The Hampster Dance

1998

Date: August 1998 (launched), peaks 1999 · Place: GeoCities, Canada · Figures: Deidre LaCarte, art student, Vancouver · Tags: Web 1.0, GIF Loop, Earworm 01. A Tribute To A Hamster Deidre LaCarte, a Vancouver art student, builds a GeoCities page in August 1998 as a tribute to her hamster Hampton. The page contains four rows of dancing animated-GIF hamsters and a looping sample from the Disney film Robin Hood: a sped-up clip of Roger Miller singing Whistle Stop. It is part of an informal traffic-building competition with her sister and a friend. By March 1999 the page is getting 14 million visits a month. LaCarte registers hampsterdance.com. 02. Hampton The Hampster Hits The Charts A Canadian production duo licenses the loop in 1999, expands it into a full novelty single credited to Hampton the Hampster, and releases The Hampsterdance Song in 2000. It hits the top 20 in the UK and Australia and goes platinum. The misspelling of hamster as hampster, originally a typo, becomes a load-bearing canonical detail. It is the first time a personal GeoCities page produces a chart-topping single. The whole arc, from one art student's birthday gift to a Hot 100 entry, takes 18 months. Sources • Wired, 'Hampsters on Parade' (Lindsey Arent, 16 March 1999) • The Globe and Mail, 'How a Vancouver student created a global hit' (3 February 2000) • Know Your Meme, 'Hampster Dance'