...why's it called "rickroll" anyway? I get that the singer's name is rick but what's it have to do with rolling
and why did that particular song end up being a meme anyway?
@typhlosion it's not exactly a good reason for your music to be popular, is it? i wonder what the singer thinks of the meme
@Felthry @typhlosion I believe he's participated in it
@Felthry @typhlosion it's hard to say what he thought of it in private, but as far as Wikipedia knows, he (a) found it amusing, (b) hoped his daughter wouldn't be embarrassed by it, and (c) has moved on with his life by this point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling#Effects_on_Astley_and_reaction
(content warning for uncritical discussion of an infamous imageboard in the article - this whole thing happened several years before they became famous for mass harassment campaigns.)
His new music's really good too.
It got popular because people liked the music more than they expected to.
answer, long-ish
@Felthry
i think that song was specifically used because it's first use (a fake trailer for the then widely-anticipated GTA IV) exploded in popularity, leading to copycats and the meme's further spread.
@Felthry the "rolled" part derives from an even earlier meme of tricking people into clicking a link to an image of a duck on wheels, which was known as "getting duckroll'd" (don't ask me where the duck on wheels came from)
i don't know why never gonna give you up in particular became the song to use for rickrolling, but i'd wager it's only so well known as a meme because rickrolling was a widespread practice back in the day