Now here's a proof that these days, in order to go big, you need to go viral. Just take Baauer, the producer of the "Harlem Shake" song as an example. Despite the track being released back in May 2012, it took a recent viral craze for the song to become globally popular and even reach the No. 1 on the US sales chart.
At this moment, an estimated number of 40,000 "Harlem Shake" videos exist on YouTube, scooping a total of over 175 million views. In case you aren't yet familiar with what's going on, the clips feature users themselves dancing to the song.
Baauer was the first one to see the benefits of the new Billboard formula, which now also incorporates the number of YouTube views. With "Harlem Shake" sales skyrocketing due to those very same views, it seems like a completely logical choice. Within the past week, the song has reached 103 million streams and 262,000 downloads.
"The notion that a song has to sell in order to be a hit feels a little two or three years ago to me. The music business today - much to its credit - has started to learn that there are lots of different ways a song can be a hit, and lots of different ways that the business can benefit from it being a hit", Billboard's editorial director Bill Werde tells the New York Times.
So have you made your own "Harlem Shake" video yet? If you did, feel free to share it with with the rest of the UG community. And what do you think about YouTube views becoming a part of the Billboard charts formula? Let us know in the comments section below.
"Have you made your own harlem shake video yet?" No. Never ever. It's just the next trend that 'everyone has to like'. It's pretty much just the next gangnam style. Which I hated so much by the way.
I personally loved Gangnam Style but I have to agree with you. I got annoyed by all the parodies that everyone just had to do when it came out. Now this Harlem Shake thing is blowing up....and Harlem disapproves
Harlem Reacts to 'Harlem Shake' Videos
So hilarious to see all the uptight people on UG who are actually stupid enough to take this seriously. It's a hilarious fad, basically just like Gangnam Style. If you don't like it, then don't care about it. No one is forcing it on you.
omg ppl are having fun and making silly videos of it, this is so dumb, no one should have fun if i am not having fun. this is the worst thing ever, especially since the government is making everyone watch these.
Of course you get uptight when this thing starts popping up in almost every web you visit, it's annoying and I don't get the urge of the ppl to make their version of it, anything to try to get some attention or get their 15 min of fame. As butthurt it may sound it's silly and dumb.
The reason there are 'uptight people stupid enough' to get annoyed by it, because they probably (like I) see how the majority of people seem to be stupid and think there's something cool/impressive/funny about them doing something that everybody else is doing, just because everybody else is doing it. Just like Gangnam Style, it has this sense of "I'm cool/'in with the crowd' because I've heard of this, hey everybody - look at me showing how I know about this cool thing from the internet!".
It's like memes on a less-geeky, public scale that people who aren't aware of most memes think is new and exciting. Those of us who have been on the internet for longer than half a decade have seen stuff like this go viral for a few months then die off regularly for years and years (back then, it was stuff like dancing hamsters [google 'hamster dance song'], or animated badgers bopping to a repetitive song on Weebls Stuff). Don't label everybody who doesn't find Harlem Shake or Gangnam Style hilarious as 'stupid' or 'uptight'.
No, you don't have to like it. But if you don't,then why care? Why even pay it any mind? It'll be gone in a couple weeks, and it doesn't make you any more intelligent either, because you're not part of the "in crowd." As a matter of fact, the fact that you said you don't like it because its "Cool" or "in" makes you nothing but a hipster. Probably the same person who starts disliking a band when they get recognition.
Who said not liking it = being an ass about it, or trying to be hipster about it? I only mention a dislike of something if asked about it, and if you think I'm in any way a hipster I suggest you click my name and view my profile... I certainly don't see anything about me that matches either the stereotypical appearance or attitude of a hipster. I also like plenty of things considered 'mainstream' and have no problem with that.
You do know that memes are basically described as something that everybody and their dog knows about/recognizes and where around way before the internet yea?
So no, they weren't "better before everyone's parents knew what they where" because if everybody didn't know what they where, they wouldn't be a meme in the first place.
Wrong. First sentence of wiki article: "An Internet meme is a concept that spreads from person to person via the Internet."
There is no law that states that everybody needs to know about something for it to be a meme. The very thing I'm talking about is that memes were originally only recognised by 4channers, redditors etc. but now every 12-year-old girl on facebook is using memes wrongly. I didn't want to start a butthurt rant about it but you kind of forced my hand by trying to be a smartarse.
How about next time you don't look up "internet meme" and instead just look up "meme", and you'll find this:
"an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."
I wholeheartedly agree. It wasn't just a coincidence that I started hating 'memes' just when every single person around me started loving them. I wish people would stop putting them everywhere, oh for ****s sakes...
The result of consumer culture. Most people are only interested in a fad or a phase that is brief and disposable. It's just like fast food. Consume and dispose. No matter how crap the contents of it are, people will like it because it's acceptable to like it.
All but two or three of the comments posted so far are complaining about said video/meme. Being upset about a meme, or complaining about it being stupid, is infinitely more lame than the meme existing in the first place.
So voicing an opinion about something is now lame and stupid?
Oh, sorry, didn't realise we lived in a dictatorship where we simply have to accept what other people say, or accept utter stupidity as being acceptable. Woops, must have missed that one!
Seriously, if people want to say how much they dislike this, I say they're welcome. It's by people having different opinions on things that the world gets by. I can see how common sense is now a super-power.
A couple have put a smile on my face, but those are the different ones like the Peanuts version, there's a washing machine one that's pretty funny, an exorcist one, and a drum cover. Aside from those ones it's just the same thing over and over again.
This video would be way cooler if it had some Opeth in it, right guys? Am I right? Just kidding, I would never think that. Harlem Shake is just another thing, nobody will care in about a month or two.
Harlem Shake is the epitome of how easily the internet can make something reasonably amusing into the most annoying thing ever. I'd rather people sing Surfin Bird on a loop than submit any more of this shite to the web.
I kinda liked gangam style. Just think its a middle aged Korean man that has finally gotten an international hit. Harlem shake is a waste of my time and effort. And space on the internet
Why are we so quick to shoot down this trend? Why can't we be happy that the internet introduced a way for everyone, from all sorts of different backgrounds, to do something everyone enjoys doing? Even if it is a silly 30 second video.
Because it's very unfunny and very overused. Every minute I'm hearing about how "The Harlem shake is soooo funny did you see that one video where they etc etc".
Since everyone and their mother had to make their own H-Shake vid, I have no idea about the original that it's based on, which makes this trend/meme seem even more retarded to me.
Yes, but can't you just ignore it? Do you have to vent about how annoying it is to you? Clearly to tons of people, it is quite funny.
I mean, I find it quite overdone and annoying myself, but I find it even worse that some people care about which memes are the good ones.
Okay, I watched the video. This is the first time I've ever heard of this Harlem Shake, and I thought it was hilarious.
But, knowing the internet, and judging from the comments, this is already seen as annoying, stupid and retarded, because something that was funny a couple of times has already been done over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over...
I have to say— "white people" are crazy, but in a good way.
This may be a trend but it's always good to see people all over the world sharing something like this. It's sign of hope and shows mankind can look beyond its superficial boundaries.
