As the world sits in quarantine, few entertainment options have fascinated us more than Netflix's ($NFLX) "Tiger King" documentary. The series follows the lives of several idiosyncratic big-cat lovers through a complex web of crime, politics, drugs, adultery, espionage, and country music.
The series' central figure, Joe Exotic, isn't just a big-cat lover, but he's also a country music singer with a couple of albums on Amazon's marketplace, and buyers are buying.
In the past month, since the show's debut, two of his records, "G.W. and Me" and "I Saw a Tiger" have made their way up Amazon Music's top-100 sales rank.
"I Saw a Tiger" is the more popular album of the two, the $9.98 CD hitting the #2 spot as of March 30, and, if all goes as it looks it will, is about to hit the #1 spot. "G.W. and Me" is making a run of its own, hitting spot #67 out of 100 on March 27 and making its way to #37 this week. Assuming "I Saw a Tiger" hits #1, it will dethrone Pearl Jam's "Gigatron". It's already the #1 record in Amazon's Country Music category.
The top-10 ranks, as of March 29, are as follows:
|
Name |
As Of Date |
Category Rank |
|---|---|---|
|
Gigaton |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
1 |
|
I Saw a Tiger |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
2 |
|
Mother |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
3 |
|
American Standard |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
4 |
|
Future Nostalgia |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
5 |
|
Gigaton [2 LP] |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
7 |
|
Frozen 2 |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
8 |
|
Precious Memories Collection [2 CD] |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
9 |
|
Rumours (Vinyl 33 & 1/3 RPM) |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
10 |
|
Ordinary Man |
2020-03-29 00:00:00 |
11 |
The albums' rise in the charts doesn't appear to just be quirky one-offs. Indeed, music fans are giving the albums real listens, and they're not hating them. Rolling Stone describes the music as "this-close-to offensive catchy" and it seems that consumers are responding with their Amazon Prime accounts to the notion that Joe Exotic "seems to possess some discernable talent".
Among the most popular is "Here Kitty Kitty" that takes aim at Exotic's arch-nemesis Carole Baskin (for those who haven't seen the series, we'll leave any spoilers out here, but for those who have seen it, you'll understand why the video for the song is absolutely amazing, and it's embedded below — it's approaching 2.5-million views).
This could be a great redemption moment for Joe Exotic. That is, if he deserves the credit (and subsequent royalties). According to an interview with Vanity Fair, Joe Exotic didn't write — or sing — the music on these albums. Instead, it was all done by country music musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton. Perhaps some fodder for season 2, Netflix?
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
- What happens after we die? In Tom Petty's case, it's a spike in record sales.
- BTS topped Amazon's best-selling music for February, beating Eminem and Billie Eilish
- DJ Khaled's new album barely hit the top-100 on Amazon's record charts