Pogo | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Christopher Nicholas Bertke |
| Also known as | Pogo,[1] Fagottron[2] |
| Born | (1988-07-26)26 July 1988 (age 36)[3] Cape Town,Cape Province, South Africa[4] |
| Origin | Cape Town,Perth |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Website | pogomix |
Christopher Nicholas "Nick"Bertke (born 26 July 1988), better known by hisstage namePogo, which is symbolized by an icon of a rabbit, is aSouth African-born[4]Australian electronic musician. Much of his work consists of recording small sounds, quotes, and melodies from films, TV programmes or other sources, and sequencing the sounds together to form a new piece of music (a genre also known asplunderphonics). A number of Pogo's works consist almost entirely of the sounds hesamples, with few or no additional music or sound samples.[5]
Pogo has produced tracks using samples from films and TV shows such asPulp Fiction.[1] He has also sampled from other sources, such asfield recordings for his projectRemix the World. Remix the World was an ambitious project, consisting of all original content. Bertke shot real-world footage and then used those sounds and images to capture the essence of the places he visited. The Real World Remix was shot in Kenya, South Africa, Bhutan, and Perth (AU).[6]
Bertke is best known for his use ofvideo sampling to produce music videos, which he uploads on thevideo-sharing websiteYouTube.[7] As of October 2017, his most popular YouTube video isAlice, made of samples of Disney's animated filmAlice in Wonderland, with more than 30 million views.[7] In 2010, his music videoGardyn, created from footage of his mother working in her garden, was juried along with 24 other YouTube videos for an exhibition at theGuggenheim Museum inNew York City.[8] On 29 September 2016, Pogo released a song called "Trumpular" onSoundCloud which consisted of quotes from Republican nominee, and later President,Donald Trump.[9] Later, in 2019, he made a music video called "Homarge", based onThe Simpsons (mostly from the episode "Simpson and Delilah"), which gained over a million views. On August 27, 2021, Pogo released a remix called "Strangerous", taking voices and sounds fromStranger Things, which has become Pogo's second most viewed onSoundCloud, and on November 5, 2021, he released "Cabin Fever", which samplesMuppet Treasure Island.
Pogo's music is used on the conservative YouTube talk showLouder with Crowder, hosted bySteven Crowder, and is used asbumper music to transition in and out of commercial breaks.[10][better source needed]
On his September 2011 US tour, Bertke was arrested and taken into custody for three weeks due to the lack of a proper work visa, and was prohibited from re-entering the United States until 2021.[11][12]
In January 2020, Pogo's YouTube channel was hacked and hijacked by an unknown user, who renamed the channel "Ethereum 2.0 Foundation" and privated all the videos on the channel. The hacker then started a scamlivestream promotingEthereumcryptocurrency, and claiming that any amount of crypto sent to them during the stream would be multiplied and sent back. Pogo took to Twitter to let fans know that he was aware of the hack and has contacted YouTube for help.[13] The hacked channel was terminated by YouTube on January 17,[14] and Pogo remained without a channel for four days while fans created accounts hosting temporary re-uploads of his videos and music. On January 22, YouTube restored the account, including his view counts, subscribers, and comments sections.[15]
Bertke was criticized for a 2015 video that deridedfeminists asgold diggers and "making misogynist arguments against women's rights".[16] He later claimed that it was made "to impersonate the radical right".[17]
In aYouTube livestream that was uploaded in 2016, Bertke stated that he has a "fairly thorough dislike of homosexuals".[18] In the same video and on the topic of theOrlando nightclub shooting, aterrorist attack at agay bar inFlorida in 2016, he said, "It amazes me to see the West welcoming a culture through the floodgates that wants gays dead. I think that's fantastic".[19][20] Bertke later claimed to not have any hate for the gay community and also claimedAsperger syndrome andbipolar disorder as contributing factors.[21] He stated that the video was made in bad taste and that he never intended for it to go public,[21] although he also stated that he was trying to "impersonate the far-right and create hysteria", noting that the video was made around the time of the2016 American election.[22] YourEDM compared his "homophobic rhetoric" to the 2015 video, which he similarly tried to explain as a social experiment.[17] Writing forThe Verge, Megan Farokhmanesh saw this explanation as a transparent attempt at plausible deniability.[16]
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