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The Chainsmokers cleverly recruited social-media tastemakers to make and post their own videos for the song, building a viral phenomenon with lightning speed.

#SELFIE-OBSESSED

How Dim Mak/Republic's The Chainsmokers Turned an EDM Lark Into a Genuine Phenomenon

How huge is "#Selfie" by Dim Mak/Republic’s The Chainsmokers?

The band, consisting of producer/remixer/DJs Drew Taggart and Alex Pall, signed with Republic last week after a fast and furious derby, and the track—an uproarious EDM send-up of self-obsessed club kids that’s reminiscent of Frank and Moon Zappa’s ’80s hit "Valley Girl"—impacted Top 40 and Rhythm radio this week. It was #1 Most Added at both formats. It’s also been the #8 Greatest Gainer at Pop over the last week.

The track is on 100 Top 40 stations, with KHKS, WNOW and KIIS L.A. leading the way, and just moved #36-31. 20 Crossover outlets, including XHTZ and WPOW, are also cranking it. It’s early days, but look for another nice Pop jump, possibly into the Top 30, by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, "#Selfie" has also climbed into the iTunes singles Top 20, up from the 60s last week, and jumped #22-9 on the Shazam USA Top 100 Tag Chart.

The story begins online, though. The pair are managed by Adam Alpert of DJ overseers 4AM Management and Oliver Luckett of theAudience; it was Luckett’s brainstorm to drop online selfies by social-media mavens with huge followings into an early video to the track; everyone featured naturally shared the clip with their users, building a viral phenomenon with lightning speed.

The song’s official video has scored 4.3 million YouTube views, Remixes, mashups, parodies and more have added velocity to the song’s journey through the pop-cultural bloodstream.

iHeartRadio was an early adopter, and the prescience of Programming chief Tom Poleman and team helped the track move from Internet wonder to a mover at terrestrial radio.

Look for this to accelerate, further aided by an ongoing #Selfie Tour of clubs and more, not to mention the expansion of The Chainsmokers brand as remixers of Bastille, NoNoNo and other artists.

We’ll keep you updated on this juggernaut. But first we’ve gotta take a selfie.

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