this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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Very good analysis, because I always wonder "Why THIS song?"
Like, is there an alternate universe where it's like "OMG the thing you've been waiting for! (link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914
...okay maybe the lead up takes a lot longer. Never Gonna Give You Up hits you immediately with those drums and a dance that can easily be repurposed as a taunt. Lol
I dont know if that a rick roll or just a random music video, but at this point I'm to afraid to click it.
Hey you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, amigo!
But don't worry it's...
A-Ha! Take On Me . Another shining example of a basically perfect and immortal pop song. :pI mean, it's probably just up to whoever first started doing it. They chose that song, so it's that song. Other songs may have also worked.
But there is one thing that I think gave Rick Astley an advantage over specific other groups like A-ha. And that's his name. If you look up the history of Rickrolling on Wikipedia, it says it replaced a meme called "duckrolling", which was used the same way as Rickrolling, but it was just a picture of a duck with wheels. So the advantage is that "Rick" is his name and it's an easy drop-in replacement for the word "duck".
There's other artists who have names that would work. Who knows? In another universe, they might have "Beckrolling" or something.
Edit: I was just reading farther into the Wikipedia article, and the guy who made the first Rickroll said he chose it because it came out in his birth year of 1987.