Why is Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" at number 8 on the iTunes Music Store?

August 5, 2005 12:59 PM

Incredibly Pointless Question: Why is Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" at number 8 on the iTunes Music Store?

Just noticed this ancient bit of dreck was in the iTunes Music Store's top ten. Was there some reference in a current movie / television which somehow made its sales jump?

posted by pandaharma to media & arts (29 comments total)

It was featured on a recent Family Guy episode. But that's all I could find on google that seems like a probable cause.
posted by Gary at 1:13 PM on August 5, 2005

Can I tack on a related question? Why was "Hungry Eyes" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack in the top 5 songs on Yahoo Music Unlimited last week?

Is there some kind of 80s nostalgia virus going around?
posted by MsMolly at 1:17 PM on August 5, 2005

I have friends who think Journey is amusingly bad. So maybe a buch of people are listening to it to be ironic? Ms Molly there is actually 80s nostalgia going on. Probably resulted from VH1's I love the 80s series. I know a bunch of people who go to eighties night at a local bar, it is evidently a very popular thing. I also have friends who listen to a lot of Duran Duran for some reason. Why anybody would want to relive the 80s I dont know.
posted by philcliff at 1:20 PM on August 5, 2005

It was used in the 2nd season premiere of "Laguna Beach" on MTV, which aired last week (July 25th to be exact). I suppose that could possibly drive enough iTunes sales.
posted by smackfu at 1:42 PM on August 5, 2005

I guess there's 80s music nostalgia happening right now because mainstream top 40 has sucked donkey balls since about then.

OTOH, I was listening to hardcore punk in the 80s, so it probably sucked then too.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:47 PM on August 5, 2005

It's simple: the sock f'in rocks!
posted by ijoshua at 1:50 PM on August 5, 2005

I second the notion of the Family Guy effect. The episode was rerun this weekend, so it is not unreasonable to make the connection. In fact, my friends and I sang it at a bar this week on karaoke night. After we were done, the lady running the show asked, "So who else watched Family Guy this weekend?"
posted by kyleg at 1:51 PM on August 5, 2005

I'm 25 years old and I have pretty good taste in music, IMHO, obviously, and I'd say that the reason the song is number 8, without any trace of irony, is because it's just about the 8th best song ever.
posted by billysumday at 2:20 PM on August 5, 2005

Maybe because of Star Wars: A Musical Tribute. If not, it should be!
posted by trixie_bee at 2:40 PM on August 5, 2005

It was used in the 2nd season premiere of "Laguna Beach" on MTV, which aired last week

I think smackfu's right. I just noticed that the top rated iMix at the iTunes music store is "Laguna Beach: Season 2."
posted by ericb at 2:49 PM on August 5, 2005

I'm with the "becaue it fuckin' rocks" crowd...
One of the most perfect pop songs ever. Ah that buildup (no drums for a whole minute? and then that strange beat with almost no snare throughout), that bassline, the shredding guitar intro, the fist-pumping chorus - pure shameless cheese. When was the last time a pop song had all that?
posted by hellbient at 2:49 PM on August 5, 2005

paging jonmc to the thread. jonmc, to thread 22203, please.

i think it's just more bullshit 80s nostalgia from snot-nosed kids too young to remember them, personally.
posted by keswick at 3:25 PM on August 5, 2005

I really doubt it because of this since it's more for the 4th. Oh, and Cat and Girl had a Journey reference a week ago. I think it's more than just Family Guy and Laguna Beach. I hadn't hear the song for years and in the past month it's just popped up everywhere. It's so bad that I even borrowed someone's Greatest Hits album at work this week to stop the earworms. Of course, as soon as I put it on my manager got really mad since the driver of her carpool had the same album on that morning. Now in an publishing house of 24 people, the probability that 2 people would have Journey's Greatest Hits and listen to them on the same day seems pretty slim to me. I think we're heading towards a meme here and since I've recently conververted to the "because it fuckin' rocks" crowd, this is a good thing.
posted by rodz at 3:31 PM on August 5, 2005

It's true - 80s nostalgia is rampant right now. These things run in cycles of approximately 20 years: "Happy Days," a TV hit in the 70s, was about life in the 50s; in the late 80s, there was extreme nostalgia for Woodstock; in the late 90s we got "That 70s Show." Fox even tried for "That 80s Show" a few years ago, but it was too early: not quite enough time had passed for the 80s to become truly hip again.

The reason: just a guess, but I'd wager that because the children and teens of the 1950s were beginning to exert creative and financial control in Hollywood, music, and pop culture in the 1970s, when they were in their mid-30s. And in the 80s, the "Woodstock" teens were beginning to assert themselves in mass media. Same with the 1990s and so on.

Once you get into that early-to-mid-30s range, you begin to reminisce about the music, the clothes, and such that first allowed you to "become" you as a teenager -- and that is the time that you begin to have the cash to indulge such nostalgia. Meanwhile, your fellow classmates are now becoming creative directors, producers, and scriptwriters, and they are feeling the same pangs of remembrance that you are.

It's a perfect match: they play on your memories and their memories, and you pay them money to re-experience "Rock Around The Clock" and The Doors and The Monkees (remember the mini-revival in 1986, sparked by MTV?) and KISS and now Duran Duran and Journey. Brace yourselves: in a few years, we will have full-blown Nostalgia for Sheryl Crow and Hanson.
posted by davidmsc at 3:50 PM on August 5, 2005

My girlfriend, whose musical tastes run heavily towards stereotypical white liberal woman territory (women with guitars singing about themselves) downloaded it about a year ago for reasons I don't understand. I think it has something to do with growing up in New Jersey.

But not from iTunes. Paying for Journey is for suckers.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:04 PM on August 5, 2005

A lot of times weird songs will make the iTMS top 100 because someone has just included them in a Celebrity Playlist or something like that.
posted by litlnemo at 4:25 PM on August 5, 2005

You know they are on tour right now.. just saw them the other night here in Denver. Great show, I might add. Not that I am a big fan by any means, but everyone knows their 10 greatest hits.

Perhaps they have some new fans?
posted by dhammala at 5:40 PM on August 5, 2005

First the Coldplay thread, now this. And not a single jonmc snark. I want my 10 minutes back.

davidmsc: duh. The 20 year nostalgia cycle. 4123?
posted by intermod at 9:26 PM on August 5, 2005

johnmc must be on vacation. You know, now that I think of it, I've never seen him and G. W. Bush in the same thread …
posted by ijoshua at 9:39 PM on August 5, 2005

intermod, I don't understand your comment (ref me)...?
posted by davidmsc at 11:05 PM on August 5, 2005

Wasn't that one of Clinton's theme songs?
posted by drezdn at 11:25 PM on August 5, 2005

Three reasons the song is popular:

1) It was used (to excellent effect) in the film "Monster", which is now on DVD. Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci rollerskate to it as they fall in love with one another.

2) The new "Jack FM" radio station format, which is owned by the ubiquitous Clear Channel, plays a mix of 80's and extremely cheesy 80's (but I repeat myself), and it's becoming very popular across the country. Here in Los Angeles, it's 93.1 FM. They play this song quite a bit, and I've even heard it back-to-back with "Just What I Needed" by The Cars.

3) It's a really good cheesy song. It is the processed nacho dairy-free cheese of cheese. It is government cheese. It is wonderful.
posted by Asparagirl at 12:54 AM on August 6, 2005

drezdn: No, you're thinking of "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)" by Fleetwood Mac. It was a highly ironic choice of song, if you ask me.
posted by Asparagirl at 12:56 AM on August 6, 2005

re: davidmsc's "brace yourself" comment: Whatever.
posted by kimota at 8:56 AM on August 6, 2005

Fox even tried for "That 80s Show" a few years ago, but it was too early: not quite enough time had passed for the 80s to become truly hip again.

Some thoughts on why it failed.

Read a good article on it, actually, which I can't find at the moment, which pointed out that the people who made That 70's Show, in fact, love the 70's. It's a tribute. That 80's Show was all about loathing the 80's, and it showed. It wasn't a case of it being "too early".
posted by dreamsign at 11:04 AM on August 6, 2005

I think it has something to do with growing up in New Jersey

And here I thought it had something to do with being a city boy from south Detroit.
posted by joe lisboa at 12:14 PM on August 6, 2005

Anecdote: I noticed, as a twenty-something (in the late 80s), that an older co-worker liked listening to late '50s and early '60s tunes. As it turns out, that's the era she grew up in.

I grew up in the late '70s and early '80s and I consistently find that's the music I enjoy a lot of the time.

So, I agree with the nostalgia suggestion. I think a lot of what a person listens to as an adult has to do with what music was popular when said person was growing up.
posted by deborah at 12:41 PM on August 6, 2005

I don't know if I'd say it's just Family Guy. I bartended for much of the last four years and that song was played at least six times a night. I've heard it played with much the same frequency in any non-shi shi bar with a jukebox.
posted by Captaintripps at 3:23 PM on August 6, 2005

The Cretins did a cover of this on their debut album (whose name currently escapes me), drunk as all get-out. It's a classic.

More generally, just one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Definitely an ear worm ...
posted by LilBucner at 12:12 PM on August 8, 2005