Boom Boom Pow

Song context and formation

The song opens with will.i.am meditating on and affirming a new, futuristic sound for himself and the rest of the Peas: "I got that rock-and-roll, that future flow". Fergie, Taboo, and apl.de.ap each offer a variation on this theme, after which Will.i.am (introduced by Fergie) demonstrates the theme at work in a series of rapid-fire raps, punctuated with digital effects. The song concludes with Fergie repeating her initial verse, forming an outro of sorts and taking the listener more or less full-circle. Fergie has commented on the unusual structure of the song, stating:

The song also attempts a futuristic quality, with Fergie rapping the lyric "I'm so three thousand and eight, you so two thousand and late." The song's beat is influenced by 1980's electro song "Planet Rock". Will.i.am stated that the lyric helped inspire the futuristic concept of the video. Will.i.am also stated on the Merrick and Rosso breakfast radio show that the song was heavily influenced by the electro sounds he heard in the nightclubs in Sydney, Australia, during the filming of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his visit to Australia. Following the band's record breaking success with "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", will.i.am commented in a video on Billboard on the song's success, saying:

Release

"Boom Boom Pow" was released to U.S. mainstream radio on March 13, 2009. It was released officially on iTunes in the U.S. on March 30, 2009. It was scheduled to be released in the UK on May 25, 2009, however due to three alternative versions of the song entering the UK iTunes Top 50 songs, The Black Eyed Peas version was released two weeks early, on Sunday, May 10. One of their full performances took place at the American Idol Finale of 2009, during which the Top 13 girls sang "Glamorous", and then Fergie came out and sang a small part of "Big Girls Don't Cry", eventually switching to "Boom Boom Pow". As of June 2009, an unknown number of North American radio stations have elected to censor the song's reference to satellite radio. Most UK radio stations have also been found to distort the word satellite radio, and this is the version that appears on the UK CD single.

Remixes

The official remix of the song is titled "Let The Beat Rock - Boys Noize Remix". The track is produced by Boys Noize and there are a total of five versions of the song. These remixes credit recording to Pardraic Kerin and mixing to Dylan "3-D" Dresdow. The official remix features 50 Cent, and is structured like so: 50 Cent's verse goes first, then will.i.am's first new verse, then Fergie, later the chorus, Fergie's first verse is repeated, then will.i.am's second verse, later the chorus, Fergie's first verse is repeated, apl.de.ap and Taboo's verse from the original were used, then Fergie's second verse, later the chorus, and the song ends with will.i.am saying "POW". The song only lasts 4:30.

A "Megamix" version was also very popular, and is structured like so: will.i.am's verse from the first version goes first, then 50's verse, later the chorus, then Fergie's, then will.i.am's new second verse, later the chorus, Fergie's first verse is repeated, later the chorus, and the song ends. The song only lasts 3:29. The megamix version features Gucci Mane. A third version features Flo Rida, a fourth version is a mash-up of the 50 Cent Remix and the Gucci Mane Remix, and a fifth version is remixed by Busta Rhymes and Fatman Scoop. A remix by DJ Ammo and A Poet Named Life is played in the ending credits of the 2009 Summer blockbuster film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. At the 2009 American Music Awards, the guitar riff from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana was played after the performance of this song. Another remix of this song was made by David Guetta, titled " David Guetta's Electro Hop Remix". On the fourth season of America's Best Dance Crew, a District 78 remix of the song was used for the sudden death challenge on the first episode, in the dance-off between Beat Ya Feet Kings, Southern Movement, and Fr3sh. Fr3sh was eliminated. In 2009, Jeffree Star created a remix with more explicit lyrics, that was originally available as a free download. The original download link no longer works; however, many videos of live performances are available.

Critical reception

Nick Levine from Digital Spy gave "Boom Boom Pow" four out of five stars, saying that "it's a fairly ridiculous robopop stomper featuring no real chorus, 808s & Heartbreak-style beats, lashings of Auto-Tune, techno synths that arrive half-way through and this vintage diss from Fergie: 'I'm so 3008, you're so 2000 and late.' It may well become grating, but frankly who cares? Right now this just sounds cracking." Billboard gave the song a positive review, stating that the song "shows The Black Eyed Peas in fine form" and that it was "a knockout".

Chart performance

In Australia, "Boom Boom Pow" was released on March 30, 2009, and debuted on the ARIA Charts on April 6. It reached number one, staying there for six weeks. It spent 27 weeks in the Top 20. Australia is the first country in which the song was released. As of October 2015, the song has sold 6.9 million downloads in the US and was certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. This amount of singles sold, makes The Black Eyed Peas only the second artist to have 2 singles each selling 6 million copies or more, following Lady Gaga.

The song debuted at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 after garnering heavy airplay. The song rocketed from number 39 to number one in its fourth week on the chart. The single sold 465,000 downloads in its first week of digital release, the third-largest number of download sales in a single week overall, and the largest single-week and debut-download totals by a group in the history of digital-download sales tracking, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100. It became the group's first U.S. number one, holding the spot for twelve consecutive weeks. Having been dethroned to number two by the other Black Eyed Peas' song, "I Gotta Feeling", it is the second longest running number one song of 2009 on the chart, behind "I Gotta Feeling", and the first song to spend at least twelve weeks at number one since Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" in 2005. The chart week of May 30, 2009 "Boom Boom Pow" became only the fifth song to top both Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic Top 40 charts in the same week, reaching an estimated audience of 99 million on U.S. radio that week.

It was the fourth song of the decade of the 2000s to spend at least twelve weeks at number one, and only the twelfth song in the chart's history to spend at least twelve weeks at the top. It is the band's first Rhythmic number one, and their second Mainstream Top 40 number one. "Boom Boom Pow" became the first song in digital history to spend its first twelve weeks of release as the most-downloaded song in America, selling at least 200,000 copies a week for eleven straight weeks. Billboard ranked it as the No. 1 song of 2009. It has also topped the charts on the Canadian Hot 100 the same week as on the Hot 100 and on the Australian ARIA Charts. On the New Zealand RIANZ chart, the song has so far peaked at number two. Moreover, it has charted within the top 10 in more than ten countries.

On May 17, 2009, it entered the UK Singles Chart at number one based on almost 75,000 downloads alone. It is the band's second number one in the UK (the other being "Where Is the Love?" which also reached the top of the chart six years prior). It has also reached number three so far in Ireland. After being knocked off the number one spot in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2009 by "Bonkers" by Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden, the song remained at the number two slot for 2 weeks before returning to number one on June 7, 2009. "Bonkers" had meanwhile swapped places with "Boom Boom Pow" and took the number two slot. This subsequently marks the first time a song has had two separate runs at the summit of the chart since Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" in July 2006. Their follow up single in the UK "I Gotta Feeling" also peaked at number one and managed the same feat of having two separate runs at number one on the UK Singles Chart. With sales of over 600,000, the single is currently the sixth best selling of 2009 in the UK. "Boom Boom Pow" is also the 13th best selling R&B song of the 21st century in the UK.

Music video

Fergie had stated at an interview on The Insider that the music video would be shooting the week of March 8, 2009. The making of the video was released by MTV on April 8. In an interview to MTV, it was said that "... the concept of the video is the Peas' birth into the digital afterlife," Fergie said. "So the transformation is us going into a sort of birth or cocoon and coming out the other end as forms of energy. It's a parallel to the music industry. Now everything is downloaded." will.i.am stated that the video was inspired by how digital the world has become and hopes the video portrays "what it would be like if we were actually in the computer, if art was fused in it," he said. "[It's] analog life from a digital perspective. Becoming technology." The music video was directed by Mathew Cullen and Mark Kudsi. The video premiered on Dipdive on April 18, 2009 and was released on iTunes on April 24, 2009. The video is set in the year of 3008, portraying "how it would be like if we actually lived in computers". This concept was based in a line of the song, in which singer Fergie states "I'm so 3008 / You so 2000 and late".

The video starts with Taboo flicking through pictures on a HP TouchSmart, he selects the image of a mushroom cloud. As the singing starts, images of computer icons and random computer code and some ASCII art of "THE END" are flashing in the background. The Black Eyed Peas are then seen singing their verses of the song. While this is happening, dancers are seen in striped zentai suits, dancing to the song, and negative images are turned into positive images. e.g. the mushroom cloud turns into a tree swing, the grenade into a microphone, a gun into a trumpet and a nuclear barrel played as a drum. The video also features the face used on the album cover miming along to various lyrics; the face was designed as an amalgam of all four band members' facial features. Much of the imagery in the video is a homage to Rebecca Allen's 1986 video for the Kraftwerk song "Musique Non Stop". The video was meant to go the full song but they cut it to 3:28. The video won a Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the category of Best Short Form Music Video. As of June 2011, the music video of the song scored 100,000,000 views on YouTube and became the group's second most viewed video, the first being "The Time (Dirty Bit)".

Alleged copyright infringement

In January 2010, Chicago artist Ebony Latrice Batts, better known by her stage name Phoenix Phenom, alleged the song is simply a copy of her track, "Boom Dynamite" (written by Manfred Mohr). The duo allegedly sent a demo tape to Interscope Records. They lost the lawsuit against The Black Eyed Peas.

Covers and parodies

In popular culture

The song is featured in the films G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Jackass 3D, and What's Your Number?. It's also featured in the television shows Ugly Betty, WWE Raw, Parks and Recreation, and South Park. It's also featured in the television advertisement Downy in the Philippines.