Conventional wisdom holds that the explosive, meme-enabled viral popularity of surprise hits like Baauer's "Harlem Shake" is one of those things that simply can't be bought, that it has to occur organically in order for people to buy in, and that the magic evaporates as soon as anyone sees a marketer's fingerprints on it. Which is hilariously wrong—if there's one thing that consumers of American pop culture have proven again and again it's that they couldn't give a shit where the stuff comes from as long as they're sufficiently entertained.…
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