Reel Pop

"Evolution of Dance," the jiggy vid long the No. 1 most-viewed item on YouTube, has been ousted from its spot by a fan-made music video for the Brazilian band CSS. But according to data-smith Andy Baio, the video's high view count may be the result of some spurious behavior.

If you look at the ratio of views-to-ratings, you'll see the CSS video has a very unusual 21,487-to-1 ratio. In other words, for every 21,487 views, someone leaves one rating. To compare, the average ratio for every other video in the top 10 is a more reasonable 590-to-1. This ratio is representative of other popular videos, too; the median ratio for the entire top 500 is 545-to-1. Skimming down the list, you can see some other strange videos that might raise eyebrows.

Claims about artificially inflated viewership numbers are nothing new. But Andy's methodology is by far the most objective and thorough to date. Assuming Andy's research is proven accurate, inflated view counts have the potential to affect a lot of parties, from trend watchers and talent agents to advertisers paying by CPM. It's in Google's best interest to ensure view counts are trustworthy, but as anyone with experience reporting on Google will tell you, the company is very reticent to admit click tracking problems.

p.s. It's interesting to note that both videos are about dancing, a subject which has a good deal of cross-cultural appeal. However, as Virginia Heffernan pointed out many moons ago, the Evolution of Dance clip appeals across language barriers -- and hence to a much larger demographic -- simply because there is no speaking, English or otherwise. The new CSS video, however, is pretty much all Portuguese (although I think I heard Italian too?) English.  Certainly one of the most recognized languages worldwide, but even so: hard to believe a new pop song in any language could surpass the near-globally recognized sounds of America's most popular tunes.

Update: Andy interviews the video's creator.