"Five Nights at Freddy's" is an electronic song by electronic rock band

the Living Tombstone The Living Tombstone is an Israeli-American electronic rock band and YouTube channel formed in 2011 by producer Yoav Landau and singer Sam Haft. The group is most notable for their songs and music videos based on video games and pop culture media ...

, based on the 2014 video game of the same name. The song was produced and sung by Yoav Landau, and was released as a single in 2014. The song was popular on YouTube, reaching over 300 million views by 2024, along with over 500 million plays. It was featured in the end credits of the video game's

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

released in 2023, and has been credited with creating a musical subgenre oriented around the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' franchise.

Background and release

The song was created by

, who had previously been involved in creating songs based on the ''

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'' franchise. After previously being involved in that franchise's fandom, producer Yoav Landau learned about the release of the horror game '' Five Nights at Freddy's'' in 2014, and the popularity it gained. After Landau played the game for himself, he decided to create a song based on it. Landau primarily composed the song with

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, which were described as being similar to those used by

100 gecs 100 Gecs (stylized in all lowercase) are an American hyperpop duo formed in 2015 that consists of Dylan Brady and Laura Les. They self-released their debut album, '' 1000 Gecs'', in 2019 to critical acclaim, followed by a "companion" remix alb ...

by CT Jones of '' Rolling Stone''. Commenting about the creation of the song, Landau said "the culture of the internet is about being there first, being the first one to make a meme about a thing. In the case of ''FNAF'', when I started to see people talking about it, it was easy to make a post with a song and lyrics about the game, see this thing catch fire, and then it goes on YouTube." When the band asked game creator Scott Cawthon for permission to release the song due to being unaffiliated with the property, Cawthon gave them permission to publish the song as long as they gave some of their profit to charity. The song was uploaded to YouTube only three weeks after the game, and garnered millions of views shortly afterwards. In 2023, during the marketing of the game's film adaptation, the song was performed live during an event at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Following fan speculation over its inclusion, the song was featured in the movie during the end credits. On the day of the film's release in North America, the Living Tombstone released a new version of the song, titled the "Goth Remix". In addition, a jazz cover was performed and released by the 8-Bit Big Band.

Reception and legacy

On YouTube, the song had gained around 69 million views by March 2016, 220 million by June 2021, 312 million by 2023, and 372 million by 2024. After the song's release, the Living Tombstone created songs based on the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

and

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

games in the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' franchise, titled "It's Been So Long" and "Die In A Fire" respectively. Jef Rouner of '' Houston Press'' considered the first song to be the weakest in this trilogy, but that it was still a "damned spooky bit of music and a worthy place to begin". According to CT Jones of ''Rolling Stone'', the song started a

sub-genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of music oriented around the franchise, "retain ngthe hyper-pop influences popularized by Landau"making the song a "defining part of the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' fandom." The song was credited with inspiring several artists, such as

JT Music Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Wa ...

and CG5. JT Music described creating songs based on the game to be "another way fans could recontextualize and reexperience the game and its story from a different perspective." The song's inclusion in the game's film adaptation was described by ''/Film'' as "a testament to the grassroots popularity" alongside the inclusion of several YouTube Let's Players, writing further that the production team behind the movie "hasn't forgotten the people who made the IP such a valuable sensation in the first place."

Charts

Certifications

Notes

References

{{Five Nights at Freddy's 2014 singles 2014 songs Five Nights at Freddy's Internet memes introduced in 2014 The Living Tombstone songs Music based on video games