With 2.5 billion topic views, how did "Wumeizijiang" brainwash the entire network?

Recently, I believe that you who watch videos have more or less heard the song "Wumeizijiang", and also seen the controversy about whether it is "vulgar" or "unvulgar". How did this controversial song spread across major social platforms, became popular on the entire Internet, and occupied major hot search lists? This article discusses this, let's take a look.

"Your faint smile is like plum jam, and I've tasted the mint flavor of lipstick at the corners of your mouth."

If you have watched Tik Tok recently, you may have been brainwashed by the song "Wumeizijiang", especially this line.

As of February 26, the #乌梅子酱# topic has been played over 2.5 billion times. First, internet celebrities took the lead in covering this song on Douyin, and then it became the exclusive BGM for many short video platform users to shoot short videos.

Opening various social media platforms, we can see the song "Wumeizijiang". It makes people curious: How good is Wumeizijiang? How did it become so popular?

1. How did "Black Plum Sauce" become popular?

It is reported that the song was released on Bilibili in November 2022, but the number of views at the time was not enough to attract attention. When it was released with other albums in December 2022, it was not strongly promoted, let alone caused much of a stir.

Source: Station B MV

It was not until January that the song became popular in a small circle after being covered by artists such as "Xiao Liuzi" Cao Yang. Cao Yang's cover was therefore called "the best cover version on the entire network" by netizens. Many users became aware of the song, and it was gradually spread through secondary creations.

As Valentine's Day approaches, Douyin added the accompaniment of the chorus of "Wumeizijiang" to the alternative music a week before Valentine's Day. Many users continue to use this accompaniment as the BGM of short videos, and it continues to spread.

It wasn't until Valentine's Day that Bai Lu covered the song and the topic became a hot search on Weibo. Various celebrities and internet celebrities also recorded covers of the song, igniting the emotions of many users. This is when the song really became popular.

After Valentine's Day, "Wumeizijiang" did not stop spreading, but gradually spread to every corner with the help of TikTok, occupying the hot lists of various social platforms, and its popularity continues to rise.

Source: New Dou Data

In today's fast-paced world, especially on short video platforms, how to quickly capture users' attention is often just a few seconds. With its lighthearted and cheerful melody, "Plum Sauce" is catchy and brainwashing enough to form an impression in people's minds and keep lingering in their ears.

The theme of love expressed in the song coincides with the mood of Valentine's Day, igniting it, triggering public emotions, and continuing to spread.

The festive atmosphere, public sentiment, and the characteristics of the music itself made the originally tepid song "Wumeizijiang" reach the top.

2. The topic has exceeded 2.5 billion views, and netizens are all shooting the same style

On Douyin, many works use the "Wumeizijiang" accompaniment to create short videos, and use dance (including gesture dance), card-point accompaniment, creative plot editing and other gameplay to integrate with the song to form their own secondary works and create unique characteristics.

There is a line in the song, "Your shallow smile is like black plum sauce." A sweet girl with a sweet song always reminds us of a girl with a certain quality. As the song continues to ferment, the girl who paired with this music has been labeled #乌梅子酱女孩#.

This led to the emergence of the hot topic #Looking for the Wumeizijiang Girl#, which has currently reached 200 million views.

Many netizens have discovered that when we sing the four words "Wumeizijiang", the corners of our mouths always maintain a smiling arc. Many photography bloggers have also used this to create Wumeizijiang photo poses.

Source: Xiaohongshu

After all, not everyone likes to cover songs, and there are many netizens who like to have fun. It is the netizens' creation of memes that opens the key to its spread.

Amid a wave of cover songs, netizens started to create various covers, starting with sweet youth songs and gradually moving away from them, creating “the out-of-tune “Wumeizijiang”” and “the heroic folk song “Wumeizijiang””…

A netizen who couldn't find the tune sang a cover of "Wumeizijiang" without any melody, but relying entirely on his love for the song, it was included in the "Internet-wide Covers that Shocked the Original Singer Series".

Someone adapted it into a folk song version, which makes people forget the original singer:

Your smile is like jam made from black plums

You taste it in the corner of your mouth, and it tastes like a mint candy

This is sweet love, coming suddenly and uncertainly

Seeing your shy reaction, I really believe it

Source: TikTok

In addition to the folk song version, netizens have also come up with all kinds of variations, playing various musical instruments and adding their own local dialects, such as the Shandong version, Chaoshan version... a fancy performance of "Wumeizijiang".

Among them, the performance of a foreign friend was so amazing that he combined it with another popular song on Tik Tok, "Love Like Fire", and showed us a sweet and cool rap, which surprised and delighted people. Netizens directly called out, "Please upload it to NetEase Cloud, thank you."

Source: TikTok

Boonie Bears is an interpretation of its IP image, with a dreamlike linkage between shy Xiong Er and Wu Meizijiang. The style of painting is very cute, making many users feel healed and want to take it away in a sack.

Source: TikTok

A straightforward song "Wumeizijiang" attracted many netizens to gather together, as if they were not worthy of being a "Tik Tok user" if they had not covered the song.

What is even more astonishing is the "sales power" of this song. After listening to this song, countless netizens flocked to shopping platforms to search for "black plum sauce", causing the search volume on shopping platforms to surge 200 times.

3. Plum sauce, a good handle for bringing goods

After being brainwashed by this song for many days, we may all be curious about what plum sauce tastes like? Is it delicious?

When Li Ronghao himself talked about his inspiration for "Black Plum Sauce", he said that it came from the plum sauce that one dips in roast goose. The sour and sweet taste can dissolve the greasiness of all things in the world.

According to data, in just three days after the song became popular, the search rate of black plum jam on shopping platforms soared, skyrocketing 200 times. The little-known black plum jam was dug out and even ranked eighth on Taobao's hot search. Other types of jams also skyrocketed. This kind of sales effect is really rare.

Many businesses also took this opportunity to change the titles of the black plum jam products in their stores to "Li Ronghao's black plum jam", "Li Ronghao's same style, your shallow smile is like black plum jam"...

On social platforms, various bloggers create black plum jam, and food bloggers explore the method of making black plum jam, share how to make it at home, and find out what the real "black plum jam" tastes like.

Some bloggers even started a search for "Black Plum Jam" perfume, and shared their reviews of plum-flavored perfumes, allowing people to enjoy the sweet and sour aroma and feel the youthfulness of a girl's first encounter with it.

Source: TikTok

After reading the reviews from bloggers and the surge in search volume, people who have never heard this song will be curious: What is the origin of this song? Why is everyone using it? I want to listen to it too...

Netizens who have heard of it are curious about what this plum sauce tastes like. Is it really as described in the lyrics? Is it delicious? It makes me want to try it too.

Some netizens even expressed surprise: It turns out that songs can also bring goods. They joked: The end of everything in the world is to bring goods.

4. The controversial contradiction keeps "Wumeizijiang" hot

To us, it is common for Tik Tok to promote songs. Every once in a while, a "Tik Tok divine song" will be released. We thought that this song would fade away after a few days, but we didn't expect that "Wumeizijiang" would last so long!

When Wumeizijiang was becoming popular, the topic #Ding Taisheng said Wumeizijiang is vulgar# added fuel to the fire. In addition, Ding Taisheng's view that music creators should break through upward rather than be backward compatible triggered debate among many netizens and musicians.

Source: Weibo

On major social media platforms, some people agree that what he said is fair, that "Wumeizijiang" is just a catchy song with a strong smell of traffic; some netizens think that it is quite nice to listen to, straightforward, green and sweet, and that there is no need to always have deep meanings or pretend to be profound. I think it is nice to listen to.

Music blogger and one of the top ten influential music critics on Weibo in 2021 @光荣 said that the song "Wumeizijiang" is not that good, especially not as good as Li Ronghao's early works, but it is not as bad as some people criticized.

The dispute between "vulgar" and "unvulgar" has caused constant controversy, and the discussion has continued to heat up, thus pushing "Wumeizijiang" to another climax and height.

V. Conclusion

The popularity of "Wumeizijiang" has evolved from the simple melody and whether it is pleasant to listen to to the question of whether music creators should break through upward or be compatible downward, whether creators should deliberately cater to the short video ecological market and cater to its tastes, or whether they should express their true feelings. These are not so important to users who listen to the music.

But from the perspective of the way and speed of the spread of "Wumeizijiang", there are areas worth exploring. "Wumeizijiang" became popular on the short video platform, and there is a clear fuse. Just relying on a song, it may not be able to spread so quickly, but it is precisely with the help of the music diversion entrance of Tik Tok, combined with the straightforwardness, immaturity and sweetness of the song, and the "short, flat and fast" nature of the short video, that "Wumeizijiang" has successfully spread to every corner of social media.

The chorus part has become a gust of wind that blows across the face of everyone who watches short videos. You don’t feel anything when you handle it, but you feel a sense of coolness as it passes by, and a hint of sweetness remains when it leaves.

The music industry under the Internet traffic pursues short-term value. Tik Tok hit songs come one after another, and there is no trace of who will become the next "Tik Tok divine song". The debate over whether "Wumeizijiang" is "elegant" or "vulgar" will eventually end, and similar problems will still occur in the future.

Some people care about whether music is elegant or vulgar, while others don’t. When users listen to music, they are mostly based on their emotions. Whether it sounds good or not, whether it suits their mouth or not, it all depends on their own feelings, without much guidance from musical logic.

In a word: enjoy the music, as long as you are happy~

Author: Ginny; Official Account: Yunyingpai (ID: yunyingpai666)