How Death, Dismemberment, and Jesus Helped 'Babe Shark' Get a Striking

If you've spent any fourth dimension around children in the final 5 years, you've almost certainly heard "Baby Shark." Maybe you've even learned the viral hit'south accompanying choreography, with its chomping jaws, illustrating the tale of the titular shark and its family equally they search for casualty. So, after futilely trying to get the song out of your caput, you lot'll wonder, "Why, oh why, of all the kids' songs out there, did this 1 go a worldwide smash?"

Unlike the clear bluish drawing waters seen in the music video, the answer is actually pretty murky. The simple answer is that the song, released in 2015 by South Korean educational company Pinkfong, is incredibly tricky, and the lyrics and dance moves are easy to memorize. In the years since, the track went global, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 12 after billions of YouTube plays, streams, and downloads. The twist, however, is that thousands of adults already knew the song from their childhoods, though in most cases the version they remember probably involved eating swimmers' legs or being reincarnated with some aid from Jesus.

For starters, here's what we know nigh who originally wrote the song: absolutely nothing. Nobody has claimed buying of the lyrics, and the just evidence of its longevity is the foggy memories of adults who learned the tune at summer camps, Christian youth groups, and anywhere else someone needed to keep kids occupied. Mayhap it was an imaginative counselor who saw Jaws and decided it was the perfect subject matter — after all, kids already know the horrors of "Stone-a-Bye Infant" and all the Disney movies that begin with a expressionless parent or two, so what'southward wrong with a shark family unit having its dinner?

Like Brothers Grimm tales, folk songs, and classic jokes, "Baby Shark" is part of an oral tradition, believed to have started as a campfire song that was never put to newspaper, but passed down for new generations to put their own twists on it. As children'due south entertainer Johnny Only points out, "Baby Shark" probable developed from a chant, which differs from a traditional vocal in that it doesn't require instruments or musical talent, then all the kids tin can participate.

"Counselors didn't desire nonmusical kids to exist left out, so a chant was often preferred," he says. "Choreography and changing the words was essential for the brusque attention spans of the campers. One manner to use the 'Babe Shark' formula is to break the kids upwardly in groups and have them come upwards with their own version to run into who could come up upwards with the most creative lyrics and motions."

That's where you'd get the version like Pete Vigeant's, which is the oldest recorded one available on YouTube, uploaded in 2008. In it, Vigeant and a friend sing "lose a leg," "lose another leg," and "lose a head," in improver to all the now familiar shark lines. "I was working at a YMCA camp. I ran all the activities and sang songs, and a 6-twelvemonth-sometime girl taught me 'Babe Shark' in 2001," he says. "In 2004 or 2005, I idea, hey, let me have this Flip cam and tape all these camp songs. The virtually popular was 'Baby Shark,' and past the time Google Video shut down, it had about 800,000 views."

Some other accept on it, uploaded in 2011, comes from family unit entertainer Jester Jim Maurer and includes the Bible bent of "going to run into Jesus" after the lifeguard on duty's failed attempts at reviving the doomed swimmer with CPR.

"I learned information technology at church camp in 1999, my junior year of high school. It was taught by a seminarian there while nosotros were waiting for luncheon," he says. "I and then became a youth manager and taught the songs to teen groups at conferences. 1 of the teens had messaged me request me how to sing the song, then I fabricated that video back in 2011 to teach the lyrics." Other religious versions include "praising God" and "going to sky," and fifty-fifty i well-nigh the swimmer existence reincarnated every bit the baby shark.

To add another twist to the "Baby Shark" saga, the song somehow made its way over to Europe, with the aforementioned general plot and choreography. In 2007, it became a trip the light fantastic hitting in Germany thanks to Alexandra Müller, whose a cappella rendition, "Kleiner Hai," came replete with the screams of the devoured swimmer and went viral. The music label EMI bought the rights to her performance and remixed it with Jaws-similar music, making it a striking around the continent.

"I've been doing this vocal for most 20 years, ever around New Year's. Nosotros've been singing the vocal for as long as I think," says Müller, who went past the stage proper name Alemel, and never recorded over again. "It's a pop children's vocal in Germany. Nosotros never found out where it came from. We checked the rights and it was public law, similar a Christmas song, and then there were no royalties for [the lyrics]." The popularity of "Kleiner Hai" faded in 2008, and Muller is now a journalist for SWR. While she doesn't get recognized for the melody anymore, she regales co-workers and new acquaintances with her i-hitting-wonder past as a one-hit wonder. (She'd also love to perform information technology on Ellen.)

The existence of "Kleiner Hai" and its publishing history was unbeknownst to Pinkfong and But, who recorded and copyrighted his own rendition in 2011, until the erstwhile's version blew up. SmartStudy, the company that owns Pinkfong, is certainly enjoying the phenomenon, with singing "Babe Shark" toys selling out on Amazon almost immediately before the holidays. Just, still, claims that the Pinkfong version lifted besides much from his rendition, "Babe Shark (Non-Dismemberment Version)," and therefore he deserves a seize with teeth of the profits.

"When an artist publishes their own version of a public domain piece, they accept created their own derivative of that work. My reaction to the Pinkfong version was that they picked up on my toddler-friendly lyrics, my key, my driving beat, my tempo, and my shortened elapsing," he says. "If you lot search YouTube, nearly all the ones before mine are army camp versions with blood and gore, loss of limbs, and frequently death. The toddlers also like the shark family and the fact that I made it shorter." (According to MEL Magazine, SmartStudy says information technology only improved a "traditional singalong dirge by adding upbeat rhythms and fresh tune.")

While the example is still going through motions in court, copyright chaser and USC professor Corey Field says that, in the United States, a claim like that could be valid. In short, a judge will hear from lawyers and experts who microscopically pore over the minutiae, such as the notes, BPM, lyrics, and any other musical flourishes, then continue to a jury trial if there'due south enough bear witness to say the claim has merit.

"With copyrights, you can only claim ownership of original material or material that's added. Information technology has to be more than tiny changes," Field says, noting that he's not commenting on song copyrights in general, not Only'south example. "We have the principle of off-white employ. 'I'one thousand transforming something that someone else did but I'm not doing it just because it sounds nifty. I'm doing information technology because I'm making some other comment.' And yous have public domain, which allows you lot to use works afterward a certain amount of fourth dimension. It'southward similar Metallica doing 'Carol of the Bells.'"

The but definitive fashion that SmartStudy, Only, and anyone else who'south made coin off of "Babe Shark" is if the true author comes forwards with proof, whether it'southward a video or lyric sheet that tin be verified as coming before whatever other copyright. "I know there'south some poor old songsmith out there who just has no idea," says Vigeant, laughing.

Until and then, nosotros'll have to be content not knowing who dreamed upward this juggernaut of an earworm. But at least we know that anybody can notice an old vocal of unknown origin and create their own "Baby Shark," provided they have the right combination of talent, social-media savvy, and the foresight to write it down or tape it get-go. The ability to stomach repeated refrains of "doo doo doo doo doo doo" helps, as well.

How Death, Dismemberment, and Jesus Made 'Baby Shark' a Striking