MGMT insist ‘Little Dark Age’ going viral is pure luck.
The electronic pop duo – comprising Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser – had no idea when the title track from their 2018 album started getting used in thousands upon thousands of clips amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as they are not on the video-sharing site personally.
That was until it went from thousands to millions.
Speaking to Record Collector magazine, Benjamin said: “That was enlightening in that none of the conscious stuff we did to promote that album mattered as much as this random thing that got picked up on TikTok. I think in a way that freed us up a little bit on this record to just focus on the music. Don’t worry about the other stuff and whatever happens, happens.”
Andrew added: “I think when you have a goal to make something that could become viral or be a huge pop song, intentions enter into the creative picture and it’s rare to actually do that. For us, it’s just that we’ve had a career where we keep getting pretty lucky.”
Benjamin previously told SPIN: “It was surprising to me to even have our song be on TikTok at all, and then it was like, ‘Well, how big is this?
“I don’t even know what a big TikTok song is or what that means.”
The song has been used to soundtrack clips on a range of social issues, including trans rights, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the Black Lives Matter movement.