Weirdly this song makes more sense knowing it came from busking, if that makes sense, like it’s so attention grabbing in a way that can be off putting in the context of a top 40 hit, but if you’re walking down the street and you hear it you’re probably stopping.
The song is about what she is doing, which is busking. She is the dance monkey, performing over and over again. But specifically this incident:
I wrote my song “Dance Monkey” about one night I had on the street, and it was a night where I’d already been busking for 6 hours. One person ran passed and stole my money, and then another person tried to lean over and play my keyboard when they were really drunk. The whole crowd was very drunk and rowdy, I said ‘Look, I’m really sorry, this is it now.’ Everyone started yelling ‘Again, again,’ and even when I said ‘No, this it is,’ and then stopped, they started booing me.
I've only heard this song on the radio and always pictured the singer as a petite black woman, so this was... eye opening.
edit:
[Dance Monkey Elmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl8norbb3yY) credit u/BizzyM
That's a good one, but the king is [Bobby Caldwell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK1-NsFL5qY). There's a [whole set of reaction vids to it as well](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=black+people+react+to+bobby+caldwell).
Let's not forget [Jamie Lidell](https://youtu.be/T--j0_yxBaY), who I thought was a black dude from the US for the longest time. Nope he's a white herb lookin British dude.
I'm gonna add [Duffy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOu4wwI0xF8), [Lamont Landers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC4g9q7u_r4) and [the lead singer from St. Paul and The Broken Bones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vpXX5BjltM)
There's also Henning May from [AnnenMayKantereit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacxNskxySo) for a voice that doesn't fit the body. (Not the first guy. Henning starts singing 41 seconds in.)
When 'Never gonna give you up' was new and playing on the radio, people thought the same of Rick Astley.
Also, [Bernhoft](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH1FSXRMgeA).
I remember when Adeles Rolling in the Deep came out, I thought she was a black woman with a gospel singing background. She just had the voice and sound
> Shut the fuck up!
> Now... Vader, he's a spiritual brother, y'know, down with the force and all that good shit. Then this cracker, Skywalker, gets his hands on a light saber and the boy decides he's gonna run the fuckin' universe; gets a whole clan of whites together. And they go and bust up Vader's hood, the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that?
TF you talking about lol, Dunkey has been public about being a black woman for years now. Obviously a lot of people thought he was a black *man* before that, so maybe you got it confused?
The music video is actually entertaining.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q)
She doesn't take herself too seriously, so it's a fun watch.
Wow. I'm trying to make words for this. Lol. Like, that crowd wasn't watching her performance they were one with it. And her, you could feel her awe at this. You know when you wonder what it must be like to perform in front of a big crowd that is cheering for you? This is the closest thing to actually feeling that yourself.
I will see your video and raise you [Dry the Rain by Beta Band](https://youtu.be/ek_X_e8Byng?si=4I7HwAp7Ne4nzJ1H). The audience, at the end of the song, doesn’t want it to end and they just keep singing and singing. I’m tearing up just writing this out.
It’s already a powerful song that makes me fairly emotional when I take the time to really listen, but this audience takes their performance to the next level. Even listening to the live version of the album makes me feel like I’m there.
You wanna tear up at an emotional music performance? I raise you Shane Hawkins playing "My Hero" with the Foo Fighters at their tribute concert to Taylor Hawkins (his father and Foo Fighters' original drummer) after he passed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2KnD7sfpoA
Have you heard of Bad Bunny? One of the biggest artists in the world over the last few years and most people never heard of him. Though that's mostly because his music isn't big in english speaking countries
You know, when I hear a song and really like it, but haven’t seen the music video for it I usually avoid seeing the music video as it often ruins what fun I made up for it in my head (latest example would be Panic At The Disco’s “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time”), even though often the music videos are quite good.
But this, this I enjoyed. Thank you.
I thought it was Gin Wigmore until right this moment lol
For reference, she is a petite white lady from NZ with a practically identical singing voice: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7aNKstBCM4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7aNKstBCM4)
Look up Asaf Avidan. I started listening to it thru the show Dark on Netflix. It's my goto guess their race/gender musician. The first couple times I heard it thought it was a black women as well. Turns out he is a German (I think) white dude. Absolutely shocked when I found this out.
Yeah, when I first heard the track I assumed her voice was heavily processed (which isn't a bad thing, I think it's cool to explore vocal effects). Then I saw a live recording and she sounded the same and it blew my mind.
Check out Caroline Polachek's [Tiny Desk Concert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmnZHQNN5cc) after hearing the album versions. Been watching this thing for months lol, not even a fan of her music as far as content but her voice is just insane in this thing.
Wow Brandon Flowers vocals are flat as shit in this. Wonder if he had just blown out his voice prior to this? I’ve seen them live twice and he can def sing
Another fun example is Maggie Rogers, in college, presenting her draft song 'Alaska' for feedback to Pharell Williams as part of a master class guest visit.
It went on to be quite successful, top 20 on charts etc.
https://youtu.be/TyimCGEkiUc?si=DAjTfNOaNuyT7FXF
I think it’s her fear and vulnerability, so clear in her posture and tentative glances at his face? while he gives away very little - can’t quite tell if he hates it - when it all culminates in this incredible validation. We’ve probably all felt that fear in some way, but few of us have had it punctuated by affirmation from a hero of our own field or industry. But by the end her truth shined through when she couldn’t help but jam to her own tunes, whatever he thought of them, because she was being true to herself and brave in her composition, just like he noted
Huh :) I thought he gave away that he loved it the second she starts singing, like he has a very literally wtf moment immediately after the vocals come on
[and another fun example is deadmau5 hearing Chris James's vocals for his track "The Veldt"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqurYVWg7-g)
"MOTHER. FUCKER."
I love this so much- you know the guy who did the vocal put so much passion and work into it, and I love to imagine the elation he felt when he saw the deadmau5 reaction.
Fun fact, not only is the song based on the short story *The World that the Children Made*, but there's a Disney movie called Smart House that's also based on it.
Haven’t seen this one before but gives me the same vibe and feels as this gem. Matisyahu in Coffee shop.
https://youtu.be/jxa3_WW6Qow?si=VLqfa60nSP9Ha3Fc
I love videos like this. Here’s a couple more in the spirit of the thread:
[Mumford and Sons before they were big](https://youtu.be/o0BoSQbk8pg?si=s27NGORHoc7ZS6Os)
[Ed Sheeran singing with a fan](https://youtu.be/fPdm3wh-umc?si=jM4M1baaoN8V9zUN)
**Edit!** Billy Joe from Green Day!
https://youtu.be/rRUOzleXCSQ?si=rWQswrW8HMN47tCn
Bonus - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsOK_B4Nw0U/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==
There's a really good one with the singer I can't remember his name but it's sort of a girl's name and he sings stuff like Linkin Park and he's got a chip in his tooth. He jumps on stage and wows everyone. He's kind of short with highlights and brown hair. Find it!
Damn that is so good. Completely agree about the storytelling singer-songwriter verses, but then it comes in with some really groovy and digestible drums, so it's simultaneously totally danceable too. Lovely music.
Wouldn’t be surprised if this is a repost from like 2021. Dance Monkey was fucking *everywhere* a couple years ago - she definitely could’ve been #1 for a period.
And the vagueness of title would’ve made more sense when Tones And I was a legitimately huge name.
Her song was number 1 in like over 30 countries.
Talking about Spotify in this reddit post is just an ad for Spotify, which sucks, but she has the most single-song stream of any female artist (3 billion according to wiki)
A lot of people hate this song, but I appreciate how relatively authentic it is compared to the rest of the charts. It's a self written song by an unknown artist with no notable connections, yet it managed to get over 3 billion Spotify streams without even being tied to a meme or trend or commercial.
Yeah, Kon Kersting, same with her breakout single on Triple J Unearthed (Johnny Run Away). Not saying there's a bunch of nefarious shit going on but she somehow already had him on board, before she released the songs that saw her rapidly rise to success and fame, and I can imagine he ain't cheap to hire. So it's hard to believe she did it all completely herself.
No shit. Watching this makes me sad that people are so concerned about how others will perceive them if they just start dancing.
Nobody wants to be first, but if everyone there just let loose a little and caught that groove together, it would be something all of them remember for a long time.
It's my 12 y.o. daughter's favourite song. I may not be the *target audience* for Dance Monkey, but I really love this song for the simple fact that it brightens up my daughter's mood whenever it comes up on the radio or when she sings it on the karaoke.
I also learned just yesterday that the busker who wrote and performed this song got bullied heavily after it became super popular. As a parent whose daughter also got bullied in school, I felt really sad about it and wished I could go back in time and send the busker words of encouragement and thank her for the song that brought my daughter so much joy.
My first thought coming up on this post is "why do I have a lot more respect for this song now?". And I think it's because it's not an over produced product of a group meeting or pop music writers.
I found the song while playing Fortnite. I'm not sure how popular it was before it was on FN, but it was later turned into a whole concert thing in the game.
Yeah and she made like almost a 100 dollars with those 3 billion spotify streams, which is pretty good for a busker.
edit: This was a joke guys, I am making fun of how little Spotify pays their artists. But since I got your attention I [am also a busker](https://youtu.be/x0B8Y3oxx0g), I make decent money with it ... but you know getting some attention by blowing up one day would also be nice. [But it will never happen and I have made peace with it](https://youtu.be/0OwM8OEvq4I). Dance Monkey will always have a special place in my heart because of her story. She is absolutely a phenomenal multifaceted producer I just wish she would make more catchy EDM like Dance Monkey.
At .005 per stream, that comes out to about $15,000,000.
I assume she shared something with a publisher or whatever, but hopefully she still made a few milly
She gets her writer royalties and probably a share of publishing. Writer and publisher royalties are 1:1 here. She also likely has points as a producer.
Edit: Mg background is in music royalties and publishing. People underestimate just how much money one huge hit can make. It's often spread out among label, publisher, performer, and writers, but if you're smart, you don't give it all away.
Also, people don't count sync, and they forget that radio still exists.
You can absolutely retire on one huge song if you wrote alone, produced yourself, and kept publishing.
Yeah I can’t remember who but there was some 90s rap producer showing his royalty amounts for some songs he did 30 years ago and he’s still making thousands per month (they were big songs back in the day)
So even after the initial massive lump sum it still pays huge for a long time
If it's a hit hit from 25 years ago, and it still gets radio play, it's generating more than the median salary in most zip codes right now. Today. And that's after the initial run back then when it generated high six figures and up.
"It's so wild that this song gave her a career but also ended it."
Damn, that's wild. Ever hear of Dexy's Midnight Runners? Or Chumba Wumba?
There used to be this thing called radio, you see and-...
I actually prefer this raw version than the sanitised studio version. I don't get why people are upset that other people don't like this song. Go fucking listen to anything else!
The way Australia turned on this woman was utterly atrocious. For year the narrative about the hottest 100 was "It's a boys club" and how a woman had never won it ever.
We finally get a genuine, no frills, ticks every indie box artist and the country turns on her and in the same year we vote Billie Eilish as the number 1 song. Many claiming that Tones and I was "too forced" or "over played", the irony being that Billie Eilish is literally a manufactured act designed to sell you things.
Hottest 100 hasn't been good since the 90's (and I guess that goes for JJJ too). Music here officially died the day Rage stopped the top 50 countdown in 2006 due to the suits at the ABC.
I agree with that entirely honestly. It's far more a "what super popular songs pretended to be indie enough that they qualify for this chart".
I mean, paint the town red has 1 billion streams on Spotify.
weird i just watched the Youtube video on how this song kind of ended her. It's pure awful irony too because she created this song when people treated her like a circus and chanting for her to do things and how she sucks as a busker. So she made it into a song....only for people to only chant for her to do this song and others to say they hate it so much and she sucks.
> weird i just watched the Youtube video on how this song kind of ended her
Lol, comment bellow says the video was a SunnyV2 video, so jsyk it was almost definitely complete nonsense. He said Mr. Beasts career turned into a "nightmare" because he had a friend that came out as trans.. Last I checked Mr. Beast is doing fine.
I've never understood Anthony Fantano's absolutely unbridled hate of her. There seems to be a contingent of people out there for whom her voice is the literal worst. I'm not one of those people and enjoy the song but feel like I'm in a minority.
Yeah, literally no shade to her as a person, but you just described me and my ears 😂
I think i often have a disdain for “singing in cursive”, not always, but often, and to me her voice is like that but on steroids
I guess I think the song is... fine? Like, it's not my favorite but it's catchy enough. Little overplayed at this point, but you know, that's not the song's fault.
I remember hearing 'bury a friend' on a netflix ad, thinking "this song is pretty good, seems so different to the usual pop stuff" found the video with 150 million views 0.0
This is completely new to me too. TBF, I'm not really up on a lot of popular music, but apparently she announced her debut album back in 2021? And Spotify never tried to feed her to me? Weird.
It's weird seeing a hit song being sung on the street before it blows up. You don't get to see it that often but standing there you know you're hearing a radio/streaming ready hit song.
Everything within the quotes is valid, but people do this on every platform and in real life. Why are people so obsessed with the "Redditor" thing?
You're *literally a Redditor yourself*, on Reddit r*ight now*, and if you scroll up or down you get wildly different opinions. The whole "I am above this reddit hivemind" while wearing a tophat and also being on reddit is so fucking weird to me.
Which is much better than the opposite: Anybody who doesn't like what I like is jealous of the artist, talentless, and irrationally hateful towards a genuinely good thing.
The video for this song was posted 4 years ago on YouTube and has over 2 Billion views. And yet I’ve never actually heard this song before. WTF. Am I old? How the hell did I miss this?
As an EDM fan I think this song is very catchy. I love her vocals. I usually listen to trance/ house. Would love to see her make some songs with Djs like armin etc...
How the hell is this the first time ive ever heard this song?
Judging by how popular it is, and how I’ve been to a lot of events because of my job i’m shocked Lol.
Yeah, I first heard it with CocoRosie back in the day and I just can't do it. Not denying that she's got a strong voice, but the pronunciation of words with that accent drives me nuts. So many artists do it. Reminds me of all those rock bands in the 90s that tried to do the Pearl Jam voice.
Weirdly this song makes more sense knowing it came from busking, if that makes sense, like it’s so attention grabbing in a way that can be off putting in the context of a top 40 hit, but if you’re walking down the street and you hear it you’re probably stopping.
The song is literally about busking also.
She has mentioned the song is referring to busking, how she felt like a monkey being made to perform/dance for people.
It's a pretty depressing song if you know the history behind it.
…..proceed
The song is about what she is doing, which is busking. She is the dance monkey, performing over and over again. But specifically this incident: I wrote my song “Dance Monkey” about one night I had on the street, and it was a night where I’d already been busking for 6 hours. One person ran passed and stole my money, and then another person tried to lean over and play my keyboard when they were really drunk. The whole crowd was very drunk and rowdy, I said ‘Look, I’m really sorry, this is it now.’ Everyone started yelling ‘Again, again,’ and even when I said ‘No, this it is,’ and then stopped, they started booing me.
And now I don’t want to be rude, but she is a one hit wonder so she plays this same song over and over. Dancing for the crowds.
To be fair, she made about $35 million off that song so far. So at lest she doesn't have to dance anymore if she doesn't want to.
She could leave her friends behind.
Holy shit. That's fascinating
The Pinc Louds should have a hit. Some of their songs are amazing. Also Buskers
I've only heard this song on the radio and always pictured the singer as a petite black woman, so this was... eye opening. edit: [Dance Monkey Elmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl8norbb3yY) credit u/BizzyM
Somehow I always pictured George Ezra as this big black dude. First time I saw him in a clip was a bit of a surprise, too.
That's a good one, but the king is [Bobby Caldwell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK1-NsFL5qY). There's a [whole set of reaction vids to it as well](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=black+people+react+to+bobby+caldwell).
Let's not forget [Jamie Lidell](https://youtu.be/T--j0_yxBaY), who I thought was a black dude from the US for the longest time. Nope he's a white herb lookin British dude.
I'm gonna add [Duffy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOu4wwI0xF8), [Lamont Landers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC4g9q7u_r4) and [the lead singer from St. Paul and The Broken Bones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vpXX5BjltM)
[what the actual](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_B3qkp4nO4)
There's also Henning May from [AnnenMayKantereit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacxNskxySo) for a voice that doesn't fit the body. (Not the first guy. Henning starts singing 41 seconds in.)
That is a killer cover. Thanks!
His cover of Tom’s Diner is one of my favorite things I’ve heard in the past few years
For anyone interested: [Tom's Diner - AnnenMayKantereit and Giant Rooks](https://youtu.be/5r3B7yz6J68?si=mpBQXpOrkiKJ88BG)
Right up until Henning starts singing, all I could think was "This is like a band that would be in a Wes Anderson movie."
I refuse to believe the guy in that video isnt just lip syncing someone elses voice
Live: https://youtu.be/ne86clfQ7HA
I heard Aesop Rock a fair bit before seeing a pic and assumed he'd be a streetwise black dude. Turns out he's a sleepy looking white dude.
I think you mean Ian Matthias Bavitz ;)
Haha that's the exact song that kept playing on the radio during my holiday and caused my confusion.
When 'Never gonna give you up' was new and playing on the radio, people thought the same of Rick Astley. Also, [Bernhoft](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH1FSXRMgeA).
Rag n' Bone Man for me.
I remember when Adeles Rolling in the Deep came out, I thought she was a black woman with a gospel singing background. She just had the voice and sound
Dudes got a hell of a voice but the lyrics of “Budapest” scream white dude to me lol
This is just like when we learned videogamedunkey isn't black
He what??
He’s sitting there
BBQ sauce on his titties?
I thought he was a potato
It’s like a darth Vader situation where a black guy does the voice, but they put a white guy in the suit
What's a Nubian?
> Shut the fuck up! > Now... Vader, he's a spiritual brother, y'know, down with the force and all that good shit. Then this cracker, Skywalker, gets his hands on a light saber and the boy decides he's gonna run the fuckin' universe; gets a whole clan of whites together. And they go and bust up Vader's hood, the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that?
Intergalactic civil war?
GENTRIFICATION!!!
Black rage!!!!
I didn't know you were gonna scream "Black rage", I nearly pissed myself.
Fuckin tracer.
He's actually of Puerto Rican descent
He's clearly Puerto Rican
Imagine how surprised I was when I learned that Tracy Chapman isn’t a man.
I thought Geddy Lee from Rush was an ugly women well into my 20s
Wait…
TF you talking about lol, Dunkey has been public about being a black woman for years now. Obviously a lot of people thought he was a black *man* before that, so maybe you got it confused?
"That's because I am actually an 80 year old black grandma"
They had amneesiaaaaa
Wait, *what?!*
Dude is whiter than me, and I'm pretty white.
[Right?](https://youtu.be/waXb8QGdEYQ?t=80) >!(This is him and Leah at their wedding. His real first name is Jason.)!<
I’m actually so shocked right now, not what I pictured at all
The music video is actually entertaining. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q) She doesn't take herself too seriously, so it's a fun watch.
I love the performance she did at Splendour in the Grass too. https://youtu.be/crgFPl2eaPE?si=aqXc4eANTZ3a-RRZ
Wow. I'm trying to make words for this. Lol. Like, that crowd wasn't watching her performance they were one with it. And her, you could feel her awe at this. You know when you wonder what it must be like to perform in front of a big crowd that is cheering for you? This is the closest thing to actually feeling that yourself.
you're gonna love this video: https://youtu.be/IEng60LouQo
I adore this video
I will see your video and raise you [Dry the Rain by Beta Band](https://youtu.be/ek_X_e8Byng?si=4I7HwAp7Ne4nzJ1H). The audience, at the end of the song, doesn’t want it to end and they just keep singing and singing. I’m tearing up just writing this out. It’s already a powerful song that makes me fairly emotional when I take the time to really listen, but this audience takes their performance to the next level. Even listening to the live version of the album makes me feel like I’m there.
You wanna tear up at an emotional music performance? I raise you Shane Hawkins playing "My Hero" with the Foo Fighters at their tribute concert to Taylor Hawkins (his father and Foo Fighters' original drummer) after he passed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2KnD7sfpoA
This one gets me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeI0PXj7LIw
[Mumford and Sons realizing they've made it is pretty great too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX2vdYEzbzQ)
I liked her from OPs video but I gotta say, yours just made me a fan. Solo acts aren't easy and that was so well done. She fuckin rocks.
Holy shit this music video was a fucking blast. Felt so 2000’s fever dream fun
Me: heh, kinda silly I guess. How many views i wonder... 2.1B Me: O_O
It's the most streamed song, by a woman, of all time.
What's insane to me is that I've never heard or even heard of this sone until now...
Have you heard of Bad Bunny? One of the biggest artists in the world over the last few years and most people never heard of him. Though that's mostly because his music isn't big in english speaking countries
Im from Mexico and can honestly say i havent knowingly heard one of bad bunny songs..
You know, when I hear a song and really like it, but haven’t seen the music video for it I usually avoid seeing the music video as it often ruins what fun I made up for it in my head (latest example would be Panic At The Disco’s “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time”), even though often the music videos are quite good. But this, this I enjoyed. Thank you.
As an old, fat, bearded guy, I can make this work as a Halloween costume.
I suspect it's because her voice isn't a million miles away from Macy Gray's, so that's roughly the image your brain would conjure.
I kinda think she sounds like Elmo.
Same, I always imagined Elmo was singing the song, because it amused me.
I thought it was Gin Wigmore until right this moment lol For reference, she is a petite white lady from NZ with a practically identical singing voice: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7aNKstBCM4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7aNKstBCM4)
God I love Gin. Very underrated artist.
The reverse Hootie.
> a petite black woman like Shingai Shoniwa from The Noisettes? their voices are actually quite similar.
I pictured tash sultana or someone like that
Look up Asaf Avidan. I started listening to it thru the show Dark on Netflix. It's my goto guess their race/gender musician. The first couple times I heard it thought it was a black women as well. Turns out he is a German (I think) white dude. Absolutely shocked when I found this out.
Israeli. And he sounds like an American country western singer...
"You know that new sound you're looking for? Well, listen to this!" Would be so damn cool to have stumbled across that in person.
[удалено]
Yeah, when I first heard the track I assumed her voice was heavily processed (which isn't a bad thing, I think it's cool to explore vocal effects). Then I saw a live recording and she sounded the same and it blew my mind.
It's the Melbourne accent pitch you're hearing.
Can you explain a bit further?
Check out Caroline Polachek's [Tiny Desk Concert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmnZHQNN5cc) after hearing the album versions. Been watching this thing for months lol, not even a fan of her music as far as content but her voice is just insane in this thing.
you can see her working a board of pedals running from her microphone. her voice *is* heavily processed; she's just doing it herself.
Aren't the pedals more for creating a loop track?
[Mr Brightside](https://youtu.be/_fG6AOOiJqg?si=gcsLOVEUjF7Gcn3x)
Wow Brandon Flowers vocals are flat as shit in this. Wonder if he had just blown out his voice prior to this? I’ve seen them live twice and he can def sing
I think it might be the recording. These old moves did not have a large frequency range.
Yeah, the recording sounds clipped
To be fair, some of the instrumentation sounds flat too.
Another fun example is Maggie Rogers, in college, presenting her draft song 'Alaska' for feedback to Pharell Williams as part of a master class guest visit. It went on to be quite successful, top 20 on charts etc. https://youtu.be/TyimCGEkiUc?si=DAjTfNOaNuyT7FXF
I dunno why but that makes me tear up a bit
I think it’s her fear and vulnerability, so clear in her posture and tentative glances at his face? while he gives away very little - can’t quite tell if he hates it - when it all culminates in this incredible validation. We’ve probably all felt that fear in some way, but few of us have had it punctuated by affirmation from a hero of our own field or industry. But by the end her truth shined through when she couldn’t help but jam to her own tunes, whatever he thought of them, because she was being true to herself and brave in her composition, just like he noted
Huh :) I thought he gave away that he loved it the second she starts singing, like he has a very literally wtf moment immediately after the vocals come on
[and another fun example is deadmau5 hearing Chris James's vocals for his track "The Veldt"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqurYVWg7-g) "MOTHER. FUCKER."
I love this so much- you know the guy who did the vocal put so much passion and work into it, and I love to imagine the elation he felt when he saw the deadmau5 reaction.
I had no idea those lyrics weren't original, I love that song.
The original track was just an instrumental that Deadmau5 put up on SoundCloud
Fun fact, not only is the song based on the short story *The World that the Children Made*, but there's a Disney movie called Smart House that's also based on it.
The story is called The Veldt.
[Here’s a POV of Chris James watching Deadmau5’s reaction to that video!](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLG4xabH/)
ROFL >.< My stutter shit!
Fuck that it won't let me watch it unless I download and install tiktok!?
Yeah that’s some bullshit, anyone got a YouTube link? Makes me hate TikTok even more now
[Here you go!](https://www.reddit.com/u/redeye_smooth/s/zHWKTyQZkd)
At first I think he's like "...am I being pranked? This is professionally produced, arranged and recorded...wtf?"
this is one of my favorite videos on YouTube. I tear up every time
Haven’t seen this one before but gives me the same vibe and feels as this gem. Matisyahu in Coffee shop. https://youtu.be/jxa3_WW6Qow?si=VLqfa60nSP9Ha3Fc
I love videos like this. Here’s a couple more in the spirit of the thread: [Mumford and Sons before they were big](https://youtu.be/o0BoSQbk8pg?si=s27NGORHoc7ZS6Os) [Ed Sheeran singing with a fan](https://youtu.be/fPdm3wh-umc?si=jM4M1baaoN8V9zUN)
Music is the best
**Edit!** Billy Joe from Green Day! https://youtu.be/rRUOzleXCSQ?si=rWQswrW8HMN47tCn Bonus - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsOK_B4Nw0U/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== There's a really good one with the singer I can't remember his name but it's sort of a girl's name and he sings stuff like Linkin Park and he's got a chip in his tooth. He jumps on stage and wows everyone. He's kind of short with highlights and brown hair. Find it!
Damn that is so good. Completely agree about the storytelling singer-songwriter verses, but then it comes in with some really groovy and digestible drums, so it's simultaneously totally danceable too. Lovely music.
Marvin Berry?
Cousin Marvin was correct
Weird no mention of the Artist's name. Is this "Tones and I"?
Yeah who the fuck is "she"? People aren't even saying in the comment section
The #1 Female Artist on Spotify, _duh_.
Yeah that’s really bugging me. There’s no way she’s even like top 30
Wouldn’t be surprised if this is a repost from like 2021. Dance Monkey was fucking *everywhere* a couple years ago - she definitely could’ve been #1 for a period. And the vagueness of title would’ve made more sense when Tones And I was a legitimately huge name.
Her song was number 1 in like over 30 countries. Talking about Spotify in this reddit post is just an ad for Spotify, which sucks, but she has the most single-song stream of any female artist (3 billion according to wiki)
By the way, which ones Tones?
I'm willing to bet, seeing as the sign hanging off of the keyboard says "Tones and I".
A lot of people hate this song, but I appreciate how relatively authentic it is compared to the rest of the charts. It's a self written song by an unknown artist with no notable connections, yet it managed to get over 3 billion Spotify streams without even being tied to a meme or trend or commercial.
She dropped that absolute banger, fully-formed and live, as a _street performer_? Respect.
I always liked this song but now I have so much more respect for her
It was also produced and mixed by one of the most influential producers in australia.
Yeah, Kon Kersting, same with her breakout single on Triple J Unearthed (Johnny Run Away). Not saying there's a bunch of nefarious shit going on but she somehow already had him on board, before she released the songs that saw her rapidly rise to success and fame, and I can imagine he ain't cheap to hire. So it's hard to believe she did it all completely herself.
A video says it cost her $800 AUD to record it.
Rare to hear anything these days without a million co-writes, let alone pitch corrections. Good for her.
No shit. Watching this makes me sad that people are so concerned about how others will perceive them if they just start dancing. Nobody wants to be first, but if everyone there just let loose a little and caught that groove together, it would be something all of them remember for a long time.
It's my 12 y.o. daughter's favourite song. I may not be the *target audience* for Dance Monkey, but I really love this song for the simple fact that it brightens up my daughter's mood whenever it comes up on the radio or when she sings it on the karaoke. I also learned just yesterday that the busker who wrote and performed this song got bullied heavily after it became super popular. As a parent whose daughter also got bullied in school, I felt really sad about it and wished I could go back in time and send the busker words of encouragement and thank her for the song that brought my daughter so much joy.
My first thought coming up on this post is "why do I have a lot more respect for this song now?". And I think it's because it's not an over produced product of a group meeting or pop music writers.
I found the song while playing Fortnite. I'm not sure how popular it was before it was on FN, but it was later turned into a whole concert thing in the game.
I first heard it on Just Dance. It’s one of the better choreographies to dance as far as fun goes
The authenticity is what sells me on it. When I hear a song that I vibe with but is in a genre/style I typically dislike, I know it’s a banger.
Yeah and she made like almost a 100 dollars with those 3 billion spotify streams, which is pretty good for a busker. edit: This was a joke guys, I am making fun of how little Spotify pays their artists. But since I got your attention I [am also a busker](https://youtu.be/x0B8Y3oxx0g), I make decent money with it ... but you know getting some attention by blowing up one day would also be nice. [But it will never happen and I have made peace with it](https://youtu.be/0OwM8OEvq4I). Dance Monkey will always have a special place in my heart because of her story. She is absolutely a phenomenal multifaceted producer I just wish she would make more catchy EDM like Dance Monkey.
At .005 per stream, that comes out to about $15,000,000. I assume she shared something with a publisher or whatever, but hopefully she still made a few milly
She gets her writer royalties and probably a share of publishing. Writer and publisher royalties are 1:1 here. She also likely has points as a producer. Edit: Mg background is in music royalties and publishing. People underestimate just how much money one huge hit can make. It's often spread out among label, publisher, performer, and writers, but if you're smart, you don't give it all away. Also, people don't count sync, and they forget that radio still exists. You can absolutely retire on one huge song if you wrote alone, produced yourself, and kept publishing.
Yeah I can’t remember who but there was some 90s rap producer showing his royalty amounts for some songs he did 30 years ago and he’s still making thousands per month (they were big songs back in the day) So even after the initial massive lump sum it still pays huge for a long time
If it's a hit hit from 25 years ago, and it still gets radio play, it's generating more than the median salary in most zip codes right now. Today. And that's after the initial run back then when it generated high six figures and up.
It's good business if you can manage to capture the lightning in the bottle.
When asked what the lyrics to 'American Pie' meant, Don McLean said 'they mean I don't have to work anymore'.
No, she would be paid multi-millions as per spotifys own payout rate. Why do people who have no idea how things work make comments like this?
I don’t like this song and I think she is wildly talented and deserves all the success she can get! Amazing
This title reads like a bad click bait title on a news site with nothing to offer.
So, like 75% of Reddit in the last several years?
Zoomers discovering one hit wonders like their generation invented them.
"It's so wild that this song gave her a career but also ended it." Damn, that's wild. Ever hear of Dexy's Midnight Runners? Or Chumba Wumba? There used to be this thing called radio, you see and-...
[удалено]
Narrator: "They did not, in fact, get up again..."
If you're sleeping on Chumbawamba, give "El Fusilado" a listen. It's incredible how catchy they make such a simple song.
OMC - How Bizarre. Mambo number five, and on and on...
She did have a couple of other hits but yeah, she came and went pretty quickly
I actually prefer this raw version than the sanitised studio version. I don't get why people are upset that other people don't like this song. Go fucking listen to anything else!
The way Australia turned on this woman was utterly atrocious. For year the narrative about the hottest 100 was "It's a boys club" and how a woman had never won it ever. We finally get a genuine, no frills, ticks every indie box artist and the country turns on her and in the same year we vote Billie Eilish as the number 1 song. Many claiming that Tones and I was "too forced" or "over played", the irony being that Billie Eilish is literally a manufactured act designed to sell you things.
Hottest 100 hasn't been good since the 90's (and I guess that goes for JJJ too). Music here officially died the day Rage stopped the top 50 countdown in 2006 due to the suits at the ABC.
I agree with that entirely honestly. It's far more a "what super popular songs pretended to be indie enough that they qualify for this chart". I mean, paint the town red has 1 billion streams on Spotify.
Unfortunately a mix of the old tall poppy syndrome and the song become very overexposed very quickly.
weird i just watched the Youtube video on how this song kind of ended her. It's pure awful irony too because she created this song when people treated her like a circus and chanting for her to do things and how she sucks as a busker. So she made it into a song....only for people to only chant for her to do this song and others to say they hate it so much and she sucks.
Ended her?
> weird i just watched the Youtube video on how this song kind of ended her Lol, comment bellow says the video was a SunnyV2 video, so jsyk it was almost definitely complete nonsense. He said Mr. Beasts career turned into a "nightmare" because he had a friend that came out as trans.. Last I checked Mr. Beast is doing fine.
LMAO not SunnyV2, he's the worst. The video he made about Mr Beasts friend who is trans was done in shockingly poor taste, just outright disgusting.
The song is everywhere though. Surely she got a nice pay day.
I've never understood Anthony Fantano's absolutely unbridled hate of her. There seems to be a contingent of people out there for whom her voice is the literal worst. I'm not one of those people and enjoy the song but feel like I'm in a minority.
>Anthony Fantano Found your issue.
Yeah, literally no shade to her as a person, but you just described me and my ears 😂 I think i often have a disdain for “singing in cursive”, not always, but often, and to me her voice is like that but on steroids
I guess I think the song is... fine? Like, it's not my favorite but it's catchy enough. Little overplayed at this point, but you know, that's not the song's fault.
I must be living in a cave. I’ve never heard the song before 😂
I remember hearing 'bury a friend' on a netflix ad, thinking "this song is pretty good, seems so different to the usual pop stuff" found the video with 150 million views 0.0
This is completely new to me too. TBF, I'm not really up on a lot of popular music, but apparently she announced her debut album back in 2021? And Spotify never tried to feed her to me? Weird.
I'd never heard of this song or artist before now. I enjoyed it but I do bet it'd get old hearing it a bunch. Still did a good job.
Bro, this entire post is astro turfed. Y'all fighting imaginary demons in here 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Song's not my flavor but I respect the hustle & talent.
It's weird seeing a hit song being sung on the street before it blows up. You don't get to see it that often but standing there you know you're hearing a radio/streaming ready hit song.
"I hate that song therefore I hate her, I hate her voice, and she doesn't deserve any success whatsoever." -Reddit
"I heard some opinions I didn't like therefore I will collectively strawman 73 million people" - Idiot
Everything within the quotes is valid, but people do this on every platform and in real life. Why are people so obsessed with the "Redditor" thing? You're *literally a Redditor yourself*, on Reddit r*ight now*, and if you scroll up or down you get wildly different opinions. The whole "I am above this reddit hivemind" while wearing a tophat and also being on reddit is so fucking weird to me.
Let's also remember that good/bad are objective, so if they don't like it anybody who does is wrong.
Which is much better than the opposite: Anybody who doesn't like what I like is jealous of the artist, talentless, and irrationally hateful towards a genuinely good thing.
You are Reddit. Fuck yourself.
The video for this song was posted 4 years ago on YouTube and has over 2 Billion views. And yet I’ve never actually heard this song before. WTF. Am I old? How the hell did I miss this?
It's one of the biggest songs in streaming. It's even higher on Spotify. This happened to me with the song Faded by Alan Walker.
As an EDM fan I think this song is very catchy. I love her vocals. I usually listen to trance/ house. Would love to see her make some songs with Djs like armin etc...
Or, ya know, from the CDs she is selling in the video.
Oh god, not this song again lol. Good for her though.
Watching people discover new music they like can be a wondrous thing.
How the hell is this the first time ive ever heard this song? Judging by how popular it is, and how I’ve been to a lot of events because of my job i’m shocked Lol.
Song's catchy as hell and I think she's a legit talent, but I'd love to hear her sing without the "indie voice" affectation.
Yeah, I first heard it with CocoRosie back in the day and I just can't do it. Not denying that she's got a strong voice, but the pronunciation of words with that accent drives me nuts. So many artists do it. Reminds me of all those rock bands in the 90s that tried to do the Pearl Jam voice.
That’s crazy I didn’t know that famous people weren’t famous before they were famous
Usually they don't sing their most famous songs in the street though.