as we would love to rationalize it by saying that it stems from our (obvious) superiority, in truth, something else is at play. Our righteousness is bolstered because it is easy to admonish the person virtually, and if not the person, then their followers who relish that. Perhaps it’s our own discontent. Discontent at not being able to manage the 15 minutes we all secretly craved. Let’s be honest for a second. How many of us, if given the chance, would actually wish to quote our comment on her video verbatim to Pooja if we get to meet her? Does the idea of saying some of those things make you cringe? Turns out, we aren’t half as self-righteous as we thought we were.
There is no Dhinchak Pooja without the Dhinchakians. It is our collective viewership and discussion about her in the public domain that is keeping her alive in the trends. If history is any indication, she will soon be phased out in favour of someone else garish, tone-deaf and outrageous. But for now, she’s taken more than just a selfie. She has taken the internet by storm. And it would be imprudent to deny her of this.
