It’s not often that a music video goes viral by virtue of, well, its lyrics and whatnot, but that’s exactly what’s happened with Cee-lo’s (of Gnarls Barkley/Goodie Mob fame) newest single, “F**ck You.”
According to Pitchfork, Cee-lo posted the video for “F**ck You” to his YouTube page this past Thursday, and since then the catchy song has racked up more than one million views. The YouTube page says that the video will get a full version this week, which will apparently flesh out the current iteration (which merely features lyrics to the song). The song — from Cee-lo’s solo album The Ladykiller — will be on sale in the U.S. and UK on October 4.
Still, despite the fact that the video itself is pretty much bare-bones, it’s managed to break the one-million view mark in less than a week, without featuring a super famous personality (a la Lady Gaga), a teen idol (a la Justin Bieber) or some kind of crazy contraption coupled with intense dance moves (a la OK Go). No, it seems that the video has gone viral based solely on the merits of the song itself — and perhaps the shock value of the word “f**ck.”
The denizens of Gnarls Barkley are really no strangers to going viral. When Cee-lo Green and Danger Mouse came out with “Crazy” in 2006, it went viral pretty much instantly, spawning a ton of covers. It seems that this song has the same appeal as the previous hit (sans Danger Mouse of course), capturing audiences with fresh sound and novelty.
The jam taps into 1950s nostalgia, while also subverting the buttoned-expectations that go along with the sound by injecting that most taboo of curse words. Harry Nilsson did it back in the ’70s with “You’re Breaking My Heart,” and now it’s Cee-lo’s turn to reclaim the F-Bomb.
Recently, hypebot wondered, “Can Internet Make Cee-Lo Green’s ‘F*ck You’ A Hit?” pointing out that it’s not really the most radio-friendly of songs. While there is a clean-for-radio version of the song, which aired on Trevor Nelson’s Radio 1 show this past weekend (you can find it around the 53-minute mark) with the words “forget you” subbed it, it seems that this raunched-out version is doing fine on its own. And with ultra-famous folks like 50 Cent already remixing response vids, we’re sure that attention will only continue to grow for this made-for-summer song. (Why, oh why, didn’t this come out in June?)
Check out the video below. Also, as if it weren’t clear enough already, this ain’t SFW, folks.
More About: cee-lo, music, viral video
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