I'm Opening a Beer, Pouring It into a Glass

A song grown from a simple action

Vasily Didlyakov composed “I'm Opening a Beer” from a short chorus that first appeared as a joke for a friend who loved beer. By his account, he sang an invented text on the spot on behalf of the friend, added bass and drums, showed him the recording, and the story could have ended there. On the cover, a hand on the right passes a vertical can to a hand entering from the lower left; there is no glass or pouring here.

Didlyakov posted the track on VKontakte in the summer of 2018. He did not plan a meme and did not promote the piece as viral. The streaming release is dated September 6, while the official YouTube video was published September 22. These are dates from different outlets, not the date of the first posting.

The rhythm of the can and the glass

The chorus is built as a chain of short actions, and the repetition makes it easy to recognize even in a small audio fragment. A video doesn't need to retell the story: it is enough to sync scene changes to the musical repeat or to put a familiar gesture under the chorus's intro.

The first video was made not by Didlyakov himself but by his friend Sanya Kozlov: about two weeks later he laid the track over an episode of the series “Klinika.” This edit showed that the song could be combined with other people's scenes to get a new joke without rewriting the lyrics. After the response, the author quickly assembled the full structure, asked his friend Artyom Kirkov to record guitar, and sent the material for mixing.

In October 2018, Piggy Bang released “Pivko,” a remix of Didlyakov's song. The new version shows that the chorus became not only a sound fragment for user videos: it could be reinterpreted in another musical setting while keeping a recognizable core. Piggy Bang is a collective of Belarusian artists formed around Oleg LSP; the remix carries the familiar song into the work of another musical team.

From song to internet ritual

A repeating chorus easily turns an everyday action into a ritual. When the sound accompanies an ordinary evening, the familiar sequence of words gives it a festive rhythm; if the same fragment plays over a scene with another activity, it creates a solemn frame around an unexpectedly small occasion.

The remix and short videos treat the source differently. A clip only needs to keep a recognizable musical gesture, while the new song version changes the arrangement and delivery entirely. In both cases the meaning shifts from literally opening a can to the enjoyment of a familiar chorus and its unexpected juxtaposition with a new scene.

Invented captions

“Friday, the kitchen is clean, time to put on the favorite series.” This invented caption uses the song as a musical signal of a finished day, without continuing its lyrics.

“Right before opening the spreadsheet of vacation expenses.” This is also an invented clip: the solemn rhythm makes a dull household task look like a deserved ritual.