Baby Shark
Decoder Ring
Slate Podcasts
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2019
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Baby Shark is an megaviral YouTube video, an unstoppable earworm, a top 40 hit, a Eurodance smash, a decades old campfire song, and the center of an international copyright dispute. This month on Decoder Ring we explore the strange history and conflicted future of the song, what makes it so catchy, and how it came to be.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:09.6 | About a year ago, Jonathan Wright, a DJ and a children's musician who goes by the stage name Johnny Only, started getting strange comments on his YouTube page. |
| 0:19.0 | I don't read my YouTube comments very much, but I did start seeing comments. |
| 0:24.0 | Hey, hey, there's a song out there exactly like yours, you know. |
| 0:26.8 | These comments referred to a song Johnny often performed for toddlers and that he had posted |
| 0:31.7 | on YouTube in 2011. |
| 0:34.0 | It came with a video that he'd recorded with his kids and his sister's kids at her pool. |
| 0:38.3 | Baby shark do-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-baby shark, |
| 0:43.3 | baby shark, too, too, too, baby shark. |
| 0:46.3 | This song was perfect for three-year-olds. |
| 0:50.3 | It has simple lyrics, an off-repeated chorus, and hand motions that correspond to each verse of the song, |
| 0:56.6 | which little kids love. |
| 0:57.8 | I knew my kids well enough that I knew that was going to be a hit before I even recorded it, you know. |
| 1:03.4 | The song did well for Johnny, but it wasn't massively popular or anything. |
| 1:07.5 | It still has less than 100,000 views on YouTube. |
| 1:10.1 | But it was an important part of his show for years. |
| 1:14.9 | And then he started to get those comments. And I go to look for it. It was pink fun's version. |
| 1:20.9 | Baby shark to do da da da baby shark to doda baby shark. Baby shark to doda baby shark. This song is called Baby Shark, do-da-da-da-da-d-d-da-d-dabby-shark. |
| 1:28.3 | This song is called Baby Shark, and that version comes from the South Korean Children's Entertainment Company, Pinkfong. |
| 1:37.3 | If you don't have a little kid or know a little kid or know a little kid's parents, you may not know this song, though that's about to change. |
| 1:46.2 | Unlike Johnny's version, this version of Baby Shark is extremely, extremely popular. |
| 1:52.3 | As of this recording, it's been viewed over 2.3 billion times. |
... |
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