Ask An Expert: Why is Baby Shark the most popular children's song of the last decade?

Long before it became an international phenomenon, “Baby Shark” (or a variation thereof) had been floating around the child-song universe. But in 2018, a version by the South Korean children’s entertainment group Pinkfong took off, instantly transforming the short, repetitive ditty about a family of hunters into a generational folk-song.

With its insanely catchy repeated refrain—you know the one, you’re probably doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-ing it in your head right now—and easy to imitate dance moves, Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark” video appeared tailor-made for uber success (5.5 billion views can’t be wrong!). But what exactly made “Baby Shark” the most successful children’s song this side of “Old McDonald'' and “Baby Beluga”?

To find out, we asked Beatriz Ilari, an associate professor at USC’s Thornton School of Music, who studies the social effects behind children’s music.

Turns out it has a lot to do with how our children discover and obsess over new music.

“Parents say they don’t give their kids a lot of Screen Time, but the reality is they do”

“First of all, there’s the concept of screen time,” Ilari says over the phone from her home in California. “Parents say they don’t give their kids a lot of screen time, but the reality is they do.” Meaning, they let YouTube algorithms dictate what the kids watch.

Once “Baby Shark” was added into that rotation, the song and video’s indelible qualities gave it an edge over many of the other new children’s songs in algorithmic rotation. “It drives us crazy but the more repetitive a song is, the more successful it is,” Illari points out. “It’s short, with colourful animation and a [dance] that’s adaptable and easy to mimic.”

And it didn’t just appear in children’s song algorithms. Since Pinkfong produces children’s toys, it also showed up in extremely popular toy YouTube recommendation streams, giving “Baby Shark” further reach than most of its contemporaries. “But really, the song’s simple, short melody is an instant earworm,” Illari says. “Much more so than anything from, say, Frozen 2.”

Adding to technology’s role in “Baby Shark” success, according to Google Trends, in October 2018, an adorable video of a toddler asking Alexa to play the song went viral, coinciding with a sharp spike in “Baby Shark” searches.

Beyond the algorithmic piece, according to Illari, social science also played a part in “Baby Shark”’s success. “[There was a cool factor because] the song wasn't introduced in school, it came from the internet into schools after it became a very well known song,” she explains. “The kids feel a sense of ownership because they’re the ones bringing it into the classroom versus their teacher--the figure of authority, the grown up. They can say they did it themselves. It’s that sense of autonomy that kids want to have.”

And, she adds, it’s that same sense that makes them want to stop listening to children’s songs. Further cementing “Baby Shark” as a song specifically for kids, adding to that very sense of ownership.

MORE BABY SHARK:

For more on Baby Shark’s history:

Slate: Decoder Ring, Baby Shark

CBC: The Long, Complicated History of Baby Shark

For more on the science behind Baby Shark’s success:

Daily Beast: The Science of Why ‘Baby Shark’ Is So Freaking Catchy