Do you know what a playback singer is? Or how about that Mexican Norteño music has German polka in it? I sure didn’t, but our A&R tool did!
Mission
Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
Date
This is your Data Dump for Friday, June 14th, 2019.
Found on Friday: 4 Indian Playback Singers and 2 Norteño Bandas
So checking into our A&R tool which roams the Interwebs for the biggest delta, or change, in between now and 28 days ago, we focus on the singular metric of total YouTube views via their artist channel.
Looking at the Top 20 biggest gains, what’s not surprising? Billie Eilish at #5, that’s cool, Will Smith at #7 after the new Aladdin movie releasing, that’s also awesome…
But you know what’s really hot? Indian playback singers, because they occupy positions 1 through 4!
A playback singer in Bollywood masterfully records world-class vocals for songs for the on-camera actors to lip-sync to during shooting.
For us Westerners who are obsessed with authenticity, let’s just imagine a publicly accepted form of lip-sync that not only helps create great Indian movies, but also celebrates the playback singers themselves.
In the #1 spot is Calcutta-born Kumar Sanu with 30% YouTube view growth to 16.5M, who also just appeared on TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, which pits 5-15 year olds against each other in a singing competition.
In the #2 position is Arijit Singh who saw 20% YouTube view growth to 18.7M, and just released “Bekhayali” from Indian dramatic film Kabir Singh on June 3rd.
Coming #3 on our list, but #1 in the Bollywood industry, is Lata Mangeshkar with 19% view growth to 9M, but it’s honestly a footnote to one of the most well-known and highly-respected playback singers ever.
Mangeshkar has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist with over 30K tracks in 20 different languages, the recipient of the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor (equivalent to the US Presidential Medal of Freedom), recipient of France’s Legion of Honour, and publicly selected as 10th Greatest Indian of modern times.
How’s that for achievement? I really don’t think she cares about her YouTube views right now, nor should she. Hats off to her.
Moving to Mexico, Norteño music is a genre of Northern Mexico that blends German polka and waltz traditions with Mexican ones.
For all of us not familiar with Mexican music, the key instruments that define Norteño is the accordion (gracias a los europeos) and the bajo sexto, which translates to “sixth bass”, and looks like a 12-string guitar, but is used as a bass instrument.
Now in the #6 position is Los Invasores De Nuevo León, with 10% YouTube view growth to 26M.
The Latin Grammy-nominated Los Invasores, or “The Invaders of Nuevo León”, formed in 1978, and are currently on tour in south Texas,
In the #16 position is Los Tucanes De Tijuana, with 5% view growth to 132M.
And if you want to catch up with some meme action, look up the “La Chona” challenge...their fast-paced 1994 record received a revival last year when uploaders recorded themselves dancing to “La Chona” outside their moving vehicles, a la Drake’s “In My Feelings”.
Outro
Bueno! That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday, June 14th, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
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