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Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ is once again a top 10 album this week — more than four decades after its release.
This return to the charts is thanks to a viral TikTok video that has introduced a new generation to the magic of “Dreams.”
Rumours now ranks seventh on the Billboard 200 chart, the album’s first appearance in the top 10 since 1978, as the kids continue down the rabbit hole and discover the iconic soft-rock ballads of “Go Your Own Way” and the “The Chain”.
The album’s newfound popularity is thanks to a viral video from Nathan Apodaca, who goes by the handle of 420doggface208 on TikTok. The clip shows him skateboarding down a road and sipping cranberry juice straight from the bottle while “Dreams” plays over top.
It’s since been viewed more than 60 million times since being posted at the end of September, and it’s even inspired both band members Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks to sign up for TikTok over the past two weeks. Fleetwood recreated the viral video himself, while Nicks posted a video of herself lacing up roller skates and singing along.
Social media analysts say the success of this new viral trend comes down to the visible joy in Nathan Apodaca’s face, as he skateboards home from work with the song playing.
It’s a video that takes the viewers away from the chaos of the 2020 news cycle for just 30 seconds, in a year marred by environmental disaster, a pandemic and the hyper-volatile political turmoil in the United States.
As a result, millions of young people now familiar with the delightful music of Fleetwood Mac, a discovery that usually only takes place first time they hear “Rhiannon” at a dinner party in their early 30s.
However, one local Fleetwood Mac diehard from our town’s affluent Betoota Grove, says this new TikTok crowd will have to name more than three songs before she considers them ‘fans’.
Wendy Cullen (65) says she was there, front and centre, when Fleetwood first toured Australia in 1977 at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway.
“I don’t even think skateboards had been invented back then” she says.
“We certainly weren’t using Chinese data farms like TikTok to share videos”
“We could only listen to them through pirated wax records and late night John Laws broadcasts”
Rockarena was promoted as the biggest outdoor concert ever staged in Australia, with Fleetwood Mac headlining, supported by Santana and the Little River Band.
Wendy was there.
“I welcome these newcomers from TikTok.” she says.
“But I’m interested to know if they would ever scale an 8 foot barbed-wire fence and evade Hells Angels security guards to see them play live”
