Why Did Fireflies Blow Up?

There's something about Fireflies that's weirdly addictive. In a vaccum, you wouldn't expect such a computer-y dreamy track to hit #1 and sell over 10 million copies. Even weirder, it's basically Owl City's only good song and he has never managed to replicate it's success.

If there was ever a song that embodied The Internet, it's Fireflies. On a sonic level, it sounds like a computer. The "perfect" arpeggiated chords and layered synths feel like it came straight out of a deterministic algorithm. On top of that, the lyrics encapsulated an early-internet feeling you might get scrolling tumblr past your bedtime ("I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep" - in a way, scrolling online feels a little like dreaming when you're awake)

An interesting footnote to the "perfectness" of the song - there's actually a chord with a wrong note in the last chorus. Adam Young admitted the song was so layered he didn't notice it until years later. In my opinion, it makes the song a lot better - as Leonard Cohen said "there is a crack in everything that's how the light gets in."

From a distribution standpoint, the song was born and raised online. Owl City was one of the first "bedroom pop" musicians who blew up on MySpace and YouTube instead of through the traditional label pipeline. The feeling of "discovering" the song combined with it's uniquely resonant sound for the time rode the exact moment when virality felt personal.

When it finally reached radio, its pre-validated PG inoffensive sound was perfect to push everywhere. The ultra-safe lyrics made it perfect for malls, tweens, and parents. But if all you had to do to make a hit was make it inoffensive, we'd have a lot more hits.

There's something more to it. The lyrics are weird and childlike and you can't really parse out a meaning if you try. But it hits something in your brain and there's an unexplainable depth to them. An underlying late-night lonliness throughout, a longing for time to slow down, a description of a rich inner life so fantastical nobody else would understand it. It's like a banger for introverts and only children.

In a moment dominated by 808 heavy club music by The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, and others, Fireflies spoke to the millennials coming of age spending more time alone, online, in their own fantasies.