It's been an interesting year in the music industry. With debates over sexism in popular culture reaching boiling point, the sexualisation of teen star Miley Cyrus causing shockwaves and some questions raised about whether couples should ever star in music videos together (they shouldn't), there's never been a shortage of topics to hashtag, tweet and blog about. Of course, there have been many open letters written and piles of dirty laundry aired throughout the Twitterspere this year, but we have also witnessed the rise of another type of response to slightly ridiculous and contentious cultural trends. This type of response comes in the form of the spoof video, and in 2013 it seems like there have been more made than ever before. The beauty of the parody is that these days, anyone can make a video on their smartphones, leading to all sorts of wacky and brilliant versions of music videos, film trailers and television shows. It's also an entertaining, harmless and in some cases intelligent way of responding to something controversial in other cases it's simply just a way of making people laugh and brightening someone's day. Here are seven of the best spoof and viral videos made in 2013 that remind us that the internet is actually fantastic.
