Billboard says Sad Affleck is pushing ‘Sound of Silence’ up the charts again
The Internet meme has spurred a revisiting of the 1966 classic, according to the magazine.
When a fan remixed a Yahoo Movies interview of Ben Affleck looking sad while listening to the overwhelmingly negative reviews of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, as Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” played ominously in the background, it took the (Internet) world by storm.
It made waves in the music world, too, according to Billboard. The 1966 classic that begins, “Hello, darkness, my old friend,” has once again risen up the ranks of the magazine’s Hot Rock Songs chart.
The song was recently reborn in a 2015 Disturbed cover, but according to Billboard, the original is gaining attention because of the Sad Affleck meme.
“The Sound of Silence” was Simon & Garfunkel’s breakthrough single and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1966. Now, it’s ranked at number six on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart, dated April 16.
The song is also number two on Billboard’s Rock Streaming Songs chart, with 5.6 million U.S. streams (5.1 million from YouTube), Billboard reports.
There are also multiple Sad Affleck memes (including an entire website that existed before the Yahoo Movies interview), but “The Sound of Silence” meme reigns. Posted to Youtube on March 24, that video now has more than 21 million views.
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