There is probably no teenager who has not heard the viral song of two girls from social networks. It is played on smartphones, played on the radio and seriously discussed in the news of different countries. Why did the song "Sigma Boy" become a "successful" success? Why does the simplicity of modern pop culture appeal to teenagers? Let's find out in our article.
The rise in popularity of the song "Sigma Boy"
In fact, the song "Sigma Boy" performed by two Russian girl bloggers - Betsy and Maria Yankovskaya - became popular back in the fall of 2024. The music for the song was written by the father of one of the performers - Mikhail Chertischev. And the lyrics - Russian musician Mukka. And for both girls this is not the first track that gained popularity. But it became their first song that came to the attention of foreign politicians.
In January 2025, "Sigma Boy" received a new influx of audience, thanks to criticism of the song in the European Parliament. An excerpt of MP Nela Riehl's speech made it into news reports, which only increased interest in bloggers.
The most remarkable thing is that immediately after the track was released on social networks, other bloggers started to shoot "trends" on it. This allowed the song to quickly viralize and get millions of views.
Note: A trend in social networks is a certain trick that channel authors pick up and make their own videos on the same topic. It can be a certain movement, a meme, a joke, and so on.
Thanks to the popularity in social networks, the song "Sigma Boy" hit the European charts. And in the American magazine Billbord it took the 7th place along with famous Western musicians.
What is the secret to the song's popularity?
Why did the clip "shoot"? Perhaps it was the way the stars aligned - the dance motif plus the word combination sigma boy, which is fashionable now among teenagers all over the world. By the way, modern youth slang we have already were dealt with in this article. From it you can learn what agra, cringe, imba and other buzzwords are.
Or maybe the world has missed the duo of young Russian girls singing uncomplicated rhythmic songs? Remember the success of Lena and Yulia from of the band Tatu in the early noughties? A generation has grown up on their work, which is raising the very teenagers who are filming their "tiktoks". History is repeating itself, it's just taken a new turn.
Sigma - what is that word anyway?
The modern concept of sigma refers to the psychological portrait of a man who lives outside of society. The term was first coined by the American activist Theodore Robert Beale in 2010, along with the previously existing concepts of "alpha" and "beta". There are a total of 7 types of classification of male portraits, which were derived from the observing a wolf pack.
So, a sigma is the kind of lone wolf who lives on his own and does not require the evaluative attention of society. They are not interested in power like alpha males, nor are they interested in social status. Such characters are often found and romanticized in movies. Moreover, they can be both positive heroes and their antipodes.
Where the popularization of sigma among young people began
It seems like how are psychology and the popularity of the term on the internet related? The fact is that YouTube bloggers in 2023 started using footage from the 2000 movie American Psycho. They picked up the facial expression of Christian Bale's character and started inserting it at the end of videos where the guy shows his independence. So this frame from the movie became a "meme" - dispersed into funny pictures with situational captions. Advanced users immediately associated this image with the definition of sigma, which we have already mentioned.
In addition, the younger generation of Internet users is tired of the obsessive success of alpha males. Therefore, they are happy to pick up the new hero sigma - balanced, independent and living by his own internal rules. Teenagers have chosen their hero of the time, with whom many want to associate themselves.
Conclusion
Thus, the explosive development of social networks and the almost complete absence of borders on the Internet have led to the instant spread of fashion trends. Young people are increasingly united by interests rather than by cultural or national traits. Therefore, the song "Sigma Boy" fell into a single trend of pop and Internet culture, which had a positive impact on its popularity.
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