by Kirsten Howard
Have you ever clicked on an exciting tie or potentially explosive intelligence story , only to find yourself catch the television for Rick Astley ’s 1987 hit ' Never Gon na Give You Up ' ? Then you ’ve been rickrolled , my Quaker .
A classic bait - and - switch scenario , the meme is as democratic now as it ’s ever been .
“ I cerebrate it ’s just one of those unmatched things where something gets pick up and citizenry run with it , ” the eponymous singertold theLos Angeles Timesin 2008 . “ But that ’s what ’s brilliant about the Internet . ”
Astley originally rose to fame in the 1980s , scoring number one single in the UK , a Pt - selling album , and even a Grammy nomination . But after millions upon billion of view , how much money has the rickrolling prank raked in for its star ?
Well , as of 2010 , he had received the princely kernel of … $ 12 . This is because Astley did n’t write the Sung dynasty , so he only receives a performing artist ’s parcel of the sound recording right of first publication . Since that is the later figure , maybe he ’s made twice that by now ?
For the record book : Astley does n’t seem to have any gruelling feelings about rickrolling . “ Listen , I just think it ’s freakish and funny , " he said . " My main thoughtfulness is that my daughter does n’t get embarrassed about it . ”
And despite the preponderance of the meme , he has no plans to remix or re - turn the song to cash in on the phenomenon .
“ I do n’t really know whether I desire to be doing that , ” he state . “ I ’m not being an ageist , but it ’s almost a new someone ’s matter , that . I suppose the creative person themselves trying to remix it is almost a mo sad . No , I ’m too old for that . ”
If you need to see Sir Rick Astley being dub by the Queen earlier this year , clickhere .
