Music & viral songs

● Aliven.✎ 3

Mesmerizer

A 2024 Vocaloid song written by 32ki and performed by the synthetic voices Hatsune Miku and Kasane Teto, with a video animated by the Japanese animator known as channel. Its subject is escapism, and its afterlife is covers, redraws and memes of the choreography. The record's entry for a hit with no singer.

▸ 2024peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

MoeChakkaFire

A 2024 song by issey about a video game character, whose video reportedly passed a million views in a fortnight and turned into a TikTok sound and a cover-version engine. Reported first on Billboard Japan's Heatseekers Songs for the week of 23–29 September 2024. The record's entry for a fan song that outgrew its fandom.

▸ 2024peak 2025still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Rose's Turn

A number from a 1959 stage musical which returned in 2024 when the version covered on the television programme Glee started being used as a TikTok sound. The record's entry for a sixty-five-year-old showtune arriving on a phone by way of a cancelled show.

▸ 2024peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Rabbit Hole (Deco*27)

A 2023 Vocaloid track whose derivative animated version, made by channelcastation, went viral in 2024 and produced a run of memes off individual frames and gestures. The record's entry for a song that needed someone else's animation before the wider internet would take it.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Cbat

A 2011 electronic instrumental with a distinctive lurching lead, which became briefly inescapable in 2022 after a Reddit post about someone's poor choice of background music was shared everywhere. The record's entry for a decade-old track dragged into the light by an anecdote.

▸ 2022peak 2022†2023

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

What I've Done

A 2007 Linkin Park single that became a template in 2022 for videos captioned as a film 'but if it came out in 2007' — slow-motion hero shots, a lens flare, the chorus arriving on the final frame. Taken from the song's use over the end of the 2007 Transformers film.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Kids with Down Syndrome Singing A Thousand Years

A group performance of 'A Thousand Years' by children with Down syndrome, made for World Down Syndrome Day, which spread after the song's writer Christina Perri shared it on Twitter. The record's entry for the cover version as an awareness campaign.

▸ 2021peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

2 Phút Hơn

A Vietnamese Vinahouse track that travelled worldwide as a remix — the KAIZ version, released on 28 November 2020 — and became a TikTok dance sound used by people who had no idea what the words meant. The record's entry for a remix that outran its original.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

How You Like That

A Blackpink single released in June 2020 whose premiere was itself the event: 1.66 million people watching a countdown together, then 86.3 million views in the first day. It was the fastest video to 100 million views, in 32 hours, and passed a billion in February 2022. The record's entry for the premiere as a spectator sport.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Little Dark Age

A 2018 MGMT song that surged from late 2020 as the standard bed for a certain kind of video edit — remixed and sampled under montages about politics, social justice, war and history, usually cut fast and graded dark. The record's entry for the backing track of the historical edit.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Manike Mage Hithe

A Sri Lankan cover, sung by Yohani with Satheeshan Rathnayaka, that spread from Sri Lanka into India and then abroad, mostly as a sound people sang phonetically without speaking Sinhala. The record's entry for a cover that became better known than the song.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Yi Jian Mei (Xue Hua Piao Piao)

A bald Chinese man films himself in the snow singing the chorus of Fei Yu-ching's 1983 ballad Yi Jian Mei, uploaded to Kuaishou in January 2020. By May it had crossed to TikTok and Spotify, where the line 'xue hua piao piao, bei feng xiao xiao' became a caption for any situation that is going badly and cannot be helped. The record's entry for a forty-year-old song getting a second life through a stranger's phone.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Yummy

A 2020 Justin Bieber single whose lyric is largely the title repeated, which made it both catchy and easy to mock. Conspiracy theorists also attached it to Pizzagate claims, which is how a pop single ends up in two unrelated arguments at once. The record's entry for a hook that gave everyone something to do.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Kill This Love

The Blackpink single that set the template its own successor would beat: a record premiere audience, 56.7 million views in 24 hours, the fastest run to 100 million views at two days and 14 hours. It passed two billion views in September 2024. The record's entry for a record that lasted a year.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Got Him

A pairing: Breakbot's Baby I'm Yours dropped over footage of somebody being caught out, with a 2003 press-conference line by the American diplomat Paul Bremer announcing the capture of Saddam Hussein as the cue. Used for arrests, ambushes and jokes at a friend's expense.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Old Town Road

A country-trap track that spread through TikTok as the Yeehaw Challenge — drink milk, cut, appear in a cowboy hat — and then spent 13-plus weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. A Billy Ray Cyrus remix extended it further. The record's entry for a hit that a chart had to be argued into recognising.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

A new wave song recorded off German radio in 1984, believed to be by a European band, with no known title and no known artist. The search for its origins took hold in 2019 after a Brazilian Reddit user asked whether anyone recognised it, and has continued as a distributed research project ever since.

▸ 2019peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Baby I'm Yours

A 2010 disco-pop song by Breakbot that became the soundtrack for a specific remix format: a clip of someone being caught, arrested or otherwise ambushed, cut to the song and to Paul Bremer's 2003 line 'Ladies and gentlemen, we got him'. Widely used on YouTube in 2018 for FBI-raid jokes and ligma punchlines. The record's entry for a song that is now mostly a sound effect.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Crab Rave

An April Fool's release for the label Monstercat that stopped being a joke almost immediately: thousands of animated crabs dancing on a beach, in a video that became the internet's standard way to celebrate bad news about someone else. The record's entry for a joke track that acquired a job.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Dilbar

A Hindi remake of a 1999 Bollywood number, rebuilt with Arabic and Moroccan influences and a belly dance performance by Nora Fatehi. A later trilingual remix in Arabic, French and Hindi followed, with Fatehi singing alongside the Moroccan hip hop group Fnaïre. The record's entry for a remake that outgrew its source.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

God's Plan

A Drake number one whose video consists largely of him giving money away on camera — cheques, cars, a supermarket sweep. The lyrics and the good deeds both got memed, often against each other. The record's entry for charity edited as a music video.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

In My Feelings Challenge

A dance challenge attached to Drake's 2018 single, replicated by Odell Beckham Jr., Will Smith and the hosts of Live with Kelly and Ryan, among a great many others. The challenge's popularity pushed the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

▸ 2018peak 2018†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Laung Laachi

The title song of a Punjabi film that became the most-viewed song video in India by December 2019 and the first music video to pass a billion views there. It remains the most-viewed video on the T-Series Apna Punjab channel. The record's entry for a scale of audience that Anglophone charts kept missing.

▸ 2018peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Lolly Bomb

A Russian rave band's video in which an impersonator of Kim Jong-un, Howard X, falls in love with a missile. Absurd enough to travel without translation, and pointed enough that a lot of the sharing came with a caveat. The record's entry for satire that spread on its visuals.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Mooo!

A novelty song built around the assertion that the singer is a cow and not a cat, filmed at home against a green screen made out of a bed sheet. The record's entry for the deliberately cheap video as a calling card, made by an artist who then went on to have a proper career.

▸ 2018peak 2018†2019

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

STOOPID

A single whose accompanying dance became a TikTok challenge and whose audio ended up under a large volume of unrelated memes. The record's entry for a track that spent more time as a sound than as a song.

▸ 2018peak 2018†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Thank U, Next

A number one single whose video, released on 30 November 2018, restaged Mean Girls, Bring It On, 13 Going on 30 and Legally Blonde with a cast of familiar faces. It took 55.4 million views in 24 hours and 100 million in three days and ten hours. The record's entry for the video as a shot-for-shot quiz.

▸ 2018peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

This Is America

A Childish Gambino video that passed 12.9 million views in under 24 hours and 50 million in three days, and then generated a week of frame-by-frame annotation. Almost every gesture in it was read as a reference, and the reading was the second half of the release. The record's entry for a video that arrived with homework.

▸ 2018peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

1-800-273-8255

A song titled after the phone number of the United States National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, about suicide prevention. After the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards performance the Lifeline reported calls rose by around 50 per cent. The record's entry for a title that was also a working phone number.

▸ 2017peak 2017still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

80s Remix

A video genre in which a current pop song is rebuilt as though it had been released in the 1980s: gated drums, analogue synths, a saxophone that nobody asked for. The record's entry for a format whose entire content is a decade, applied to something else.

▸ 2017peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Big Enough

An EDM country track whose video puts Jimmy Barnes in the sky as a giant screaming cowboy. The scream was then laid over every other notable scream in popular culture, which is the form in which most people encountered it. The record's entry for a single vocal take that became a punctuation mark.

▸ 2017peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Despacito

The Spanish-language single that took the YouTube view record and then kept taking it — first to three, four, five, six and seven billion views. A Justin Bieber remix pushed it into the American top ten, where it spent 16 weeks at number one. The record's entry for the video that broke the counter.

▸ 2017peak 2017still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

For the Damaged Coda

A short piano piece from 2000 by Blonde Redhead, made recognisable by Rick and Morty and then laid over sad moments from everywhere else. Its function online is to announce that what you are watching is about to be treated as tragedy. The record's entry for a cue that does an emotion for you.

▸ 2017peak 2019still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Gucci Gang

A Lil Pump single built on a hook that says its own name over and over, which turned out to be an ideal shape for edits. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while functioning mostly as raw material. The record's entry for a chorus with a hole in it.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Havana

A slow-burning single named after Havana, where the singer was born, which climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first song by a female artist since 1996 to top three separate Billboard charts at once. The record's entry for a hit that arrived by radio and stayed by algorithm.

▸ 2017peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Howard the Alien

A green-screened 3D alien dancing, cut to Lil Uzi Vert's Money Longer. Uploaded as a stock-looking animation in December 2017, then reposted on iFunny with a caption about sleep paralysis, which is the version everyone actually remembers. The record's entry for a rendered asset that got a personality.

▸ 2017peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Look What You Made Me Do

The comeback single released on 27 August 2017 whose video took the 24-hour viewing record with 43.2 million views, beating the 27.7 million that Adele's 'Hello' had managed. The closing scene, with every past version of the singer arguing on a pile, was screenshotted for years. The record's entry for a pop star editing her own archive.

▸ 2017peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Man's Not Hot

A freestyle by the British comedian Michael Dapaah, delivered in character, whose deliberately unintelligible runs of syllables became the quotable part and got remixed over an assortment of other songs. The record's entry for a parody that charted harder than most of what it was parodying.

▸ 2017peak 2018†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Mine (Bazzi)

A Bazzi song that reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 largely because one line of it — the one about being precious when you smile — became a caption format applied to pets, footballers and inanimate objects. The record's entry for a compliment that stopped meaning anything.

▸ 2017peak 2018still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Pink Season

A comedy album released by a YouTube performer under a costume persona, made of deliberately crude joke tracks, which went viral on release and reached the top of the iTunes chart. The record's entry for the moment a character from a video channel outsold the recording industry for a week.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2018

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Redbone (Girl Scout Cookies)

A six-year-old selling Girl Scout cookies with her father, filmed to Childish Gambino's Redbone. Her sales reportedly went through the roof, and she ended up on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside Donald Glover. The record's entry for a sales pitch that got a chart hit attached to it.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2018

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Rolex (Ayo & Teo)

A song by the duo Ayo & Teo built around a dance and a hashtag, the #RolexChallenge, which existed so that people could film themselves failing to reproduce the footwork. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2019

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Scooby Doo Papa

A song and dance video by the New York DJ DJ Kass, recreated widely across social media by people copying the routine. It peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot Latin chart. The record's entry for the year the dance video spoke Spanish and travelled anyway.

▸ 2017peak 2018†2019

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Shooting Stars

A 2009 Australian synth-pop song that went viral in 2017 as the soundtrack to clips of people falling, the fall extended into surreal space backgrounds as the beat drops. The band has acknowledged the meme. The record's entry for the fall as an editing genre.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Bad and Boujee

A Migos single that became a meme almost entirely on the strength of its first two words. 'Raindrop, droptop' was pulled out of the verse and used as a template for thousands of edits, most of which had nothing to do with rain or cars. The record's entry for a couplet detached from its song.

▸ 2016peak 2017still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Dat $tick

An Indonesian teenager in a pink polo shirt and a bum bag, rapping in a voice much lower than his face suggested. It went viral not on its own but through the reaction video: American rappers watching it, laughing, then not laughing. The record's entry for a song that spread by being watched being watched.

▸ 2016peak 2016still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1

A Kanye West track from The Life of Pablo that opens with Metro Boomin's producer tag, 'If Young Metro don't trust you I'm gonna shoot ya', followed by a beat drop that arrives like an entrance. Vine and meme-makers used the tag and the drop to score clips of anybody firing a gun, or of anything that could be edited to look like one. The record's entry for a producer tag that outgrew the song.

▸ 2016peak 2016still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Gokuraku Jodo

A J-pop single released on 28 July 2016 with a dance video, which crossed to the Chinese site Bilibili and went viral there — producing spoofs, mimicry videos and a wave of copied choreography quite separate from its Japanese release. The record's entry for a song that got popular in the next country over.

▸ 2016peak 2017still up