In her delightfully cheeky Verizon Tremendous Bowl business, Beyoncé swore to do one factor: Break the web. Because the business demonstrated, she couldn’t—not less than not within the literal sense. As a substitute, after the business ended, she did one thing else: She hacked the web, dropping two new songs, “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” the previous of which is already on its solution to changing into TikTok’s viral dance tune of the yr.

This was all the time going to occur. Just about all the things Beyoncé does—each album drop, each outfit—goes viral. That’s why her Verizon business didn’t appear to be a shallow try and astroturf hype. Furthermore, “Texas Hold ’Em” is an enormous pop-country crossover observe, and its fast banjo riffs (from maestro Rhiannon Giddens) and lyrics about whiskey and taking it to the ground are excellent for line dancing. Line dances, which lend themselves to enjoyable mimicry and interpretation, naturally do properly on social platforms. It might have been weirder if TikTok hadn’t been flooded with new dances within the week after the tune dropped. (If you happen to’re in search of the video that greatest exemplifies this pattern, try this chart-topper from performers Matt McCall and Dexter Mayfield after which simply observe the sound on down, down, down.)

Inevitability, although, isn’t the entire motive “Texas Hold ’Em” is at the moment the backing observe to just about 134,000 movies with hundreds of thousands of collective views. The tune is boot-scootin’ its method onto TikTok at a time when numerous music has been muted on the platform following a dustup between TikTok and Common Music Group.

Again in January, after the 2 corporations failed to return to phrases on a licensing settlement for UMG music, the huge file firm pulled songs that it owns the rights to from TikTok, together with cuts from artists like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Meaning any video utilizing music from these artists now performs with out sound. Beyoncé’s music is distributed by Columbia/Sony, a UMG rival, so “Texas Hold ’Em” now sits at Quantity 5 on TikTok’s Viral 50 record.

Now, like a shiny holographic disco horse, Beyoncé is atop the social net. When she introduced her new album, Act II, and dropped “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” the web was in a tizzy about the truth that Beyoncé was making what gave the impression to be a complete nation album, a continuation of the country-infused “Daddy Classes” from 2016’s Lemonade. (“She coming to place the cunt in nation!!” went the replies on the @BeyLegion X account. “‘Daddy Classes’ reloaded!” went one other.)

On Tuesday, “Texas Hold ’Em” made Beyoncé the primary Black girl to debut at primary on Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs chart. The tune has at the moment been streamed almost 20 million instances.

TikTok sounds don’t rely towards Billboard chart rankings, however there is no such thing as a doubt that viral dances create the type of hype that results in tune streams, album gross sales, and radio play. Beyoncé has no management over the TikTok/UMG scenario (most likely), and he or she had no method of understanding whether or not their licensing dispute would nonetheless be ongoing when her new music dropped (once more, most likely), however its existence has paved the best way for her new tune to be one of many largest issues occurring with music on the platform proper now. Little doubt it might’ve hit these heights regardless, however with much less competitors, there’s nothing holding it again.