Musings of The Viral Music, The Social Media Tunes Everyone’s Dancing to
Raise your hand if you’ve caught on to this bizarre habit of scrolling mindlessly through videos on Instagram.
Raise your hand if you saw an IG Reel video and you couldn’t stop playing it on a loop cause the song got stuck in your head.
Raise your hand if you are obsessed with a track from a Reels or Tik-Tok video.
Be it the flamboyant fledgling Instagram Reels or its earlier equivalent Tik-Tok, this form of thumb-stopping video content has received a resounding reception from Gen Y and Z. The internet has been hooked to this form of music throughout the pandemic!
Just an FYI in case you were quarantining under a rock, Instagram Reels was released in India on July 12, 2020. Users are to create and post short, 15-second videos set to music or other audio. They can be posted on their feed, and the top reels are shared on the Explore page, using a similar algorithm that currently presents the most popular posts.
Reels also curates an assortment of trending and classic tracks to suit your taste and mood. A visit to the Reels music library spoils you for choice.
Here’s a list of some of the top songs that made people scroll down a mile or, I don’t know, kilometres on the Reels Explore page for the first quarter of 2021!
The ‘Runaway’ trend that became an instantaneous sensation was born from Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora’s hit track ‘Runaway’ which she wrote when she was all of 11! Though released in 2016, the song has made it to a million IG reels and TikToks. With its wistful shades, gorgeous silhouettes and star-studded skies it has made millennials rediscover and fall in love with this track.
Astoundingly there’s an entire segment of people that have discovered this song and gotten addicted to it, courtesy TiK-Tok! Raise your hand if you’re one of them unless your hands are aching by now.
However, what few may know is that the OG ‘Oh No’ song roots back to more than five decades. The original composition is from ‘Remember (Walking in the Sand),’ first recorded by The Shangri-Las in 1964, later Aerosmith made a rocking cover of it too. A remix of the original by Capone is the version heard on TikTok.
Adding to our list of eclectic revivals, here’s yet another old gold number that has taken social media by the storm recently – Australian singer-songwriter Lenka Kripac’s ‘Everything at Once.’ Known for her playful melodies, whimsical lyrics and dreamy vocals, this pop sensation’s track was even used for Windows 8 and Disney commercials back in the day.
Post the début of Justin Bieber’s new song ‘Peaches’, his wife Hailey kickstarted the #PeachesMakeupChallenge, and her Insta fam went cray! Pros and amateurs alike, everyone took up the challenge of creating some gorgeous peachy looks and grooves.
Singers Rashmeet Kaur, Ikka and Deep Kalsi’s contemporary rendition of the Punjabi folk wedding song ‘Bajre Da Sitta’ with its colourful pop vibe has won hearts across the Internet (literally, so many double-taps!)
A blend of folk and old school hip-hop, it’s like a breath of fresh air making it the much-needed danceable number of the month, hands-down a kickass way of reintroducing the classic to the younger generation.
A fierce feminist takedown of the 90s Aqua hit, the hyper-pop track “Not Your Barbie Girl” is created by American singer Ava Max who may look like a vivacious rainbow but can slice through steel. It was popularized via TikTok’s Barbie Girl Challenge where females across the world created videos about unrealistic beauty standards so much so that the #BarbieGirlChallenge has over 66 million views, emphasizing women empowering themselves.
You could easily find these on YouTube, Spotify and all other major music streaming apps.
Video creation platforms have not only become a casket full of content but also a powerful promotional tool for newly released songs. I mean it’s fun, it’s functional and it’s free. Imagine the enormous amount of investment these small-big music labels are saving while engaging directly with their key audience, not to forget how these tracks are helping brands and influencers make cooler content royalty-free. With the plenty of perks isn’t it obvious why everyone’s dancing to the tunes of social media
