The melody is proudly inspired by U2, who are unquestionably one of the most underwhelming rock bands ever to wear leather. “I Gotta Feeling” rips off a beat from an extremely jarring late 90s dance song called “ Take A Dive” by one Bryan Pringle, who was previously unheard of until he tried to sue The Black Eyed Peas for copyright infringement (unheard of, presumably, because his music was bad). In 1984 epic-fantasy film The Neverending Story-a tale about a fictional universe reliant on human imagination in which the villain is literally “nothing”-a murderous creature of darkness describes “The Nothing” as “the emptiness that’s left, it is like a despair, destroying this world.” It then goes on to say that “people who have no hopes are easy to control”, which is maybe pushing it a bit, but up until that point you could substitute “The Nothing” for “I Gotta Feeling” without much trouble.Ĭonsider, for a moment, its influences. “I Gotta Feeling” is a black hole in the cosmos of joy. “I Gotta Feeling” locates feeling and obliterates it. 39, mind you, “I Gotta Feeling” lacks feeling. They had the audacity to compose it in the key of G major, which, in Baroque music, is regarded as the “key of benediction”-connected to positive emotions such as contentment, gratitude and peace. The Black Eyed Peas built an entire career off the back of crafting a very simple statement and hammering it into you until you’re fucking sick of it, much like the quadratic formula or ‘snitches get stitches’-but none have been so brazenly miserably as this. That tonight's gonna be a good, good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night A feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night A feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night It upset me so much I ceased bagging my items, opened the notes app on my phone, and typed: “i gotta feeling” by the black eyed peas is the most depressing song ever written." Before we go ahead, let's just take a look at some of the lyrics:
Its incessant stabbing rhythm puncturing the air, adamant that tonight’s gonna be a good night.
And, last New Year’s Eve, as an existentially deflated cashier in a Brighton branch of Sainsbury’s scanned through my beer, whiskey, and hummus, there it was again. But, like all sources of trauma, it reared its head when I least expected.
In doing so, it skirted around every possible human emotion and wound up in hell. It was specifically designed to be the go-to jam for any uplifting occasion by virtue of avoiding any characteristics that might limit its reach. It dominated work dos, adverts, video games, the Olympic Games, third birthday parties, 73rd birthday parties and especially those astonishing choreographed wedding videos that people drop loads of money on for some reason. For years, it was wheeled out as the cross-demographic end of night climax to underline the point that whatever function you were at was fun. It’s supposed to be uplifting, isn’t it? In an interview with Marie Claire on the eve of its release, famed Black Eyed Pea will.i.am claimed the song was “dedicated to all the party people out there in the world that want to go out and party.” Indeed, “I Gotta Feeling” seemed to be met on precisely those terms. And, as if to prove that point, it played several times a night, every night, at the bar where I worked. It was the most successful song of the 21st century worldwide until 2014, when it was surpassed by Pharrell's “ Happy.” It is also the most depressing song in the history of music. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling digital song of all time at the time. Released on the edge of summer in 2009, “I Gotta Feeling” is a Grammy-award winning pop song about having a good night.