Since MTV hit the airwaves 0n August 1, 1981, with the deeply appropriate Buggles track, Video Killed the Radio Star, music + video have formed a powerful creative coalition, consistently delivering emotive and engaging content that people want to watch, discuss, and share. Whether it's Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend (2007), with over 120 million YouTube views, or Leona Lewis's Bleeding Heart with almost 90 million views, music videos also frequently top the Viral Video Chart, which tracks the level of buzz and pass-on that a video achieves rather than simply the number of eyeballs watching a clip.

While many music videos are propelled to the top of the Viral Video Chart by a loyal fanbase, already familiar with the artist and their music, videos such as Oren Lavie's Her Morning Elegance (2nd most linked-to video in the past 12 months on the Viral Video Chart, topped only by the viral juggernaut that is Susan Boyle) owe their viral success to the quality of the video and its viral traction within the video-watching community as much as the quality of the soundtrack and a fanbase within the music-listening community. Another example of viral video bringing chart success: Australian band Sick Puppies, who rose to international prominence in 2006 when their song All the Same was used to support the Free Hugs Campaign, an inspirational piece of content that won YouTube video of the year.

As well as catapulting new tracks and artists into the spotlight, online video has a habit of bringing back old tracks and artists from the dead as well. Take the R&B artist, Chris Brown, for example, written off by the music industry after an ugly "altercation" with his then-girlfriend Rhianna. His 2008 track, Forever, was climbing back up the charts this week following the success of the JK Wedding Entrance Dance, the latest viral sensation to take the Internet by storm.

Unruly Media CEO, Scott Button, was invited to talk about the clip on Sky News last night:

As Scott mentions in the interview, there's nothing accidental about the success of this clip - it's best understood as a new development in the well-established meme of the wedding dance. This meme originates with the Thriller Wedding Dance (2006), where the wedding party entertain the guests with a performance of MJ's Thriller. Since then, hundreds of couples have uploaded their funny wedding dances to YouTube, though the Heinz's Wedding Entrance Dance is the first one I've come across to introduce the dance into the wedding ceremony itself.

Whether it's a pot-bellied gummy bear, an animated hamster, or a little superstar, the Funny Dance is an irrepressible uber-meme in a constant state of creative evolution. And of course, no post about the viral potential of music+dance would be complete without a nod in the direction of Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance (2006), one of the most widely-watched videos of all time. Laipply's 6 minutes of insanely-choreographed, hum-alongable comedy demonstrates that the killer combination of memorable music + funny dances has an enduring popularity that goes beyond a trend or viral fad.