Children yelling the word "poop" at Alexa devices may be driving streaming revenue for artists who write defecation-themed songs, according to new reporting by BuzzFeed's Katie Notopoulos. The report profiles musicians whose potty-humor children's tracks have accumulated millions of plays and thousands of dollars in royalties, with Amazon Music emerging as a key source of income.
Oregon music teacher Dan Helpish, who performs as Dandyland, told BuzzFeed he was shocked to find his song "Poopy Stupid Butt" had become a pandemic favorite. The track was written collaboratively with his partner and music school co-runner Kristen Muir, along with their special needs students, after they asked three students to come up with a five-syllable phrase. One girl shouted "poopy stupid butt," and the children began riffing on the theme while Helpish wrote down their words.
Helpish uploaded the song to Amazon Music and forgot about it until COVID-19 lockdowns left kids at home with their parents and smart devices. The song that once earned about $100 per month in streaming revenue began accumulating plays, ultimately generating more than $10,000 from over 10 million streams.
Why Amazon Music Is Central to the Theory
Notopoulos, citing her own "lived experience," noted that children enjoy yelling "poop" at Alexa devices, and when they do, songs like "Poopy Stupid Butt" tend to play. Another Alexa favorite, she found, are tracks by SEO expert musician Matt Farley, who releases goofy poop songs under stage names including "The Toilet Bowl Cleaners" and "The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke, and Pee."
Farley suggested in 2021 that his poop songs were hits because kids were having fun in their parents' Spotify accounts. In his interview with BuzzFeed, he added that Amazon Music accounts for his main streaming income, lending credence to Notopoulos' theory. "Amazon is at least 30% of my income, and the others go down from there," Farley told the reporter. "It's gotta be from Alexa. Amazon Music isn't something big music fans use."
Amazon did not respond to BuzzFeed's request for comment, leaving the theory unconfirmed by the company. Until Amazon confirms or denies that children yelling "poop" at Alexa devices has resulted in a streaming uptick for potty-humor artists, there is no way to know whether the explanation is correct. But given that kids enjoy yelling about poop and that these artists have earned money from their songs, the connection is not a far stretch.
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