About

“Midnight City” is a 2011 electropop song by French pop/electronic music band M83. Upon its release, the song was met with huge commercial success and critical acclaims, most notably for its insistently catchy hook and inclusion of an '80s-inspired saxophone solo, which eventually became a popular subject of parodies, remixes and other tributes on YouTube and SoundCloud.

Origin

"Midnight City" was released on August 14th, 2011 as the first single off M83's sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, released October 18th of the same year.^[1] Upon its initial release as a single, "Midnight City" peaked at number 8 in France (SNEP), number 2 in UK Indie (Official Charts Company) and number 5 in U.S. Alternative Songs (Billboard). The song was eventually named the best song of 2011 by Pitchfork and Popmatters.

Spread

Commercial Use

On August 18th, 2011, M83 released the Midnight City Remixes EP, which featured four remixes and the original song.^[3] In 2012, the song was used during several high-profile international sporting events, most notably at the closing ceremony of the 2012 UEFA Euro and the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as in commercials and TV shows.

Remixes

Beginning In 2012, "Midnight City" gained a lot of momentum as a popular sample within the YouTube remix community. On June 6th, 2012, YouTuber DIAMANTERO uploaded one of the earliest known parodies of "Midnight City" that shows Bill Clinton playing saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, set to the saxophone solo from the song (below, left). On December 27th, YouTuber g0urra uploaded another remix featuring the “Steppin on the Beach” scene from Spongebob Squarepants (below, right).

In the following years, "Midnight City" continued to appear in remix videos. Other popular videos and subcultures to get a "Midnight City" remix include Pretty much everywhere, it's gonna be hot (below, top left), Harry Potter (below, top right), The Simpsons (below, bottom left), and Star Wars (below, bottom right).

A Reddit thread in /r/OutOfTheLoop^[4] appeared in 2016 asking how the song became a meme. The post has 134 points as of August 30th, 2016.

Search Interest

External References