It’s so catchy! Those infernal “doo doo doo doo doo doo’s” remain engraved in our brains. The song is No. 32 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It accumulated over 20.8 million streams according to Nielsen music, in addition to its unbelievable 2.1 billion views on YouTube. How on Earth did the Baby Shark song become this popular?
What is the Baby Shark Song And Why Is It Going Viral? Baby Shark’s Rise To Fame
The Baby Shark song started with humble beginnings. A few years ago, it was only a campfire song, the kind that you sing with a side of S’mores and mosquitoes. But then the South Korean education company PinkFong popularized the song with the help of some adorable Korean children and Auto-Tune.
It was a slow burn at first in popularity. PinkFong published the video on Nov. 25, 2015. It first went viral in Indonesia in 2017, and then it spread throughout Asia. Soon. K-Pop bands started the “Baby Shark Challenge,” which was a dance craze where people danced to a Baby Shark remix. The K-Pop bands, Girl’s Generation, Twice, Red Velvet, and Black Pink are responsible in part for spreading the song and dance to the United States. K-Pop is a musical genre that is becoming increasingly popular in the United States; Black Pink are even performing at Coachella, the first K-Pop band to ever perform in the history of the festival.
When K-Pop fans saw the Baby Shark challenge. it began the spread of the infectious song to the United States. Today, putting “Baby Shark song” into Google spits out 87.7 million hits. James Corden sang a stirring rendition of the children’s song with Sophie Turner and Josh Groban (hot take: it was kind of good). Ellen DeGeneres did her own cover of the song, and if Ellen covers it, you know it is popular.
How To Listen To The Baby Shark Song
If the people demand, the streaming companies comply. There are a surprising number of ways to download, stream and listen to the Baby Shark song. Besides the obvious YouTube clip, you can play Baby Shark on Spotify, Google Play, Apply Music, and SoundCloud. But if you have a child, feel free to tell them all the companies burned down. Only if you want to save your ears, though.
There is no real answer to why viral videos become so popular. But personally, this is one video we hope will fade into obscurity soon. (*interally* ♪ Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo… ♪)
