Pinkfong (I guess)

Baby Shark b/w Baby Shark EDM Remix

scum stats: limited to 1000 copies

Like many other households across the world with a child somewhere between the ages of 2 and 7 as inhabitants, the Nashville Blackwells have definitely played the SHIT out of this YouTube clip.

My two-year-old Mabel cannot get enough of it. So when I saw this was slated for an RSD release, I called in some favors to make sure I could guarantee getting a copy of this to help start her vinyl collection. That and the PJ Masks LP.

Discussion with distributors said this was the FIRST title to sell out, with that 1000 qty pressing clearly an under-estimation (or market stimulation?) of demand. The mind-numbing hypnotic qualities of the loved vid clip are somewhat distorted and lost in the EDM remix, but that doesn’t even really seem to matter.

I am somewhat bummed that the teasing of the “Jaws” theme in the original video clip is NOT included in the audio here. Now if you go by the company line touted by Pinkfong, that snippet is NOT from “Jaws” but from Dvorak’s 9th symphony. Which is convenient, because Dvorak’s work is in the public domain. But if that’s so…why wouldn’t they include that little portion opt this record? Because they’re lying through their teeth and they do not want to stir the pot and have the John Williams team bust them because it is SO clearly not Dvorak and SO clearly the theme from “Jaws” you know, because the song is about SHARKS!

Questions that may be google-able but I choose to just ask here in hopes of answers: who are the kids in this clip? what did they get paid? I’ve heard this song is actually a take on an old campfire song…so how far back does this song actually go? what’s the earliest reference to “baby shark”? HOW did this specific clip become so inescapable? I mean, I know my kids weren’t SEARCHING for “Baby Shark” on YouTube, so what was the impetus that put this on everyone’s radar? Is this bigger than the Macarena was? Isn’t it crazy that the artist here is Pinkfong, the name of the video production company?

I’ve already spent more time with this than I care to admit and once Mabel gets this in her hands, there’s no telling how much MORE I will have to spend with it. I mean, she’s two, she’ll be distracted by something else soon, right?