One question I get asked sometimes that is very much of the moment is this: “How do I make my track go viral?”
Now I could say write a classic that connects with people’s emotions, is ideally tied in with a blockbuster movie like Titanic and have lots of dirty cash behind it, but for once, I have another, more achievable, almost sure fire solution for you:
Create A Stupid Dance.
Oh yes. If you’re not some kind of an off the grid survivalist and have been anywhere on the internet you probably remember the “Harlem Shake”, “shuffling” ala L.M.F.A.O ( that was big here at audiomixing.online HQ) or at the very least Psy’s “Gangnam Style”. All of this music was entirely pointless without the dance.
Going way back to Chubby Checker and “The Twist”, this one is a winner. You literally can’t touch this. Every weekend down the pub, hordes of lads on the pull do the “YMCA” moves about 5 pints into the night as the DJ drops it not long before the walk of shame home after.
The 80’s went psycho with this trick. Even respectable bands like REM had one, The Police had the ”Punk Kick”, the whole 80’s ska revival had a whole set of “nutty boy” moves. Maybe it’s a tie between Jacko’s “Moonwalk” and MC Hammer’s,uh…”hammer dance” for winner of the 80’s, before Madonna Vogued her way into the 90’s, when if “Saturday Night” didn’t give you an “Achy Breaky Heart”, the “Macerena” sure would.
Before you think it’s only for the pop kids Heavy Metal has always had headbanging and air guitar (yes that counts) but going back a little bit in time Status Quo had a weird thumbs in belt loops dance which might have a name I don’t know and was perfectly acceptable for greasy bikers and embarrassing parents to do whenever The Quo came on. And don’t forget some of you were totally “rollin’” with the Bizkit. http://yoursite.com saw you at Reading Festival, I was there too.
Now obviously I am being pretty lighthearted about this whole thing, but hang on a minute here.
The trick now is stupid dance moves are easily copyable, there are a dozen social apps for making videos and the kids love to film themselves doing whatever the dance is, sharing the videos and making the phenomenon even more viral. Even Skepta’s got a “Rolex Sweep”, you feel me?
Tik-Tok may be evil processing your face and data getting you ready for imprisonment by the fun police in the future, but you mark my words, we’re going to have a few winners all thanks to The Stupid Dance. It’s Christmas, you’re going to drink too much anyway and this is the perfect opportunity to get busy…
And when you have perfected that crazy dance, make sure to hit me up so I can mix your song to perfection via my online mixing and mastering service here at audiomixing.online – I promise I won’t judge!