Its success on multiple fronts displayed the true power of online communication, hashtags and video sharing. While the 2010s appeared to be the prime time period for dance fads to catch on thanks to social media’s rapid growth and influence on culture, none seem to have had the same enormous impact that “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” experienced. “One was the dance and the influencers of the dance network, and the other one was a song that everybody was eager to listen to, but they just didn’t know about it yet.” The dance-heavy music video for “Watch Me” has been watched over 1.6 billion times on YouTube, making it one of the most-viewed clips in the platform’s history.Ĭountless hip-hop dance crazes and challenges sprung about almost immediately after Silento’s hit, from budding artists like ILoveMemphis ( “Hit The Quan”), Ayo & Teo ( “Rolex”) and Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall ( “Juju on That Beat”). “It was kind of like putting two ingredients together,” she says.

Camille Moussard, former Head of Video at TuneCore, tells Billboard that after monitoring the song’s reach on apps like Vine and Instagram, she reached out to DanceOn, who enlisted dance superstars to help bring the track to supersonic levels. “Watch Me” owes much of its success to the dance entertainment brand DanceOn, which partnered with music distribution company TuneCore to generate more buzz around the song. “I stuck to the plan, and I made my dreams come true.” “I knew what I wanted to be, so I made sure I accomplished what I needed to before I graduated,” Silento explains. “For, like, two months he kept trying to tell me, ‘Hey, I got this song, it’s going to be a hit record,’ and I thought it was the craziest idea,” Bolo tells Billboard over the phone. Although the producer had reservations about working with teens, he obliged, as Silentó was eager to make magic. To create the hit, the now-21-year-old musician contacted hip-hop music maker Bolo Da Producer via Instagram.

Watchme samsung commercial