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song info
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye featuring Kimbra (official video) is an independent pop song.
Song Title: Somebody That I Used To Know (official video)
Artist: Gotye featuring Kimbra
Album: Making Mirrors
Genre: adult pop, independent rock, indie pop, easy listening, pop, dance, alternative, worldbeat, adult contemporary
Composer: Copyright © 2011 Wally de Backer, Luiz Bonfá
Lead Vocals: Wally de Backer, Kimbra
Backing Vocals: Wally de Backer, Kimbra
Guitar: Wally de Backer
Bass Guitar: Lucas Taranto
Percussion: Wally de Backer
Xylophone: Wally de Backer
Flute: Wally de Backer
Other: a sample of Brazilian jazz guitarist Luiz Bonfás 1967 instrumental song Seville
Director: Natasha Pincus
Producer: Wally de Backer
Recording: Wally de Backer
Recorded: January–May 2011 The Barn, Merricks, Australia and Lucas Tarantos lounge room, Melbourne, Australia
Engineer: Tétaz
Mixer: Tétaz, Wally de Backer (assistant mixer)
Mastering: William Bowden
Released: 5 July 2011
Label: Eleven
Certification: Australia (ARIA): 10x Platinum Austria (IFPI Austria): 2x Platinum Belgium (BEA): 3x Platinum Denmark (IFPI Denmark): 2x Platinum Germany (BVMI): Platinum Italy (FIMI): 2x Platinum Mexico (AMPROFO): 5x Platinum New Zealand (RIANZ): 4x Platinum Spain (PROMUSICAE): Platinum Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland): 3x Platinum Sweden (GLF): Platinum United Kingdom (BPI): Platinum United States (RIAA): 6x Platinum
On 15 July 2011, the song finished third in the 2011 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition, with the winning song, Cameo Lover, by Kimbra. Earlier that year, Gotye had first noticed Kimbra when both were short-listed as finalists for the competition. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2011, Somebody That I Used to Know won Single of the Year, Best Pop Release, Best Video (for Natasha Pincus), Engineer of the Year (for François Tétaz) and Producer of the Year (for Gotye). Gotye also won Best Male Artist for the song while Kimbra won Best Female Artist for her previous single, Cameo Lover. At the APRA Music Awards of 2012, Somebody That I Used to Know won Most Played Australian Work and Song of the Year and Gotye won Songwriter of the Year. It is also nominated at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Rock Song and Choice Break-Up Song. The song is nominated for Video of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
United States chart position: #1 (one)
United Kingdon chart position: #1 (one)
Official Website: gotye.com
Number of listens: 45657
U.S. Billboard Hot 100: #46, up from last week #47, missing week, #36, 49 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
Rock: peak #1 (one), 2012
Alternative: peak #1 (one), 2012
Dance/Club Play: peak #1 (one), 2012
Pop: peak #1 (one), 2012
Adult Contemporary: peak #1 (one)
Adult Pop: peak #1 (one), 2012
Radio Songs: #51, missing week, missing week, #34, peak #17
On-Demand Songs: #27, down from last week #24, missing week, #22, 40 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
Ringtones: #37, down from last week #34, missing week, #22, 43 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
Rock Digital: #16, up for last week #21, missing week, #14, 53 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
Mexican Regional: peak #8 (eight), 2012
Canadian Hot 100: peak #1 (one)
Billboard information for the week of Dec 22, 2012
Billboard chart listings courtesy of Billboard Magazine
Gotyes Somebody that I used to Know, featuring Kimbra, is the first song in the history of Billboard to hold the top position on four of its biggest charts in the same week. The song hit No. 1 on Billboards Dance Club Songs and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts this week (May 19) and held its Hot 100 position for a fourth week and Alternative slot for a tenth. It is the first to top all four of these simultaneously.
Anthony Wing Kosner of Forbes
Summary quotation from Wikipedia:
Somebody That I Used to Know is a song written and first recorded by Australian/Belgian singer and songwriter Gotye, featuring New Zealand singer/guitarist Kimbra. The song was released in Australia and New Zealand by Eleven Music on 5 July 2011 as the second single from his third studio album, Making Mirrors (2011). It was later released by Universal Music in December 2011 in the United Kingdom, and in January 2012 in the United States and Ireland. Somebody That I Used to Know was written and recorded by Gotye at his parents house on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, and is lyrically related to the experiences he has had with relationships.
Somebody That I Used to Know is a mid-tempo indie pop ballad song. It samples Luiz Bonfás song Seville from his 1967 album Luis Bonfa Plays Great Songs. The song received positive reception from most music critics, who noted the similarities between the song and works by Sting and American folk band Bon Iver, but said that it was crafted for the music-buying masses. It was also compared with Human Leagues Dont You Want Me. The song won the Triple J Hottest 100 poll at the end of 2011, as well as ARIA Awards for song of the year and best video, while Kimbra was voted best female artist and Gotye was named best male artist and producer of the year.
Composition
Somebody That I Used to Know is an indie pop song that is four minutes and five seconds long. It is composed mainly by arrangements of piano and electric guitar. Gotye uses a sample of Brazilian jazz guitarist Luiz Bonfás 1967 instrumental song Seville, with additional instrumentations of beats and a xylophone. It was written and produced by Gotye himself, while in his parents barn on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Gotye commented that he wrote the song in quite a linear way, explaining that I wrote the first verse, the second verse and Id got to the end of the first chorus and for the first time ever I thought, Theres no interesting way to add to this guys story. It felt weak.
Recording
The track was recorded between January and May 2011 with Gotye struggling to find a suitable female vocalist, as a high profile female vocalist cancelled the collaboration at the last minute, and Kimbra lucked out as the replacement. He tested his girlfriend, Tash Parker, but somehow their happiness meant that it didnt work out so he followed the recommendation of the songs mixer and used Kimbras vocals. Bill Lamb of About.com compared the songs opening with the intimate percussive feel of classic pop songs by the Thompson Twins. Martin Davies from Click Music considered the song instantly captivating, and named Kimbras voice clean and sugar-soaked, further commenting that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the American popstar Katy Perry.
Gotye stated that the song was definitely drawn from various experiences Ive had in relationships breaking up, and in the parts of the more reflective parts of the song, in the aftermath and the memory of those different relationships and what they were and how they broke up and whats going on in everyones minds. Yeah, so its an amalgam of different feelings but not completely made up as such. In an interview with Rolling Stone (Australia), he described the song as a curated reflection of multiple past relationships, but revealed the chorus was directly related to a song written by Elliott Smith with the same title. Gotye said of his ex-girlfriend, [i]t wasnt a nasty break-up, but it was messy in the sense that we hurt each other more than we needed to because it wasnt a clean break
We both realised we had to move on and we havent seen each other since. On 31 May 2012, Gotye announced that on 8 June 2012 he would release an album of ten remixes as Somebody That I Used to Know: The Remixes.
Music Video
The music video for Somebody That I Used to Know, which was directed and produced by Natasha Pincus, shows both Gotye and Kimbra naked throughout the clip, and as they sing, his skin is gradually painted into the backdrop via stop motion animation. The painting used in the videos background is based on a 1980s artwork created by Gotyes father, Frank de Backer, who also designed the cover art for the related album, Making Mirrors. Emma Hack, an Australian artist and skin illustrator based in Adelaide, was hired by Pincus to work on the body paintings for Gotye and Kimbra, and also worked with Gotye to design the backdrop. According to Hack, it took more than 23 hours to paint both Gotye and Kimbra to fit with the background. Their painting symbolises their combined relationship.
Before its official premiere, the music video was leaked on Take 40 Australias website. According to Pincus, It was stolen out of our system. I guess its always wanted to get out there. Within five minutes it was everywhere. On 30 July 2011 it was officially premiered on YouTube and on the Australian music show Rage. The music video was well received for its artistic style, picking up 200,000 views in its first two weeks, as well as receiving promotion on Twitter by actor Ashton Kutcher and Katy Perry. As of October 2012, the video has over 336 million views on YouTube. On Christmas Day 2011, it was revealed that the video for Somebody That I Used to Know was voted No. 1 in the annual Rage Fifty countdown. Andy Samberg and Taran Killam parodied the video in a Saturday Night Live digital short that coincided with Gotyes 14 April 2012 performance on the show. The video was nominated for Video of the Year and Best Editing in a Video at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedias block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedias original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)
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