'Livin On a Prayer' Just Charted Thanks to a Four-Year-Old Viral Video
We live in a strange world. Thanks to the internet's multifaceted infostream, time, formerly arrow-straight, has wrapped around itself like a Hot Wheels track which now, unfortunately, has sent the miniature muscle car of history careening back to the 80s.
According to Billboard, Bon Jovi's 1987 #1 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" has landed at 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. It surged 390% last week thanks to the renewed popularity of a 2009 viral video of Celtics fan Jeremy Fry dancing to the song at Boston's TD Garden. (Above.)
Did you get that? A 26-year-old song has charted thanks to a three-year-old viral video. Up is down, nothing is what it seems. A wrinkle in time, etc.
This would not be such a problem if it were any other song but "Livin' on a Prayer," which has no right to ever be heard again outside the confines of the sports stadium or booze-stained Karaoke booth. (Kanye's 2005 "Gone," a very good song, cracked the top 20 last month after a woman made that viral job-quitting video set to it. That was pretty cool.) But, basically, from now on, thanks to viral videos, we will never know when some insufferable earworm might rear out of the stacks of history to wedge once again into your brain, just because somebody did something funny on the internet.