Released January 16, 2012 Recorded June – August 2011 | Format CD, digital download Length 3:35 | |
Genre Complextro, moombahcore, electronic rock Label Big Beat, Atlantic, OWSLA | ||
"Bangarang" is a song by American electronic music producer Skrillex. It was released as a single from his EP of the same name. It features guest rap vocals from Sirah. "Bangarang" uses Sirah's "chopped-up" rap vocals throughout the song.
Contents
The song received generally positive reviews from critics, who enjoyed its fun-nature sound. It has since become one of his most commercially successful singles to date, charting within the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, France, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. A music video for the song premiered on February 16, 2012 via his official YouTube channel. "Bangarang" received airplay on some modern rock radio stations. The song can be heard in commercials and trailers for the film The Watch, the video game Sonic Boom and in promos for the 2013 X Games. The song also appears in the video game Guitar Hero Live. It is also the theme music of the mobile game Gangstar Vegas.
The title is a reference to the 1991 film Hook, in which the Lost Boys' catch cry is "bangarang!"
Critical reception
Jon Dollan from Rolling Stone noted 'the laser-blasting inanity of the title track, which ends with someone bragging, "I'm eating Fun Dip right now/Not givin' a fuck." Not a bad credo for music that makes a disco sugar high feel downright pornographic'. Garret Kamps from Spin gave the song a positive review, calling it a "massively enjoyable, massively concussive collection of blips and bursts that sounds like something Moby might hear in his head during a heart attack, so thoroughly and dyspeptically is dubstep's characteristic bass wobble distorted and pushed into the red. That remains [his] signature trick...."
Rolling Stone named the song the 22nd-best song of 2012.
Music video
A music video for the song premiered via YouTube on February 16, 2012. Like the title of the song, it references Peter Pan, with an ice cream man having a hook in place of his right hand, just like Captain Hook.
Commercial performance
The song has charted in multiple countries worldwide, including the Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Australia, the song has become a commercial success, reaching the top 5 within the ARIA Charts whilst spending more than 20 weeks within the top 50. It has also been certified 4x Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
In the United States, the song entered the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number 4 due to strong digital downloads. However, on the issue date of March 3, 2012, the song debuted at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100,. It has since reached a peak of number 72 and spent more than 20 weeks on the chart. It has sold over 1 million copies in the US as of January 2013. In the United Kingdom, the song reached a peak of number 24 and spent a total of 16 weeks inside the UK Top 40.