Julie Glassberg for The New York Times The D. J. Baauer, whose “Harlem Shake†fueled a Youtube craze, at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg.For the third week running, Baauer’s trap novelty “Harlem Shake†takes the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, largely because of the magazine’s new tabulating system that takes into account Youtube views. (Baauer is also the cover story in the magazine’s current issue, which tells you somethng about how a publication can make itself a large part of its own story.)
This is an interesting moment in the ongoing story of how we consume and react to music, because those Youtube views typically include less than a sixth of the length of the track, and the students, office-workers, and professional sports teams dancing to the song in those thousands of videos aren’t really expressing anything about the song itself. Or are they Jon Caramanica talks with host Ben Ratliff about trap, listening, appropriation, memory, impotent rage, and disembodied dance crazes.
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Jon Caramanica on Baauer’s “Harlem Shake†and Macklemore’s “Thrift Shopâ€
Ben Sisario on the changing of the rules in the Billboard Hot 100 chart
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)
