"Call Me Maybe" is a pop song performed by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released in late 2011. The title "Call Me Maybe" is not a request to be referred to as "Maybe" but comes from the chorus:
Hey I just met you, and this is crazy,
So here's my number, call me maybe
Other than its status as an oft-repeated pop song, the song has gained meme status on the internet, with its chorus used as the template upon which many phrases have been hung. I was aware of the song's status as a meme before I actually heard the song.
The song itself is terrible. I usually don't use blanket condemnations for pop music. Pop music is what it is, and there have been many simplistic pop songs that, no matter how stupid they were, managed to connect with our simpler feelings. What could capture the zeitgeist of the mid-80s better than Madonna's Material Girl? But Carly Rae Jepsen is not a Madonna. The song isn't even hilariously bad enough to succeed as "so bad it's good". Its just bad and boring, a predictable story of a crush told in standard pop style. When I read the lyrics, before I heard the song, I thought that it was perhaps a song showing vulnerability or wistfulness, but the singing doesn't communicate that.
It is disappointing that even at the task of writing a stupid, simple song, we can't do better than this.