We Are Young
"We Are Young" is a song recorded by American pop rock band Fun, featuring American singer Janelle Monáe. It is the third track on the group's second studio album, Some Nights (2012). The song was released on September 20, 2011 as the lead single from the album. The song quickly received acclaim from music critics, with many noting the song as a breakthrough for the indie genre and praising the song's catchiness. "We Are Young" attained commercial success worldwide, reaching number one in several countries.
This article is about the Fun song. For other uses, see We Are Young (disambiguation)."We Are Young"
"One Foot"
September 20, 2011
2011
- 4:10 (album version)
- 3:53 (radio edit)
Jeff Bhasker
Initially, the track only gained online media attention, in addition to its first commercial radio airplay on Tampa Bay alt radio station 97X, debuting on September 19, 2011. After this, it was soon covered by the television show Glee. With the Glee version having success on the charts, the song was licensed for use in a Chevrolet Sonic commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLVI. This song alone propelled the band into mainstream success, topping the digital charts in February 2012 and becoming a crossover hit. Peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 through airplay on contemporary hit radio stations, the song topped the charts for six weeks straight. It is also the first song to log seven weeks of 300,000 or more in digital sales, surpassing a record previously held by Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" (2010).
"We Are Young" has been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and is both Fun and Monáe's first charting single on the Hot 100, as well as their first number-one single. The song has also been used in the American Dad! episode "Faking Bad". The song also topped the Hot 100 Airplay chart with 120 million impressions in seven weeks, becoming the first group since Destiny's Child's "Survivor" (2001) to do so. The song was named 99th on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of All-time.[1]
An accompanying music video was directed by Marc Klasfeld at David Sukonick Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It features the group performing on a stage at a bar where a riot breaks out. As part of the promotion for the song, it was performed at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the American late night television show Conan, and was used as the opening song at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. The song is featured in the music video game Rock Band Blitz. The song won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 55th Grammy Awards, where it was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.[2]
Composition and lyrical interpretation
"We Are Young" is a stadium rock,[10] indie rock,[11] and indie pop song.[12] It is written in the key of F major, based almost entirely on the 50s progression (I vi IV V) except for its bridge. It follows a tempo of 116 beats per minute, changing to 92 bpm from the pre-chorus to the end (some bars in the middle changing to 94 bpm). The song has a slow hip hop groove[9] from the first chorus onward. The song is entirely in common time.[13] The instrumentation of the original mix session consists of drums, bass guitar, synth bass, electric guitars, synths, piano, horns and other brass, and a huge number of vocal tracks. As well as the rough mix and two reference tracks by Queen and Kanye West that are muted in the final master.[3]
According to Spin, the song incorporates a "marrying fist-pump stadium rock to the prim indie-pop of Grizzly Bear's 'Two Weeks,' keeping the deliberate beats and soaring melodies but replacing choirboy primness with a percussive whomp."[15] Andrew Unterberger of Popdust compared the song's chorus to Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" and Supergrass's "Alright".[16] Tim Jonze of The Guardian described the chorus as anthemic and compared it to work done by Arcade Fire and stated that the lyrics were "life-affirming and fit for a teen movie soundtrack."[17]
Lead singer Nate Ruess says the lyrics were inspired by one specific night, after "my worst drinking night of all time." Ruess told Rolling Stone that he was kicked out of a taxi cab for vomiting all over it, saying "the cabbie was demanding all this money, and all I could do was stand on the corner with my head against the wall. It took me another day before I was a functioning adult and could actually write down the verses."[18]
Chart performance
"We Are Young" hit US radio on December 6, 2011,[25] entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 53 on December 24, 2011.[26][27] The release of the Glee version caused a 1,650% jump in sales of "We Are Young" (from 3,000 to 49,000 during the week of December 11, 2011), and the song's appearance in the Super Bowl spot helped it explode at radio and at retail.[28] The song began to climb up the charts immediately following the Super Bowl, climbing its way back up to eclipse its peak position. In the week following the Super Bowl, it rose 26 spots to number 63 on the Hot 100, and jumped from number 72 to 41 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.[27] It eventually rose to number 41 and then rocketed up the chart to the top ten, peaking at number three.[6] The following week, the song dropped to number six but rebounded back to number three on February 29.[6] On March 7, 2012, "We Are Young" ascended to the top position on the Billboard Hot 100.[29] It remained at the number one position for six consecutive weeks, and is also the first song to log seven weeks of 300,000 or more in digital sales, beating a record that was previously held by Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" (2010).[30] "We Are Young" topped the Hot 100 Airplay chart with 120 million impressions in seven weeks, becoming the first group since Destiny's Child's Survivor (2001).[31] The song was the first song in 2012 to be certified by the RIAA 3 times platinum with sales of 3 million,[31] and was later certified 5 times platinum on June 21, 2012. As of early January 2014, the song has sold 6,830,000 copies in the United States.[32]
In the United Kingdom, the song climbed to number one on the UK Singles Chart on May 27, 2012 ― for the week ending date June 2, 2012 ― after floating around the top ten of the chart for several weeks. In November 2012, it made a re-entry to number thirteen. At the time, the song had sold 986,000 copies there, becoming Britain's third biggest-selling single of 2012.[33] Since then, the Official Charts Company have confirmed that "We Are Young" has now sold over one million copies in the United Kingdom, becoming the 128th single to do so in the 60-year history of the UK Singles Chart.[34]
Music video
The music video, directed by Marc Klasfeld, was filmed at David Sukonick Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The video showcases a bar fight in slow motion with the band performing on a stage in the bar. Some other portions of the video were shot in real time. The video opens with a girl (played by Rachel Antonoff, sister of the band's guitarist Jack Antonoff and ex-girlfriend of lead singer Nate Ruess)[35] messaging another person on a HTC Titan. On the screen was a text message reading "NOW!" implying that the message was possibly a signal to begin a flash mob. The girl then throws the smartphone into the middle of the bar, where it hovers in mid-air. As the first chorus begins, the girl gets a wine bottle smashed over her head as the patrons degenerate into a bar fight. Different types of food are thrown and smashed at various points in the video, most notably grapes. Large amounts of flour and confetti are sprayed across the stage from the left and right. People run, fall, and fly across the bar. Streamers and a disco ball also fall from the ceiling. During the second chorus, various glassware is thrown around and, as a result, shatters. A couple kiss with food spread all over their faces, and Janelle Monáe walks into the center of the bar and sings the first half of her bridge in real time and the second in slow motion. Monáe's role in the video was described as being the eye of the storm. It is also implied that Fun's performance mirrors the intensity of the bar's atmosphere, as their performance becomes more intense and energetic as the video progresses. The video concludes with Fun ending their performance as the girl from the beginning of the video walks out of the bar smiling.[36][37] As of August 2022, the video has received 1 billion views on YouTube.
Live performances
On April 27, 2011, before the song was met with mainstream success, the song was performed at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[38] On February 22, 2012, Fun performed "We Are Young" on Conan backed with a choir.[39] On April 23, 2012, the band performed the song at the iHeartRadio Music Festival among six of their other songs including "Some Nights". The performance was critically successful and garnered positive feedback from Bon Jovi.[40] On June 3, 2012, the band performed the song to open the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. The performance began with the band pounding away in a tiny red-lit cube, dressed in white tuxedos, with frontman Nate Ruess bounding back and forth in the enclosed space. Eventually, as the song grew into the chorus, Ruess stepped out of the cube, and at that widescreen moment, Janelle Monáe herself appeared on the stage, Monáe met Ruess in the middle of the stage, and the two traded verses and embraced. Then, Ruess bounded back to his bandmates and brought the song home.[41] On June 29, 2012, Fun performed "We Are Young" on British talk show The Graham Norton Show and November 11, 2012, on 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards in Frankfurt, Germany. The last performance of "We Are Young" was on December 5, 2012, for "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night" in Nashville, Tennessee, where they were nominated for 6 awards: Album Of The Year (lost), Record Of The Year (lost), Best New Artist (won), Best Pop Vocal Album (lost), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (lost), and Song Of The Year (won) beating "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.
Credits sourced from Sound on Sound[63]
fun.
Additional musicians