How a catchy tune became the soundtrack to TikTok's silliest videos

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How a catchy tune became the soundtrack to TikTok's silliest videos
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The song 'Monkeys Spinning Monkeys' was released ten years ago and has since become the soundtrack to millions of viral videos. Its story shows how music has shaped — and been shaped by— social media platforms.

MIDI inputs in Logic for the song Monkeys Spinning Monkeys taken from Kevin MacLeod's Youtube channel. Unlike other artists who seek to protect the rights to their creative work, McLeod encourages anyone to use his music for free. “I just want my stuff to be heard," he says.You’ll have to turn up the volume to hear what all these posts have in common: a song created ten years ago called “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” by Kevin MacLeod.

“I just want my stuff to be heard,” explains MacLeod. “You know, you gotta make it as easy as possible.”But with crackdowns by digital fingerprinting programs like Content ID, Kaye says people increasingly turned to royalty-free songs, including “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys.

Even with the Creative Commons license, he’s still earned over seven figures—mostly from other countries that don’t always follow the same payment protocol. “You can find examples going back to the 18th century where composers like Mozart are using boom, boom, boom, boom,” says Harper, mimicking the bouncing bass line, “to signify this is goofy, this is silly, this is comic relief.” For example, she points to the first aria in Mozart’s, like a carousel,” says Harper. A good example, she says, is the circus march “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite,” which shares the same basic structure of a light melody on top of an alternating bass line.

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