This is a partial list of viralmusic videos, that gained rapid attention on the Internet. Like Internet memes, viewership of such videos tend to grow rapidly and become more widespread because the instant communication facilitates word of mouth.
This list documents music videos known to have become viral; other viral videos can be found at list of viral videos with additional videos that have become Internet phenomena for other categories can be found at list of Internet phenomena.
These videos are official music videos from various artists that have gained viral popularity after their release.
Major music videos
"Ai Se Eu Te Pego" - A Brazilian song made popular by the Brazilian singer Michel Teló during the height of the Música sertaneja craze and the international success of the song with main release getting more than 700 million views.[1]
"The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" – A song and associated video by the Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis prepared for their upcoming television show. The song's verses note the noises other animals make, but in the chorus, ask what noise a fox makes, at which point the song offers nonsense phrases like "gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!" and "fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!", while the video takes a similarly funny turn. The video saw over 43 million hits within a few weeks of its release, topping music charts, and leading to Ylvis being signed for more music by Warner Bros. Records.[2]
"Gangnam Style" – A song and music video by South Korean rapper, Psy, showing him doing an "invisible horse dance" and saying the catchphrase "Oppan Gangnam Style" across a number of odd locations, leading to its viral spread as well as the single's reaching international music charts.[3][4] The video has since become the most watched video on YouTube as of April 2016.[5]
"Hello" – Adele's song released in October 2015 was a major digital commercial success being the first song to sell 1 million units within a week of its release. Its video, which primarily features Adele's singing her song through a telephone conversation, led to numerous mashups with other songs, including Lionel Richie's song of the same name which had a similar theme to its video.[6][7] Further, as of April 2016, the video holds the record for the fastest time to reach one billion views on YouTube, reaching this within 88 days of release.[8]
"Hotline Bling" – A song and video by Drake released in October 2015; the video primarily consists of Drake dancing with female performers against brightly-lit backgrounds. Drake's dance style was considered "goofy"[9] and like that "of a total fool",[10] leading to Internet users either resampling the video against other songs they felt more fitting, or themselves recreating the dance moves.
"Bed Intruder Song" – A remix by the Gregory Brothers of a televised news interview of Antoine Dodson, the brother of a victim of a home invasion and attempted assault. The music video became a mainstream success, reaching the Billboard Hot 100, and became the most watched YouTube video of 2010.[16]
"Gwiyomi" – A K-pop single by the South Korean indie musician Hari. The song was released on 18 February 2013 and is based on an Internet meme known as the Gwiyomi Player, which was invented in October 2012 by the K-pop idol Jung Il Hoon and has inspired many similar versions uploaded onto the Internet by Asian netizens.[19][20]
Hampster Dance – A page filled with hamsters dancing, linking to other animated pages. It spawned a fictional band complete with its own CD album release.[21]
Hurra Torpedo – A Norwegian band whose coast-to-coast tour was a viral campaign to promote the Ford Fusion car.[22]
"One Pound Fish" – A sales pitch song written and sung by Muhammad Shahid Nazir, a fish stall vendor in London, that became a viral hit and led to Nazir getting a recording contract.[24]
"Pants on the Ground" – First sung by "General" Larry Platt during the season 9 auditions of American Idol in Atlanta, Georgia, on 13 January 2010. Within one week, the video was seen by approximately 5 million on YouTube, had over 1 million fans on Facebook, and was repeated on television by Jimmy Fallon and Brett Favre.[25]
"Pop Culture" – A 2011 YouTube video of a live mash-up by the musician Hugo Pierre Leclercq aka "Madeon", aged 17 at the time, using a Novation touchpad to mix samples from 39 different songs. The video went viral within a few days of being posted, and led to Leclercq's fame in the electronica music genre.[26][27]
"Red Solo Cup" – Toby Keith's recording of a drinking song devoted to the Solo disposable cup became a viral hit, with the video logging over seven million views on YouTube and the song eventually becoming Keith's biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100.[28][29]
"United Breaks Guitars" – A video by the band Sons of Maxwell, recounting how United Airlines broke a guitar belonging to band member Dave Carroll. The video reached 11 million views, was named one of the top ten of 2009,[31] and created speculation that it had caused a $180 million drop in the airline's stock value.[32]
Other music videos
These are videos generally set to music though are not official videos from the music's performer or artist, and often are mash-ups, remixes, or other such uses of existing music.
Anime Music Videos/MADs – A staple of anime conventions both in Japan and Western countries, these fan-made videos take footage from various anime works and re-edit them in different order, addition of new soundtracks (including to full-length songs), and other manipulations such as lip-syncing characters to lyrics; with the propagation of the Internet and popularity of anime in the United States in 2003, this type of user-created content flourished, and grew to include footage from other works including video games and Western animated shows.[35][36]
"Chocolate Rain" – A song and music video written and performed by Tay Zonday (also known as Adam Nyerere Bahner). After being posted on YouTube on 22 April 2007, the song quickly became a popular viral video. By December 2009, the video had received over 40 million views.[37][38]
"Friday" – A music video sung by 13-year-old Rebecca Black, partially funded by her mother, which received over 200 million views on YouTube[43] and spread in popularity through social media services.[44]
Harlem Shake – A video based on Harlem shake dance, originally created by vlogger Filthy Frank and using an electronica version of the song by Baauer. In such videos, one person is dancing or acting strange among a room full of others going about routine business, until after the drop and a video cut, everyone starts dancing or acting strangely. The attempts to recreate the dance has led to a viral spread on YouTube.[45][46]
"Juju on That Beat" - Viral video by two Detroit teenagers Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall, with their dance moves. The song charted on Billboard Hot 100 reaching number 11.
"Lazy Sunday" – A 2005 Saturday Night Live sketch written and performed by Andy Samburg and Chris Parnell in which the two engage in a hip-hop song about their plans for a lazy Sunday afternoon. The song was uploaded by fans to YouTube, at that time a relative small, new site, and had been watched by millions of users before it was taken down as a copyright violation by NBC. This created the idea of being able to provide reuse of television material on the Internet, giving shows a second life, and is stated to have established YouTube as a potential revenue source for television networks, contributing towards Google's purchase of the site for $1.6 billion in 2006.[50][51][52]
Mandatory Fun album and the #8days8videos campaign – A viral marketing campaign by comedy singer/songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic to promote his 2014 album Mandatory Fun by releasing eight videos for the new album over eight consecutive days across different streaming providers. The Internet-aided approach was considered very successful, leading to the album to become Yankovic's first number one hit in his 32-year career and became the first comedy album to hit Number 1 on the Billboard charts in over 50 years.[53][54][55]
"The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody" – A 2009 music video featuring The Muppets performing a modified version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". The video received over seven million hits within its first week of release on YouTube, and by 2012, it had earned over 25 million hits. The video won the "Viral Video" category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards.[56]
Literal music video – Covers of music videos where the original lyrics have been replaced with ones that literally describe the events that occur in the video, typically disconnected with the original lyrics of the song.[58][59]
Rickrolling – A phenomenon involving posting a URL in an Internet forum that appears to be relevant to the topic at hand, but is, in fact, a link to a video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". The practice originated on 4chan as a "Duckroll", in which an image of a duck on wheels was what was linked to. The practice of Rickrolling became popular after April Fools' Day in 2008 when YouTube rigged every feature video on its home page to Rick Astley's song.[69][70]
Trololo – A 1976 televised performance of Russian singer Eduard Khil lip-syncing the song I Am Glad to Finally Be Home (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой). The video's first mainstream appearance was on The Colbert Report, on 3 March 2010;[74] since then, its popularity has escalated, occasionally being used as part of a bait and switch prank, similar to Rickrolling.[75][76]
"Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" - viral video by Silentó with own set of unique moves immitated by other fans. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
What What (In the Butt) – A viral music video set to a song about anal sex by gay recording artist Samwell. The video was posted on Valentine's Day 2007, and two weeks later had already been viewed 500,000 times.[79] It was subsequently parodied on the South Park episode, "Canada on Strike", which poked fun at several other Internet memes and personalities.