‘Harlem Shake’ tumbles off top of Hot 100 chart

Tunisian students of the Bourguiba Language Institute in the El Khadra neighbourhood, a Salafist bastion of the capital Tunisia, perform the Internet craze, the “Harlem Shake”, outside their school on February 27, 2013. AFP

LOS ANGELES – “The Harlem Shake” is moving on.

After five weeks in the number one slot, New York DJ Baauer’s single that triggered a global YouTube sensation has slipped to number two on Billboard’s latest Hot 100 chart, the music industry trade journal said Wednesday.

Taking its place is “Thrift Shop” from Seattle rappers Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, which has been in the Hot 100 since October and previously hit number one on five non-consecutive weeks before the Harlem Shake fad intervened.

“The Harlem Shake” reached number one thanks to good timing — it went viral on YouTube at the same time Billboard changed its methodology to include online streaming as well as record sales and radio air play.

On its website (www.billboard.com), Billboard said YouTube streams of “The Harlem Shake” have fallen from 103 million five weeks ago to just 20 million in the past week.

As an Internet meme, “The Harlem Shake” took off in early February when five Australian teenagers uploaded a video of themselves boogeying wildly to the electronic ditty that takes its name from a 1980s New York street dance.