About

Replay, sometimes referred to by its initial lyrics "Shawty Like a Melody", is a 2009 song by Iyaz. In 2019 and 2020, the song gained popularity as a bait-and-switch meme on YouTube and TikTok, similar to Rickroll or You've Been Gnomed. While some use the song's iconic opening hook "Shawty's like a melody in my head" as a punchline, others create tangible Spotify Codes via 3D printing or embroidery that link to the song.

Origin

"Replay" was released in 2009, with the music video published to YouTube on October 19th, 2009. The music video hit 213,000,000 million views in 12 years (shown below).

On March 7th, 2010, YouTuber^[2] Mysuperanime posted a lyrics video with a blue and green spiral background. The lyric video (shown below) hit 10.7 million views in 11 years.

Spread

On November 27th 2018, YouTuber ^[3] William Pirker posted a ear rape version. The video hit 87,000 views in 3 years (shown below). On July 4th 2018, YouTuber ^[4] Nightcore Lab NCL posted a nightcore version. The video hit 25 million views in 3 years (shown below, right)

TikToks

On TikTok, the song has become a bait-and-switch meme, as users will often go to extreme lengths to weave it into their content as a punchline. It's different from many of TikTok's musical trends in the respect that it's not tied to a dance challenge and doesn't soundtrack another trend, rather "Replay" is the meme itself (examples by @sprubin, @willmcb, and @sutherlandphys shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References