Origin
The Shooting Stars meme paired the 2008 song “Shooting Stars” by Bag Raiders with videos of people/objects flying through space, often edited to show them gliding across surreal landscapes.
The format emerged on YouTube in January 2017, quickly spreading to Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook throughout early 2017.
Format & Appeal
The meme’s structure:
- Subject (person, animal, object) begins falling/flying
- Song drops: “It’s late and I’m awake…”
- Subject floats through space, surreal environments, or recognizable locations
- Often loops back to the original fall
Peak examples:
- Skateboarders wiping out → flying through galaxies
- Politicians tripping → soaring over monuments
- Animals leaping → traversing cosmic landscapes
Peak Era (Early 2017)
The format dominated YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter January-April 2017. The song’s dreamy quality and video editing possibilities made it ideal for creative remixes.
Bag Raiders acknowledged the meme, experiencing a career resurgence from the 2008 single.
Decline
By mid-2017, the format had been exhausted. The novelty of “X but they’re in space” wore off, and editing requirements limited casual participation.
Legacy
Represents 2017’s golden age of music-based video memes (also: Roundabout, Curb Your Enthusiasm theme, “We Are Number One”).
Sources
- Know Your Meme: Shooting Stars
- YouTube: Shooting Stars Compilation
- Bag Raiders Interviews