"Pac-Man" (stylised as "PAC-MAN") is a song by British

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose members are not depicted as corporeal musicians, but animat ...

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...

featuring American rapper

Schoolboy Q Quincy Matthew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Schoolboy Q (stylized as ScHoolboy Q), is an American rapper. In 2009, Hanley signed to Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and in late ...

. The track was released on 20 July 2020 as the sixth single for Gorillaz' seventh studio album, '' Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez'', and the fifth episode of the ''

Song Machine ''Song Machine'' is an audiovisual project by British virtual band Gorillaz. It is a music video web series consisting of a collection of music videos and singles that are released monthly by the band as episodes of the series, with each episod ...

'' project, a web series involving the ongoing release of various Gorillaz tracks featuring different guest musicians over the course of 2020.

Background

The song was recorded in London, prior to the

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 identif ...

. It was released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the arcade game, ''

Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...

''.

Music video

The video, directed by

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is an English comic book creator, illustrator, music video director, and songwriter. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin and co-creator of the virtual band Gorilla ...

, Tim McCourt, and Max Taylor, features the band members inside Kong Studios, the band's fictional headquarters. 2-D is in the game room playing the ''

'' arcade game, Russel does some boxing with a punching bag, Murdoc is in the basement, sitting inside an

orgone accumulator Orgone () is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1 ...

, and Noodle is on the recording studio couch with her mobile phone while

records his verse. As 2-D continues to play the arcade game for nine hours, all of his bandmates feel the effects of the arcade game, such as Murdoc looking outside his accumulator, Russel pausing from punching as though he heard something, and Noodle changing art styles, switching to an anime-esque style and then a ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

''-like character. At the end of the video, Noodle goes down to the game room and unplugs the ''Pac-Man'' arcade game, leaving 2-D confused. The video incorporates many references to the arcade game, including: * The arcade cabinet artwork is sightly redrawn with 2-D as the ghost and Murdoc as Pac-Man. * Murdoc is wearing ''Pac-Man'' underwear. * The arcade game portrays the band members as 8-bit characters, with 2-D as Pac-Man and Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde replaced with the faces of Murdoc, Russel, and Noodle.

Track listing

Personnel

Gorillaz *

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

– vocals, backing vocals, instrumentation, director, keyboards, bass, guitar, synthesizer, drums, percussion *

– artwork, character design, video direction *

Remi Kabaka Jr. Remi Kabaka Jr. (born 11 April 1970) is a British record producer, art director, percussionist and voice actor best known as the drummer and producer for British virtual band Gorillaz. He became a music producer for the band in 2015 after sever ...

– percussion, drums Additional musicians and personnel *

– vocals * Prince Paul – backing vocals, engineering * John Smythe – guitar * Weathrman – bass, keyboards, synthesizer * Stephen Sedgwick – mixing engineer, engineering * Samuel Egglenton – engineering * John Davis – mastering engineer * Elvin "Wit" Shahbazian – engineering

Charts

References

{{Schoolboy Q 2020 songs 2020 singles Gorillaz songs Songs written by Damon Albarn Songs written by Remi Kabaka Jr. Parlophone singles Warner Records singles Pac-Man British funk songs G-funk songs Downtempo songs Electropop songs Schoolboy Q songs Songs written by Prince Paul (producer) Songs written by Schoolboy Q Song Machine Music based on video games Songs about fictional characters