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Song
B-side"One Foot"

"We Are Young" is a song recorded by American band Fun for their second studio album Some Nights (2012).

Background and production[edit]

Iowa City native Nate Ruess moved to New York City and formed Fun in 2008, following the breakup of his band The Format.[2] He recruited Jack Antonoff, who was a guitarist with the Steel Train and Andrew Dost, who had played keyboards for Anathallo.[2] They all previously had a "modicum of success" in the indie pop world, but "never broke into the ranks of the big-earning acts".[2] Fun, according to Ruess, is a second-chance band.[2] The band released their debut album Aim and Ignite in 2009 through Nettwerk. The album, which was produced by Steven McDonald, only managed to sell 75,000 copies.[2] The band signed to Fueled by Ramen in late 2010. Ruess, who had apprehensions about joining a major label in the past, recalled the switch being "very, very easy" for the band, stating that both parties approached it as if they "knew what [they] were getting into with each other".[3]

While composing new material, Ruess was listening to "so much" hip hop music that it began to show in his work.[4] His "obsession" with hip hop music began when he heard Kanye West's fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).[5] He scanned the liner notes of his other favorite hip hop albums and noticed Jeff Bhasker's name being among the most common.[5] The band tried to set up several meetings with him, none of which were successful. Ruess recalled: "I think Jeff was blowing me off a couple times, he was working with Beyonce and just didn't have any time when some kid from some random band really wants to sit down and meet with you".[5]

In early 2011, Bhasker finally agreed to meet with Ruess in New York City. Ruess was anxious about the meeting, so he arrived early at the bar in the Bowery Hotel and "had a little to drink just to make sure [he] was loosened up".[2] Bhasker, who had just completed a long day in the recording studio with American singer Beyoncé Knowles, gave Ruess ten minutes to impress him. He expressed his desire to combine hip hop beats and electronic effects with his theatrical pop rock, reminiscent of 1970s bands such as Queen and the Electric Light Orchestra. Intrigued, Bhasker invited him up to his hotel room to play him some of the tracks he had been working on for Knowles. "Slightly tipsy" and feeling inspired, Ruess "belted out" the chorus of "We Are Young", which at that time was an unfinished composition.[2] Bhasker was "blown away" and immediately booked a studio session for the following day.[2]

Fun invited Janelle Monáe to provide guest vocals on "We Are Young" through her friendship with Bhasker. He told her about the song, according to Ruess, "four times in one week".[4] After hearing the song, Monáe became enthused and immediately recorded vocals for it.[4] Bhasker "went nearly insane" mixing "We Are Young".[6] It took him "almost two weeks" to mix the song because he knew it was going to be a "giant song" and he "wanted it to be right".[6] He spent a lot of time and effort trying to "nail it, making sure it sounded good on car speakers, computer speakers, with radio compression, and so on".[6] Bhasker, who is "not really known" as a mixing engineer, is "more into" arrangement and production.[6] They considered sending "We Are Young" to a mixer, but since the budget was "kind of small", Bhasker thought: "The rough mixes sound great, I'll just mix it myself".[6] "This ended up a total nightmare", according to Bhasker.[6] After writing, playing, arranging and producing "We Are Young", he had listened to the song so many times that he "didn't know what [he] was listening to any more".[6] Bhasker concluded: "When you try to make one thing one percent better, everything else can come down like a house of cards".[6] Bhasker, who states that although it was a "great experience", will "never do it again".[6]

Composition and lyrical interpretation[edit]

"We Are Young" is a power ballad that combines the genres of indie pop, alternative rock, and power pop. The song is written in the key of F major, based almost entirely on the 50s progression (1 6- 4 5) with the exception of its bridge, and follows a tempo of 116 beats per minute, changing to 92 bpm from the pre chorus to the end. The song has a slow hip hop groove[7] from the first chorus onward, and the song in its entirety is in common time.[8]

In the song, "careful arrangements layer sharp, bright piano melodies with big, booming drums and multiple vocal harmonies." Ruess shifts from "vulnerable verbal tumbling in the song's sonically sparse intro to the grandiose declaration, 'Tonight, we are young / So let's set the world on fire / We can burn brighter than the sun' in the massive chorus." 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."[9] Bill Lamb of About, stated that the song "kicks off with an insistent pounding drum beat that gives way to Nate Ruess' insistent, wordy vocals. They begin to slow and then 50 seconds into the song a chorus"[10] Andrew Unterberger of Popdust compared the song's chorus to that of Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" and Supergrass' "Alright", and noted that nearly every word in the chorus is imbued with maximum passion and importance.[11] Tim Jonze Guardian.co.uk 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."[12]

Critical reception[edit]

Reviews[edit]

Recognition[edit]

Accolades[edit]

Chart performance[edit]

Music video[edit]

Live performances[edit]

Cultural impact[edit]

Cover versions[edit]

The Glee Cast's cover of "We Are Young" boosted the sales of the song as well as leading to widespread recognition in popular culture.

The song was covered on Glee on the episode "Hold On to Sixteen", aired in December 2011.[13] The track was given to Glee music supervisors by John Janick, head of Fueled by Ramen, "about five months" before its release, according to Ruess. Janick brought the song to the attention of Glee music supervisor PJ Bloom. "I vividly remember John dropping by my office with a just-mastered 'We Are Young' in hand," said Bloom. "It was still on its original blank CD-R titled in poorly handwritten red Sharpie." When Janick suggested that the track was perfect for the musical show, Bloom demurred. "Glee doesn't break bands, we celebrate existing pop success—that's our core model."[13] Bloom changed his mind after playing the song only once and less than five minutes later sent it to Glee co-creater Ryan Murphy. Bloom called the cover of "We Are Young" one of "the pinnacle song moments of the entire series," and continued, "For Fun, Glee provided a launching pad for much of the success to come. For Glee, Fun allowed us to show the world we could be an A&R source and break a band. It was music business perfection." According to Columbia, which handles Glee releases, "We Are Young" marks the first track that was truly broken by Glee.[13][14] Producers of Glee were incredibly receptive to the track, and set on including it in an episode regardless of whether it became a hit or not. The Glee cast version topped the Digital Songs chart in December 2011, hitting number one on iTunes and number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.[15][13] As Glee's version of "We Are Young" gained popularity before the original did, Ruess e-mailed the musical director of the program, writing, "You guys are #1 right now, but we are coming for you, we're going to reclaim the spot!"[14] It has been covered by Pentatonix whose a cappella version went viral on YouTube.[16]

Usage in media[edit]

"Obviously you never write the song hoping it ever fits into a commercial of something, you just want to write a good song. I think we'd be more apprehensive if it was something like a cheese commercial."

—Reuss, on the song's licensing for the Chevrolet spot[17]

"We Are Young" was selected as the soundtrack of a one-minute Chevrolet advertisement for the Chevy Sonic, aired during Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012. Chevrolet's agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners considered "hundreds of songs" before settling on the track. "It's a beautiful song, with a number of different projections in that driving beat and very sweet melody," said Andrew Bancroft, associate creative director for Chevrolet. "He liked the track so much he selected it even before pairing it with the ad's footage, a rarity in music-synching terms," said Billboard.[17] Although most commercials of that kind go through many different competing soundtracks, Chevrolet loved "We Are Young" from an early, rough cut of the spot. After the song's appearance in the spot, it was largely credited for the song's massive commercial success to come.[18][19][20] It was also used by Apple Inc. in a promotional video of their recent retail development in Grand Central Terminal.[21]

The song was used by the WWE as background music to highlight the nominees for Game Changer of the Year at the 2011 WWE Slammy Awards on the December 12 edition of WWE Raw and in the Once in a Lifetime: The Rock vs John Cena special that aired on the USA Network to help promote their highly anticipated match at WrestleMania XXVIII.[22][23] It was used at the end of Interactive Multimedia's Trash Bash 2012 at MCCTC.[citation needed] "We Are Young" was used in the episode "Chuck versus the Baby" of Chuck's fifth season.[24] It was also featured on both the season finales of Gossip Girl season 5[25] and 90210 season 4[26] as the closing number of the episode. It was used as the soundtrack for the trailer of Judd Apatow's film This Is 40.[27]

Aftermath[edit]

The breakout success of "We Are Young" catapulted Fun to levels of success that "no bands today usually receive," according to Billboard.[17] "Since the moment the first note was ever written, there's just been this huge level of excitement," said Ruess. "It's always seemed like we had this big secret, that we couldn't tell anyone, and now, it's just slowly unravelling."[7] John Janick, president/CEO of Fueled by Ramen and co-president of Elektra Records, states that everyone involved felt like "We Are Young" was a special song. "It just felt like a massive record from the beginning," said Janick in March 2012. "Not to say that we can foresee the future, but I've noticed in my life there's very few projects where something feels special and you go after things and they come to you and things fall into place. This is one of those projects."[13]

The band's extensive touring, which has included playing Coachella, ensured that the groundwork was already in place for the act to grow, according to Fun's manager, Dalton Sim of Nettwerk Records. "From my perspective, the success comes from the hard work the band, Nettwerk Records and Fueled by Ramen have put into the band for the last three-plus years to develop a real fan base. Now, with some great exposure, the Fun fan base is taking those looks and spreading and connecting the band to new people."[13] In addition, influential Los Angeles-area alternative station KROQ put "We Are Young" in rotation before the Super Bowl appearance based on its anthemic sound and lyrical relatable nature. "That's always the first thing that will get a song on the air, if it's a song we love and we think the listeners will love," said Lisa Worden, music director of KROQ. "That's why it went on the air, and then all the marketing around it is an added bonus. That's helped in getting the song out and reaching a different audience."[13] Al Shipley of The Village Voice called the track "one of 2012's ubiquitous songs," predicting it would fully saturate pop culture in May 2012, when "it inevitably becomes the biggest commencement song since Vitamin C's ghastly 'Graduation (Friends Forever)'."[15]

Formats and track listings[edit]

  • Digital download[28]
  1. "We Are Young" – 4:09
  • German CD single[29]
  1. "We Are Young"
  2. "We Are Young" (Acoustic)

Credits and personnel[edit]

Charts[edit]

Certifications[edit]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[78] 5× Platinum 350,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[79] Platinum 30,000*
Belgium (BEA)[80] Gold 15,000*
Canada (Music Canada)[81] 6× Platinum 480,000*
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[82] Gold 15,000^
Germany (BVMI)[83] Gold 150,000^
Italy (FIMI)[84] 2× Platinum 60,000*
Mexico (AMPROFON)[85] 5× Platinum 300,000*
New Zealand (RMNZ)[86] 2× Platinum 30,000*
Sweden (GLF)[87] 4× Platinum 160,000‡
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[88] 2× Platinum 60,000^
United States (RIAA)[90] 5× Platinum 6,000,000[89]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "We Are Young (Legal Title)". Broadcast Music, Inc. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h McKinley, James (March 9, 2012). "That '70s Style, Reinvented". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  3. ^ Shotwell, James (4 August 2010). "Fueled By Ramen sign Fun". Alternative Press. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  4. ^ a b c Kaplan, Ilona. "All in Good Fun". Interview Magazine. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c Hampp, Andrew (5 February 2012). "How Fun.'s 'We Are Young' Scored Chevy's 'Stunt Anthem' Super Bowl Spot". Billboard. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct12/articles/it-1012.htm
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MTV was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Digital Sheet Music – Fun – We Are Young". Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
  9. ^ Johnston, Maura (March 1, 2012). "Review: Some Nights". Spin. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
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  11. ^ Unteberger, Andrew. "Let's Analyze the Lyrics to Fun's "We Are Young"". Popdust. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  12. ^ Tim, Jonzae. "The best No 1 records: fun. – We Are Young (ft Janelle Monae)". Guardian Media Group. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Zemler, Emily (March 2, 2012). "Fun: The Billboard Cover Story". Billboard. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  14. ^ a b Robert, David (March 1, 2012). "Fun Talk Music, Touring and Being On Glee With MTV News". MTV News. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  15. ^ a b Shipley, Al (February 22, 2012). "Radio Hits One: Fun's "We Are Young" Brings Indie Pop To The Super Bowl And The Hot 100". The Village Voice. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  16. ^ "Pentatonix 'We Are Young' A Capella Cover Goes Viral". Huffington Post. May 10, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c Hampp, Andrew (February 5, 2012). "How Fun's 'We Are Young' Scored Chevy's 'Stunt Anthem' Super Bowl Spot". Billboard. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
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  19. ^ Trust, Gary (March 5, 2012). "Fun-tastic! 'We Are Young' Tops Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  20. ^ Martins, Todd (February 15, 2012). "Adele, Whitney Houston, Fun make an impact on the charts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
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  23. ^ "The music of "Once in a Lifetime"". WWE.com. March 26, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
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  27. ^ O'Connell, Sean (April 27, 2012). "This Is 40 Trailer Tackles Aging, Apatow Style". CinemaBlend.com. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
  28. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/we-are-young-mr0003570529
  29. ^ http://www.amazon.de/Are-Young-feat-Janelle-Monae/dp/B007V8VKLC/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1358139036&sr=1-1
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  84. ^ "Italian single certifications – Fun. – We Are Young" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved August 21, 2012. Select "2012" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "We Are Young" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli" under "Sezione".
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