A few days ago, I saw a tweet (yes, damn it, a tweet) pointing out that the iconic song “Feel Good Inc” is now twenty years old. It’s amazing how much that song has permeated popular culture in those two decades. I first heard it in the excellent film The Big Short, where it featured prominently on the soundtrack. It’s one of those songs that, once heard, one never forgets.
However, there are a couple of things people might not know about the electronic band Gorillaz, who, with some help from De La Soul, created the song. First, they are a virtual band, meaning that the members seldom meet in person. Instead, they compose and record via the internet. One could write a whole book on the way the internet has changed music—and many already have—but the rise of virtual bands is a seldom-discussed sub-topic.
Another thing people might not know is that lead singer and founder Damon Albarn is also the mastermind behind the (even older) British band Blur, which blew people’s minds back in the 1990s. This song, especially, was hugely popular and influential. Entitled “Song 2” but almost universally known as the “Woo-Hoo Song,” it came out way back in 1997. And, for a few months, it was all you heard streaming out of people’s car radios (yes, we still had car radios, back then).
Rock on….
Ash Clifton, Writer 