"Acting Like That" is a song by English musician

Yungblud Dominic Richard Harrison (born 5 August 1997), known professionally as Yungblud (pronounced "Youngblood"), is an English singer, musician, songwriter and actor. In 2018, he released his first EP, ''Yungblud'', followed shortly after by the albu ...

featuring American musicians

Machine Gun Kelly George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954), better known by his pseudonym "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster from Memphis, Tennessee, active during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thom ...

and

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has also performed as a frequent collaborator with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Tran ...

, released on 2 December 2020 as the sixth single from the former's second studio album ''

Weird! ''Weird!'' is the second studio album by English singer Yungblud, released on 4 December 2020 by Locomotion and Interscope Records. Originally scheduled for 13 November 2020, the album's release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is Y ...

''.

Background

The song was written about a night the two vocalists spent together after the death of the mutual friend

Juice Wrld Jarad Anthony Higgins (December 2, 1998 – December 8, 2019), known professionally as Juice Wrld (pronounced "juice world"; stylized as Juice WRLD), was an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He was a leading figure in the emo rap and ...

. According to Yungblud, despite being saddened by the event, they cheered one another up by deciding that they were "way too cool to be acting like that". The following morning, they wrote the song. The song is the third collaboration between the three musicians, following 2019's "

I Think I'm Okay "I Think I'm Okay" (stylized as "I Think I'm OKAY") is a song by American musician Machine Gun Kelly, English musician Yungblud, and fellow American musician Travis Barker. It was released as a single on June 7, 2019, from Machine Gun Kelly's fourt ...

" and 2020's "Body Bag", which also featured Bert McCracken. The release of the song was announced on 30 November 2020, which was followed by Yungblud began releasing teasers for the song on social media in the following days. The song was officially released on 3 December 2020, as the sixth single from Yungblud's second studio album

Music video

A music video for the song was released on 21 January 2021. The video parodies the different reaction to the then-ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, through the metaphor of a zombie apocalypse. Because of the pandemic, Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly's segments of the video were filmed separately in

Greenwich, London Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

respectively. The video also features a cameo from social media influencer Abby Roberts, as a zombie who infects Yungblud.

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' writer Issy Simpson perceived the song to be

objectifying In social philosophy, objectification is the act of treating a person, as an object or a thing. It is part of dehumanization, the act of disavowing the humanity of others. Sexual objectification, the act of treating a person as a mere object of sex ...

, stating that "Being a woman in 2020 can be tough, but luckily for us girls, there's always a man around to tell us exactly how to behave" and that "they're wrong, because there's no attractiveness barrier to being a complete mess: it's an equal-opportunities activity". '' Clash'' called it a love it or hate it song but contended that that's where both artists do best. According to an article by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', users on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

drew comparisons between the song's chorus melody and that of

Metro Station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...

's 2008 song "

Shake It "Shake It" is a song by American pop band Metro Station, released as the third single (and debut British single) from the group's 2007 self-titled debut studio album. "Shake It" was the band's first charting single, peaking at number 10 on the ...

". In response, Metro Station tweeted they felt "honored".

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. Musicians *

– vocals, composition, lyrics *

– drums, production, composition, lyrics *Chris Greatti – composition, lyrics, background vocals * Nick Long – composition, lyrics * Zakk Cervini – composition, lyrics, vocal programming Technical * Adam Hawkins – engineering, mixing * K Thrash – engineering *Matt Malpass – engineering * Shaan Singh – engineering

Charts

References

{{Travis Barker 2020 singles 2020 songs Machine Gun Kelly (musician) songs Pop punk songs Travis Barker songs Yungblud songs