"Shooting Stars" is a song by Australian electronic duo

Bag Raiders Bag Raiders are an Australian electronic music duo founded in 2006 by Jack Glass and Chris Stracey. They play keyboards, drums, and act as vocalists, producers, and remixers, with Stracey additionally playing guitar, violin and piano. They also ...

. The song was originally featured on the band's EP, ''Turbo Love'', in 2008. The year afterwards, the song was released as a single from their

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ous debut album ''

'', and reached number 18 in the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...

countdown of 2009. Although the song was released and charted in Australia in 2009, the song did not reach its peak there until 2013. It received international attention in February 2017 when the song became a part of a popular

internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

, thus cementing the track's legacy as a

sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game, or some other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release but became a success later on. A sleeper hit may have little promo ...

. The song reached number 11 on ''Billboard'''s

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chart and number 9 on the ''Billboard''

Bubbling Under Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart that year. The vocals on the song are performed by Rhys Taylor. In 2015, the song was listed at number 29 in In the Mix's '100 Greatest Australian Dance Tracks of All Time' with Dave Ruby Howe saying " twas a bright, euphoric tonic ... with an instantly-classic chorus".

History

In an interview with ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', Jack Glass, a member of the band, said that the single inspired him to create their self-titled album, claiming that "people loved ''Shooting Stars'' so much and we liked that direction of songwriting and developing a pop sensibility ourselves, too." Glass also said that the band also played half of the song in clubs before the band had realized that "people liked it and wanted to hear the whole thing."

Composition

The song is composed in

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the cont ...

and a tempo of 125 BPM. It has a melody played on the

Stylophone The Stylophone is a miniature analog electronic keyboard musical instrument played with a stylus. Invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis, it entered production in 1968, manufactured by Dubreq. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as chi ...

, which is one of only a few examples of the Stylophone's use in professional music composition. The song's chorus is only played at the end of the song. The

bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

is switched between the two band members in the verse and chorus.

Reception

"Shooting Stars" was well received by music critics. Andrew Murfett of ''

'' described the song as "peppy track" and compared the song to works of

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

Revival

In 2013, "Shooting Stars" was used on ''

Australia's Got Talent ''Australia's Got Talent'' is an Australian reality television talent show. The show is based on the ''Got Talent'' series format that originated in the United Kingdom with Simon Cowell. The first six seasons aired on the Seven Network, from 2 ...

'' by contestant Tommy Franklin, which led to the song entering the top 40 of the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

nearly four years after it was originally released due to downloads. After the death of

Harambe Harambe (May 27, 1999 – May 28, 2016) was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo from 2014 to 2016, and previously at the Gladys Porter Zoo for 15 years. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosu ...

the

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

in May 2016, an animated tribute featuring the song, using clips from Ego's music video for "The Crazy Things We Do", spread on the internet. In 2017, the song received greater international attention when the song became a part of a popular

. The video that boosted the popularity of the meme was an upload on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

titled "Fat man does amazing dive". In the meme, the song is usually accompanied with people falling with surreal, spacey backgrounds. Chris Stracey, a member of the band, reacted to the meme, saying "At first we were like, ok this is funny I guess, but I didn't really get it so I thought "alright whatever". Once I started seeing a common theme though, such as the big guy jumping off the bridge into the river, that was the first one of the more recent stuff that really got me. So good! That and the

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

one is so funny Super_Bowl_LI_halftime." The_song_and_its_corresponding_meme_was_later_featured_in_the_music_video_for_the_Katy_Perry.html" ;"title="Super Bowl LI halftime show">Super Bowl LI halftime." The song and its corresponding meme was later featured in the music video for the Katy Perry">Super Bowl LI halftime show">Super Bowl LI halftime." The song and its corresponding meme was later featured in the music video for the Katy Perry song "Swish Swish". New York (magazine), ''New York Magazine'' referred to the meme as the "first big post-Vine (service), Vine meme." Meanwhile, Daily Dot compared the meme to Neil Cicierega's 2010 viral video, ''Brodyquest''. On 6 December 2017, Shooting Stars (along with the popular meme associated within the song) is featured in '' YouTube Rewind, YouTube Rewind: The Shape of 2017''. The official music video on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

has over 140.2 million views as of November 2022.

Track listings

12" maxi #"Shooting Stars" – 3:55 #"Shooting Stars" (

Siriusmo Moritz Friedrich, better known by his stage name Siriusmo, is a Berlin-based German record producer. Initially influenced by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin, his tracks can be broadly defined as electronic, and are fo ...

Remix) – 5:30 #"Shooting Stars" (

Kris Menace Kris Menace (born Christoph Hoeffel) is a German electronic musician and music producer. History Christophe Hoeffel began to work as a producer and writer in the mid-1990s for different projects and started using the pseudonym "Kris Menace" in 20 ...

Remix) – 7:29 #"Shooting Stars" (In Flagranti Remix) – 6:38

Covers

The song was first covered by Hidden Cat in 2009. The song was later covered by American

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

producer

Elephante Tim Wu (born November 10, 1989), better known by his stage name Elephante, is an American musician, DJ and music producer based in Los Angeles. Early life Wu was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His parents were born in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to ...

in 2014. In 2020, Australian producer POOLCLVB and singer MARSHES officially released a cover of the song, although this cover was first uploaded to YouTube in 2015. In November 2022, Australian DJ,

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and American singer,

Toro y Moi Chaz Bear (born Chazwick Bradley Bundick; November 7, 1986), known professionally as Toro y Moi, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He is often recognized as a spearhead of the chillwave genre in the 2010s, ...

covered the song for

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

. In September 2023, Australian singer

Troye Sivan Troye Sivan Mellet ( ; born 5 June 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter, actor and YouTuber. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with EMI Australia in 2013 and released his thi ...

released his song " Got Me Started", which samples the song's melody.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Appearances in other media

The song was featured during the end credits of Season 1, Episode 6 of the 2010

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series ''

How to Make It in America ''How to Make It in America'' is an American comedy-drama television series that ran on HBO from February 14, 2010, to November 20, 2011. The series follows the lives of Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg) and his friend Cam Calderon (Victor Rasuk) as t ...

''. In 2011,

Madeon Hugo Pierre Leclercq (; born 30 May 1994), better known by his stage name Madeon (), is a French DJ and music producer from Nantes, currently based in Los Angeles. He initially came to widespread public attention at 17 through a YouTube video, " ...

featured the song in his mashup, "

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". The song was also featured on the soundtrack to ''

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'', in the playlist "Around the World".

References

{{reflist 2009 singles 2009 songs Bag Raiders songs Internet memes introduced in 2017