With the last two weeks, the nu world has had three new entries into the Spotify Billions Club, with each of the songs breaking 1 billion streams on the music streaming platform. The company's dubious practices and gross underpayment of artists notwithstanding, this is a huge achievement for a genre that is still the butt end of so many jokes.
On April 11th, we had "Lonely Day" by System of a Down enter the club, with the chilled out track entering nearly twenty years to the day of its release as a single (the single dropped April 17th, 2006). It's been certified in five countries, with a Platinum certification by the RIAA and a double Platinum in New Zealand.
Not to be outdone, Disturbed have notched their first two entrants in their cover of "The Sound of Silence" and their breakout single "Down With The Sickness," which made the list on April 16th and April 20th, respectively. The former might be their most accessible song, given that it's a take on the Simon and Garfunkel track that even the men themselves have signed off on. Even with that whole "child abuse" section in the bridge, the latter is still a hit, even though much of Disturbed's modern output hasn't touched the heights of their first album, or even their first two. Still, not bad for a band whose frontman signs missiles and then wags his finger at other musicians when they speak up.
