When In Doubt, Reminisce

‍This piece originally appeared on August 15, 2024 in Sound Signal, our biweekly newsletter that identifies emerging artists, scenes, and trending tracks, crafted by the world's best writers and curators. Sign up here to never miss our take on what's next in music.

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Ryan Reynolds, or should we say Deadpool, is putting in his bid as the sixth member of one of pop’s most iconic boy bands of yesteryear. Right off the heels of an *NSYNC resurgence, Deadpool & Wolverine opens to “Bye Bye Bye” with an action-packed fight scene featuring the choreography burned in the brains of many older Millennials. Released on July 26, the film is inching up to $500 million at the box office, and has put the Y2K hit back in the spotlight.

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In the past month, the YouTube views for the track has seen a 25.4M increase, along with a 69M gain in channel views. The band is not shy about cashing in on the Marvel boost for SEO: The group’s official YouTube channel have even edited the official music video’s name to say “Official Video from Deadpool and Wolverine.” Billboard reports that other nostalgic-led singles featured on the soundtrack like Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and Green Day’s “Good Riddance,” experienced a 229% increase and a 88% increase in streams, respectively.  

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Elsewhere at the box office, Despicable Me 4 is capitalizing on a large part of its sonic identity for the franchise: Pharrell Williams. The fourth installment of Gru and company is led by the Neptune producer’s “Double Life.” Despite the 448K Shazams and 38M Spotify streams, “Double Life” is not quite the ubiquitous tune that 2013’s “Happy” was. In fact, “Happy” is steadily outperforming its successor since Despicable Me 4’s July 3 release. In the last month, “Happy” has garnered 1.1M Pandora streams, 18M Spotify streams, and 13M YouTube streams. Unsurprisingly, “Happy” is lagging in Shazams, with a mere 79K. But that’s what happens when you record the most-played song of the decade.

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