Idolator

Everybody lost at last week's Video Music Awards: MTV lost. Mos Def lost. Even our nation's collective cultural masculinity (which wasn't doing so well to begin with) was handed another defeat. But the piss-poor show is at least partially responsible for the weekend-sales success of performer Ok Go, whose Oh No album—featuring the treadmill-assisted "Here It Goes Again" single—has finally cracked the upper-tier of the iTunes album chart (it's resting at No. 2, right between Dylan and Trousersnake; meanwhile, Amazon's album chart has at it at No. 62, a jump from last week).

If Oh No makes significant progress in tomorrow's SoundScan charts, expect plenty of music-biz wonks to extol the virtues of viral marketing, lauding the band for their brilliant, paradigm-shifting efforts. As they've proven, all you need to get a song on the charts these days are appearances on Letterman, The Today Show, The Colbert Report, The Early Show, ABC World News and the VMAs. So if you're in a young, cash-starved band, just go and do all that, and you'll be fine.

"OK Go - Here It Goes Again@VMA-06" [YouTube]