This song achieved THREE BILLION YouTube views in just a MONTH. You’ll never guess what it is. In fact, don’t even try.
There’s a lot of talk about the streaming records being set by Taylor Swift and her The Tortured Poets Department. And us, material from the record have been streamed a lot. But this story has nothing to do with TTPD. Or Taylor Swift.
No, this story is about a single song that has suddenly racked up three billion streams in a single month. That’s some kind of record.
So if not Tay-Tay, who? The Weeknd? Drake? Some K-op artist? Nope.
Here are few more hints. It was originally released in 1994. The act is from Sweden. It’s a dance track. It’s a favourite of Peter Griffin on Family Guy (no, not “Surfin’ Bird.”_ And it’s a cover of a song that dates back to sometime before 1861. And no, that’s not a typo. The original was written sometime before the US Civil War.
Give up? Here’s your answer.
Yes, it’s Rednex and their version of “Cotton Eye Joe,” which has achieved THREE BILLION views in a mere 26 days. No one has ever had that many views in that short a time. Not Taylor Swift. Not Adele. Not The Weeknd, Drarke, Bieber, or BTS. No one.
I can hear you saying What the f*ck? What the f*cking f*ck? That’s a good question. And there is an answer.
The credit/blame must go to Razi Irawani’s viral meme known as “Gedagedigedagedago.” The audio from this clip has been used and reused all over the internet, leading people back to the Rednex version.
@razioff Cotton Eye Joe #cottoneyejoe ♬ Gedagedigedagedago (with Razi) [Cotton Eye Joe meme remix long] – Rednex
Rednex is obviously thrilled. Although the song itself is in the public domain, Rednex earns royalties as a performer of the song. I quote from Complete Music News:
Rednex reckon that their music (mainly small fragments of ‘Cotton Eye Joe’) has been heard by 12% of all YouTube users in 2024 and 4% of the world’s population.
Speaking to Euronews, Rednex founder Pat Reiniz said, “A paradigm shift is happening where we’re asking: how is music success best measured? This event was created thanks to millions of video creators generating billions of fragmented plays of Rednex’s music, rather than as a result of the traditional way of listening. It will be a challenge for the music industry to reflect these various counts in charts and measurements and even poses the question, ‘Is the basic use and concept of music itself changing?’”
Music today is weird.
