The Best Music Memes of 2016

Without a doubt, 2016 will go down as the wackiest, meme-i-est 365 days in modern history. A Beatle stood still to “Black Beatles”; old-school jams like Santana’s “Smooth” and Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo” were hits all over again; Nelly was a cause célèbre; the entire Internet was invited to the #KimExposedTaylorParty; and the Bey-hive launched an investigation regarding the identity of “Becky with the good hair.”

The Mannequin Challenge
Mannequin videos can be traced back to 2008 — but it wasn’t until the last months of 2016 that the trend went global, often featuring Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles” as the soundtrack to the lifeless poses. “Black Beatles” eventually went No. 1 as a result.

Even actual Beatle Paul McCartney accepted the challenge:

And Hillary Clinton got in on the fun for Election Day:

Drake’s Views
The rapper’s highly anticipated fourth studio album came with drakesviews.com, which allowed fans to place a seated Drake on any image. The Internet did not disappoint.

Taylor Snake
When Kim Kardashian Snapchatted a secret phone conversation between Taylor Swift and Kanye West about Kanye’s controversial “Famous” lyrics, in which Taylor seemed to approve at least some of the song’s lines about her, the Twitterverse exploded. A #KimExposedTaylorParty ensued.

“Smooth”
If you don’t get it, don’t worry. This meme came out of nowhere and inspired an ironic-hipster embrace of the 1999 hit “Smooth” by Santana and Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas.

#runawaywithmeme
With a saxophone line heard ’round the web, Queen Carly Rae Jepsen helped usher in one of the silliest memes of the year with the opening melody from her “Run Away With Me” single.

The Running Man
Ghost Town DJs’ 1996 summer jam “My Boo” was revived 20 years later for a sensation that even dogs and grandpas could get into.

#SaveNelly
Earlier this year, it was announced that Nelly was in debt. Instead of a Kickstarter campaign, fans took to Spotify, to drive plays to help the “Hot in Herre” rapper to increase his revenue.

Election Season
With a contentious presidential election campaign, and an equally heated primary, voters on both sides of the aisle took solace in memes.

Yes’s “Roundabout” (To Be Continued)
This meme throwback isn’t an enigma. Yes’s classic “Roundabout” made it back into pop culture thanks to the anime show “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” in which the crescendo into the chorus plays at the end of a cliffhanger episode.

And if you still don’t get this meme, you’re not the only one.

Frank Ocean Missing
Frank Ocean waited four years to tease fans about his sophomore album, at time presumably titled Boys Don’t Cry. He finally announced a live stream that would become his Endless visual album on Aug. 19, but even that was not the end of the hype. Ocean trolled the music community when he released the official studio album Blonde the next day — and then he didn’t submit it for Grammy consideration.

Beyoncé’s Lemonade
After the drama behind Beyoncé’s self-titled surprise release in 2013, the even more surprising Lemonade served up plenty of tea for everyone in 2016.

Nerdcore vs. Alex Trebek
In October, Jeopardy host Alex Trebek insulted the niche genre Nerdcore Hip-Hop community by attributing them to “losers.” Emphatic Nerdcore artist and advocate Mega Ran took to Twitter to clap back at Trebek.

music genre: video game
YouTube creator Seth Everman served up a spot on parody of Nintendo video game music — including a Christmas version just in time for the holidays.

Charizard and Dragonite Dance Remixes [NSFW]
Finally, we can’t talk about 2016 without mentioning some Pokemon. The following videos feature two collectable monsters, Dragonite and Charizard, dancing graciously and matching up seamlessly to songs by Ariana Grande, Santana, Eminem, and more.

And why not Psyduck?