Viral/Meme Songs
This song by Ylvis answers an important zoological question about the sounds that a certain small mammal makes when attempting to communicate.
What is "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)"
This 1982 album by a male musical icon is the best-selling album of all time, with multiple massive hits on the tracklist and a title track that remains a Halloween-season playlist favourite.
What is "Thriller" by Michael Jackson?
This song by Los del Rio, often considered one of the most iconic songs of the 90s, became a massive hit after a remix started receiving airplay in the United States. Staying at #1 for over 14 weeks in the USA, it spawned a dance craze so serious that the 1996 Democratic National Convention even featured the attendees dancing to it on C-SPAN.
What is "Macarena" by Los del Rio?
The version that became popular in the US is the Bayside Boys remix, which came about when a radio DJ heard the original at a club and played it for his superiors. They asked him to work on a version with some English lyrics, which he completed with his partners at Bayside Records, thus the name.
This rapper, who debuted in 2003 with the support of Dr. Dre and Eminem, is known for such trivia as being shot nine times and surviving, as well as tweeting to complain about how his grandmother was still making him take out the trash for her despite his wealth.
Who is 50 Cent?
(Yes, the tweet is real)
This Albanian pop star gained her first big hit in 2017, followed by a massive sophomore album in 2020 that was both futuristic and nostalgic.
Who is Dua Lipa?
Her single "New Rules" introduced many pop fans to her sound, while the album "Future Nostalgia" became a genuine phenomenon when it released in 2020.
This 1987 hit saw a resurgence due to its association with a well-known "bait and switch" internet prank originating on the imageboard 4chan wherein a web link is labelled as going somewhere else but actually pulls up this song's music video; as a result, the song now has over one billion views on YouTube.
What is Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"
This single-named female pop star became a musical mainstay, but her first number one hit was from the soundtrack to the movie "Desperately Seeking Susan"
Who is Madonna?
"Into the Groove" was both her first number one hit and remains her best-selling single even now.
These are the stage names/personas adopted by the five members of British pop girl group Spice Girls.
Who are Posh Spice, Baby Spice, Scary Spice, Sporty Spice, and Ginger Spice?
This r&b princess hit the scene in 2004 with an album full of Goodies showed us how to 1,2 Step to beats that were automatic, supersonic, hypnotic and funky-fresh.
Who is Ciara?
This female rapper topped charts in the 2010s with hits named after interstellar spacecrafts, snakes, a Street Fighter character, and even a Transformers robot.
Who is Nicki Minaj?
Nicki dominated the airwaves in the 2010s with singles like Starships, Anaconda, Chun Li, and Megatron.
SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME--
What is "All Star" by Smash Mouth?
This 1984 hit from a British boy-band duo was not only their first number one hit, but also later became the iconic background music for the "orange mocha frappucino!" gasoline fight scene in 2001's Zoolander.
What is "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!?
The duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgely became one of the most successful pop acts of the 80s.
This popular 90's R&B girl group educated everyone about the type of guy who thinks he's fly, but is also known as a busta, and spends his time hanging out the passenger side of his best friend's ride while he's looking like trash and the singer is looking like class in which 1999 hit?
What is TLC's "No Scrubs"?
Left Eye, T-Boz and Chilli inform us that a scrub is a guy who can't get no love.
This producer dominated the mid-2000s charts, both producing and featuring on successful albums from stars like Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, as well as releasing his own albums that featured artists like Fall Out Boy, Drake, Keri Hilson, and more.
Who is Timbaland?
Previously best known for his work with Aaliyah and Missy Elliott, in the mid-2000s Timbaland pivoted to more pop-oriented production, resulting in hits like "Cry Me A River", "Promiscuous Girl" and "The Way I Are" among many others.
This female rapper got her start as a reality TV personality known for being just a regular degular schmegular from the Bronx who catapulted to mainstream pop culture fame with her when her debut single was released in 2017.
Who is Cardi B?
Bodak Yellow's success lead to Cardi becoming the first female rapper to have a certified Diamond solo single.
Which song asks the important question of what's cooler than being cool (ice cold!), while also advising listeners of how to shake it like a polaroid picture?
What is "Hey Ya" by OutKast?
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright, alright
This 1985 song about the life of a classical composer is, to date, the only German language song to peak at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and featured a music video where 20th and 18th century people collided.
What is "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco?
This Atlanta rap duo debuted in 1994 with their album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and became known for their unique fusion of funk, hip-hop, techno, jazz paired, intricate lyrics, and willingness to experiment with different aesthetics and influences during their music videos received critical and popular acclaim until they seemingly retired as a group at the peak of their commercial/crossover success.
Who is OutKast?
Since their last album together, Andre 3000 has been largely quiet, but Big Boi has been consistently releasing albums where he continues to keep the experimental and genre-crossing spirit of OutKast alive.
This debut single from a virtual band featured an animated, zombie-themed music video, rapping by Del the Funky Homosapien and vocals by Damon Albarn of Blur.
What is "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz?
This ponytailed pop star became a dominant force in the music industry in the 2010s, and even celebrated one of her top hits of the decade with a tattoo that was meant to be the name of the song translated into Japanese - but actually read "BBQ grill"
Who is Ariana Grande?
Her tattoo was meant to translate to "Seven rings" but 七輪 actually means "seven wheels" or shichirin, which is the name for a small charcoal grill.
This 1982 soft rock song that mentions the blessing of a certain weather pattern became a bonafide online meme in the 2010s, featuring on TV shows like South Park, Stranger Things, and Community and being covered by artists like Weezer and Pitbull.
What is "Africa" by Toto?
"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had..."
This iconic 1984 movie theme song was written in two and a half days after the artist gained inspiration from watching late-night television commercial jingles, and went on to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earn an Academy Award nomination.
What is "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr?
Supposedly Columbia Pictures rejected 60 previous submissions for the Ghostbusters theme song before thy reached out to Ray Parker Jr., which is part of the reason he had such a short deadline to complete the song.
Despite the dessert-themed rapper's emphatic denials and infamous attempt to disprove the similarities by humming the sampled melody in a slightly different tempo, this debut single absolutely, definitely sampled "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie.
What is "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice?
Fun fact: Eminem stated that when he first heard this song he "felt like [he] didn't want to rap anymore."
The plagiarism lawsuit was settled out of court by Ice buying the rights for "Under Pressure" and to this day both Queen and David Bowie are given writing credit on every version of Ice Ice Baby.
This female artist is known for working AM to PM in the 2000s - both for her own R&B hits, as well as songwriting and providing additional vocals for several other successful artists of the era.
Who is Christina Milian?
Milian, of AM to PM and Dip it Low fame, is also known for her behind-the-scenes contributions such as primary vocals on Jennifer Lopez's song "Play" and co-writing "Baby" by Justin Bieber.
This massive female artist's self-titled 5th studio album was released without any prior announcement or promotion in December of 2013, quickly becoming her fifth consecutive number one album and breaking records to become the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes store.
Who is Beyoncé?