This is a fascinating news story that happened back in 2019. Out of the blue a 25 year old
osbcure Dinosaur Jr song,, topped the song charts in Japan. At first nobody knew how this happened.
It’s also not the first time weird things like this have happened on the song charts.
If you guys remember Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams” re-emerged on the billboard charts in America for
the first time since 1977 all thanks to a meme. We’ll talk about that in another episode. But
today let’s talk about how Dinosaur Jr. topped the charts in Japan without even knowing or trying.
Released in 1994 Dinosaur Jr’s sixth album titled without a sound was the group’s most
commercially successful record peaking at number 44 on the album charts in America. The last track
on the album over your shoulder was never released as a single anywhere in the world,
was never part of any re-issue in Japan or hollywood movie or wasn't even a meme.
It’s not even the best known song off the record. That goes to Feel The Pain. I still remember
playing that song in rock band 2 and guitar hero. But strangely enough in 2019, 25 years after the
song was released, over your shoulder topped the Japanese Billboard hot overseas chart
and peaked at number 18 on the country’s hot 100 chart surpassing western acts
including Arianna Grande and rock band Queen. According to Gizmodo the explanation lies
in and i quote involves “Japanese bad boys, reality TV piracy, and renegade algorithms”
The song on youtube quietly racked up 8 million streams and soon enough, billboard magazine issued
a statement that read “The likely answer is that some unknown user uploaded a video or videos using
these songs, which were then viewed enough times for the song to make significant inroads into
the ranking, Chances are if you watch any youtube video with licensed music, you’ll likely see this
below the description box. Regardless of whether the user who uploaded the content has permission
to use the song or not, streams of songs count towards its billboard position. Originally a lot
of people were stumped as to why it was happening. Even billboard didn't know what to say. But the
origin of the song’s rise in popularity can be attributed to an old japanese TV show named
Gachinko which ran from 1999 to 2003. Gachinko was a reality tv show that saw young punk contestants
become kick boxers. The show frequently used Dinosaur Jr's track Over my shoulder
as a musical cue . According to a Japanese media consultant who talked to Gizmodo they would say
the track was featured in most episodes to give a sense of increased “sentiment, distress and
emotion.” During the show’s heyday it dominated the ratings with the consultant revealing.
“Highest rating was 32.3% of total households,”. “In terms of rating, 10%
is good, 20% is great in Japan.” The show had a bump in popularity in 2019
because one of the members of the Gachinko’s cast appeared on a more recent show called,
“Tokio Kakeru,” Their appearance, resulted in people searching for the old gachinko tv
episodes on YouTube and binge watching pirated episodes. Since there were no streaming services
in japan at the time who carried the show, YouTube was the only option. But it wasn’t just nostalgic
users and pirated episodes that boosted streams of Over Your Shoulder. YouTube’s algorithm soon
started recommending the pirated episodes in people’s sidebar further streams of the song
So why do YouTube views matter on the billboard charts? Well in 2013 Billboard changed how they
calculate rankings on the music charts. Since people were mostly consuming music through
streaming they started counting youtube views regardless of who posted the video.
Billboard magazine would issue a statement following the discovery revealing
We believe a recurring segment from an old terrestrial TV variety program—which prominently
featured Dinosaur Jr.'s "Over Your Shoulder" as well as the non-Japanese tracks that mysteriously
appeared on the Japan Hot 100 dated Feb. 11 [tracking date: Jan. 28 to Feb. 3]—went viral
due to renewed interest, resulting in users to binge watch YouTube videos of the segment
using these songs, racking up significant views to impact the charts" they would say in a statement.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
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