A six-second video can change one’s life. In 2013, Vine, the social media app, helped propel the minor California hits "Red Nose" and "Gas Pedal" by Sage the Gemini and "My Nigga" by YG into the Hot 100 as brief video views drove massive YouTube plays that led to radio play. On the other side of the country in Atlanta, Vine helped push a dance called the Nae Nae that not only shook up music from the city, but how artists take control of that music, and built on each others' momentum.
The Nae Nae, a dance that involves jumping out with bended knees and waving one’s hand in the air, was created by a group of dancers called We Are Toonz—Tavin "Levi" Bing-Gardner, Kavin "K.B." Bing-Gardner, Calvin Lamar "Callamar" Glass and Christopher "Crash Bandit"—along with other performers that would create their own group FamousToMost. The dance gained popularity on Vine and Instagram where it would be matched with tracks like Young Thug’s "Stoner". "When we seen all of the social media going off on the Nae Nae, we had to make a song to take control and really let people know who made this," said Crash Bandit, observing the opportunity for success presented in front of them. "Drop That Nae Nae", their own song dedicated to the dance, put an official We Are Toonz stamp on the moment, as people uploaded videos featuring their music instead of another artist.
"The Nae Nae was dying down and [FamousToMost] wanted to hit the fans with another dance craze. [Hasani] was doing this rock side to side, and I was like ‘Put your hand straight out like a steering wheel’," said FamousTo Most’s Pervis "PJ" Reynolds of the Nae Nae’s follow-up, the Whip Dance. The Nae Nae took off for We Are Toonz and even landed them a Coca-Cola commercial, so FamousToMost—PJ, Hasani Buchanan, Jalen "Bear" Ware and DeAndre "King Rari" Johnson—wanted to have a dance that was entirely their own. By the end of 2014 the Whip Dance reached into the NFL red zone celebrations, and the group was ready to push their song "#Whip". The YouTube title of the song even reads "‘#Whip’ Official Song for #WHIPDANCE", just to make sure there wasn’t any debate over who was to be credited.
The rush for music to accompany the dance not only spoke to the groups’ efforts to retain spotlight, but also provided a way to distinguish themselves against up-and-comers ready to hop on this hashtag to success. In his video for "Nae Nae (Hold Up, Show Nuff)", the rapper TheyCallMeN8, who wasn’t affiliated with either We Are Toonz or FamousToMost, made sure to include a disclaimer that read:
The Dance #NaeNae was created by the Atlanta bound group @Wearetoonz (NZ). TheyCallMeN8’s song ‘Hold Up Show Nuff’ was inspired by this dance. With that being said, turn up!!!!!!!!!!!! #clubillionaire.
A song can reach millions of people in record time in 2015, and Silento’s "Watch Me" is proof—it was recorded in late December and hit the Hot 100 the first week of March. Though he does do his own dancing, "Watch Me", with its references to the Nae Nae, the Whip Dance and even a throwback to the "The Stanky Leg", is him innovating on others’ material. But his brief melodic mentions of these dance moves in the song appear as readymade Vine phrases perfect to be endlessly looped.
Still just in high school, once Silento saw rising interest in his song he removed all his old music from the Internet to focus on the success of "Watch Me". "My main thing right now is to get everyone listening to my song," he said. He hopes to release more music eventually, but for now he’s a single song artist who saw an opportunity and took it.
Once the views started to add up these artists knew a dance wasn’t enough to sustain real success; dances are ephemeral, and as we have seen, constantly mutating. The speed with which a dance can travel through social media can easily divorce it from its original creators before they ever have a chance to benefit from it, materially or otherwise. But even if a dance is properly credited and they have a song to pair with it, another artist with a more meme-able song can pave over the buzz they created and build something bigger, more quickly. Social media provided a rare moment in the spotlight, but what gave it to them can replace them with a fresher set of faces.