Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Ryan Murphy’s new FX series about the Menendez Brothers inspires streaming gains for a heavily featured late-’80s act, dance crazes help a new viral hit by Odetari and an old one by Freak Nasty, and can you believe it’s Sept. 21 again already?
‘Menendez Story’ Drives Streaming Gains for Milli Vanilli’s Catalog
The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – the latest installment in Ryan Murphy’s Monsters anthology series – has unsurprisingly inspired loads of controversy and discourse, but it’s also inspired some new interest in Milli Vanilli’s catalog.
The vocal duo, best known for their three 1989 Hot 100 chart-toppers and the infamous revocation of their best new artist Grammy after being exposed for lip-syncing, also plays a key musical role in the first few episodes of Menendez Story. The opening episode features three of their biggest hits — “Girl You Know It’s True,” “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” and “Blame It on the Rain” — even earning its title from the latter. Though the events of Menendez story take place several years after Milli Vanilli’s reign, the duo’s music is used to help set the scene and explore the two brothers’ friendship.
“Blame It On the Rain,” the most prominently featured Milli Vanilli track in the series, posted at 68% increase in streaming activity, going from 75,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Sept. 13-16 to over 125,000 streams in the four-day period following the series premiere on Netflix (Sept. 20-23). Similarly, “Girl You Know It’s True” jumped 32.5% in streaming activity to nearly 135,000 streams (Sept. 20-23). “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” earned the biggest streaming increase out of all three tracks, exploding a whopping 258% from 28,000 streams (Sept. 13-16) to 103,000 streams (Sept. 20-23). Overall, streams for Milli Vanilli’s entire catalog leapt 114% after the release of Menendez Story, crossing 552,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Sept. 20-23. – KYLE DENIS
‘Perfect Couple,’ Perfect Synch: Nicole Kidman Helps Meghan Trainor Dance Up in Streams
The Perfect Couple, the latest bestselling book-turned streaming series starring Nicole Kidman, has been a smash hit for Netflix since premiering earlier this month — and while the mystery involves a murder taking place at a posh wedding, the opening of each episode showcases a much lighter mood than the high-stakes family drama. Kidman, along with costars like Liev Schreiber and Meghann Fahy, spend the theme performing a full-cast, choreographed dance routine on a beach, turning in slow motion and clapping as a voice sings, “Anything that feels this good / Well, it must be illegal, it must be illegal.”
That voice belongs to Meghan Trainor, whose track “Criminals” serves as the theme song for The Perfect Couple after being featured on the deluxe edition of her June album Timeless. And the streaming synch has already helped “Criminals” triple up in streams compared to its pre-Perfect Couple numbers: after earning 263,000 U.S. on-demand streams the week prior to the show’s Sept. 5 premiere, according to Luminate, the song earned 972,000 streams during the week ending Sept. 19, along with 2,400 in weekly digital sales.
While “Criminals” has yet to hit the Hot 100, the song’s rise is arriving at an enjoyable moment for Trainor, who’s celebrating the 10-year anniversary of “All About That Bass,” and performing at New York’s Madison Square Garden tonight. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Fraternity Rush Season Revives Freak Nasty’s “Da’ Dip”
It’s still early in the school year, which means that rush season is in full effect. In a natural progression of the undergraduate fraternity rush process, many pledges now document their journeys to brotherhood on TikTok. Part of that process now includes filming adorably dorky TikTok dance trends – including the latest viral choreography to Freak Nasty’s 1997 smash “Da’ Dip.”
The dominant choreography template was originated by user @varsnikk earlier this year (Aug. 14), but as is the case with most TikTok dance trends, the moves have become more simplified as the trend became more viral. That original clip boasts over 700,000 views, while the official “Da’ Dip” TikTok sound now plays in nearly 350,000 posts. Several major stars have hopped on the trend – including Matthew Morrison and Ice Spice – but the recent uptick in engagement has been spurred in large part by “#pledgetok” videos. Essentially, pledges (prospective members of a fraternity) execute the dance trend while commenters around the world cheer on their awkward moves and laud their favorite “divas.” Normally, the young men are dressed in some combination of a navy sports jacket and khakis, and they execute the dance with fellow members of their pledge class.
According to Luminate, “Da’ Dip” earned over 320,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of Sept. 13-19. That marks a 95% increase in streaming activity from three weeks prior (Aug. 23-29), when the beloved Miami bass track pulled in just over 165,000 streams. “Da’ Dip” has ballooned in streams for each of the past few weeks, helping the track notch a No. 16 debut on the Billboard TikTok Top 50 (chart dated Sept. 21). Should “Da’ Dip” continue its streaming revival, Freak Nasty could add a few more chart accolades to the No. 15 Hot 100 peak the track earned back in 1997. – KD
Numbers Going Strong: Odetari Manages to ‘Keep Up’ Momentum With New Viral Hit
In January, Billboard Dance editor Katie Bain wrote a digital cover story about Odetari (along with frequent collaborator 6arelyhuman) asking if they were the future of dance music; eight months later, the former is providing further evidence that he just might be. His adrenalized new single “Keep Up” – which sounds like the perfect gamer soundtrack, down to its verses even lifting a bit of the melody from the classic Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone theme – has been steadily taking off since its July release.
Sonic edits have actually played a big part in the song’s viral success on TikTok – including a couple posted by the producer himself – to the point where a Change.org petition to get the song included in the third Sonic the Hedgehog movie is just a few hundred signatures away from its 5,000 goal. An associated dance has also played a major part in the song’s social media proliferation, with the song’s rapid pace making it a particular degree-of-difficulty challenge.
It’s all added up to help “Keep Up” increase by millions of streams over the past few weeks. The song racked up 4.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Sept. 19, which is up 91% from where it was three weeks earlier, according to Luminate. It’s already on No. 21 on the Bubbling Under chart – so if it keeps it up, Odetari might not be too far away from his first-ever Hot 100 hit. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Season’s Gainings: “September,” Remembered Once More
If you missed observing September Day this year, you’d probably be forgiven – it came over the weekend, and once again with no Demi Adejuyigbe celebratory viral video, with the writer/comedian having retired from his once-annual duties in 2021. But fear not, plenty still remembered the 21st night of September: Earth, Wind & Fire‘s signature 1979 smash racked up a little over 1.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Saturday, a 144% gain from the previous week. That is down just a little from the nearly 1.8 mil the song pulled on Sept. 21, 2023, though – so if anyone wants to pick up the torch from Adejuyigbe before the song really starts to reverse momentum and risk losing its perennial status, you’ve got a year to figure out how. – AU
