For the past few months, memes with the song Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird have often popped up on YouTube. No matter how much I searched for information in my segment of the Internet about the meme phoneme with this song, I did not find anything. What is the reason for such a great popularity of the song and memes with it, given that this song has been around for so many years?

42 comments

  2. It’s always been popular, seems like the solo has just taken off as a background to humorous videos recently

  3. It’s your algorithm. The more you watch videos with Free Bird, the more they’re going to pop up for you.

    It’s been a popular song for 50 years now, highlighted of course by its extended guitar solo. I’m sure it’ll be known for another 50 years. Perhaps the recent death of the original guitarist has caused it to “trend.”

  4. It’s always been a very popular song (and sort of a pre internet “meme”, with someone at a concert shouting PLAY FREEBIRD!) I assume gen Z and whatever is after them just recently rediscovered it and it started getting used a lot on tiktok or whatever.

    Same thing happened with Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams after it was in a viral video and Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill after it was in Stranger Things

  6. It’s been extremely popular for decades. It’s not suprising it would trend occasionally. It could just be on your youtube algorithm too for whatever reason.

  7. It never stopped being popular?

    And when you start searching for it once you’re gonna see it more cause that’s how these social media and search algorithms work.

  8. Recent? It’s been really popular in certain circles since the song came out. I’d guess you are experiencing a combination of YouTube algorithm shoving it towards you and the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

  16. There is no recent uptick in popularity of “Freebird.” It has consistently been very popular for 40+ years.

  23. No idea but I’ve been to two funerals where the song was played so I’m going to assume it’s been popular for the decades since it’s been released. I don’t keep up with viral songs too much so that’s just my piece.

  24. It’s your algorithm, you watched a couple memes, interacted with them in some way. I haven’t seen a single meme with free bird.

  26. Conan O’Brien had Will Ferrell play it for Conan’s last episode of The Tonight Show in 2010

  27. I think the better question to ask is what is the reason Free Bird is used in memes

  29. I believe that the last living original member of the band died recently, so that might be it.

  32. Recent? Seriously? This is the most requested song at concerts – somewhat jokingly. Has been for *decades*.

  33. Freebird has one of the first speedmetal type of guitar solos that I ever heard. Maybe they are the grandfathers of speedmetal.

  34. Lynyrd Skynyrd founding member, guitarist Gary Rossington died last week. He was going to play at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Florida.

  37. Back in the 1980s, 90s CBGBs and other lower East Side clubs, would yell out free Bird to mock a band or just for a laugh.

  39. Memes will do that. Someone will make something funny, then thousands of unoriginal people on social media will copy it. Some of them have been pretty funny.
    Younger kids probably got exposed to it through Forest Gump or something when the character Jenny is about to jump off a balcony after a drug binge, so they apply it to videos of people doing some wild reckless, nearly suicidal shit.

  40. It’s one of the best Southern rock songs ever made. Why wouldn’t it be popular?

    It’s not their best, but it is technically and lyrically impressive.

  41. I grew up in rural Iowa. It has always been massively popular from my perspective.

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