Draft:Revenge (CaptainSparklez song)

  • Comment: Sportskeeda, Know Your Meme, YouTube, and Spotify are unreliable sources. They should be removed, in addition to the information they are citing. The article should only use higher quality sources that are not self-published, such as newspapers and books. –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:26, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

"Revenge"
Song by CaptainSparklez featuring TryHardNinja
ReleasedAugust 11, 2011 (2011-08-11)
GenrePop
Length3:40
Songwriter(s)CaptainSparklez
Producer(s)Doc Exx, CaptainSparklez

"Revenge" is a song by American YouTuber Jordan Maron, more commonly known as CaptainSparklez, featuring fellow American YouTuber Igor Gordienko, more commonly known as TryHardNinja. It is a parody of "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" by Usher and gained much popularity after its release. It is recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-viewed gaming video on YouTube.

The song became the subject of an Internet challenge and meme called the "Creeper Challenge" in 2019.

Background

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The song is one of many parodies released by Maron and Gordienko in the early 2010s, the likes of which dominated the Minecraft sphere at the time.[1] It is the counterpart to such songs as "Fallen Kingdom", a parody of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", which describes the subjugation of a kingdom and its king's perspective throughout;[2] "TNT", a parody of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite", which describes a player's use of TNT to mine blocks;[3] among others. Due to the sheer density of these songs, Maron has been dubbed "the godfather of Minecraft song parodies."[2]

Composition

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Maron wrote the lyrics,[‡ 1] which feature mostly the same narrative devices as the Usher song, but through the lens of a Minecraft player being attacked by creepers.[4] For example, the opening line and the line for which the song is most known,[5] "Creeper / Aw, man", parodies the opening line in "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", "Usher, Usher, Usher / Yeah, man".[6] Gordienko sings all but the third verse of the song, which is sung by Maron.[6]

Due to copyright issues, the song was remade in the mid-2010s to be completely original instead of a parody.[7] According to TuneBat, this remade version (which Gordienko released as part of an album of his)[‡ 2] is written in the key of C-sharp major and has a tempo of 120 BPM.[8] The original version was later restored.[7]

Music video

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Maron directed the music video, which is a machinima of Minecraft character Steve and CaptainSparklez's skin and dimly-lit backgrounds designed by Maron, featuring shots of Steve being attacked by creepers inter-spliced by shots of CaptainSparklez's skin singing the song.

Synopsis

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Steve is mining when he is attacked by creepers, who explode and bring Steve down to "half-a-heart" of health, forcing him to seek shelter and forge a weapon to better defend himself against these creepers. In the end, after honing his form and refining his sword, Steve is able to get revenge on the creepers with ease.

Reception

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The song has been well-received among fans and critics alike. Within two years, the song had reached 100 million views.[‡ 3] By November 2014, the video had amassed 136 million views.[9] The view count remained stagnant for about 4 years, as in 2018, the video only had about 169 million views.[10]

Joshi Perera from Junkee.com ranked the song first in his list of best-ever Minecraft songs, stating that "no other Minecraft song could claim this spot."[5] Linda Giantino of Chaospin also ranked it first in her top ten best Minecraft parodies, describing the music video as having "great graphics that is captivating and makes you squirm."[11] Malcolm Poole from COGconnected described the song as reflecting "so much genuine enjoyment of a bygone era that those nostalgic for it can’t help but sing along."[1]

Creeper Challenge

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On July 8, 2019, a YouTube user named "king" posted a video, entitled "when the gang tries to sing revenge in it's [sic] entirety", in which they and their server on Discord had attempted to recite the lyrics to "Revenge" in order, without making a mistake, their attempts being screenshot and overlaid with text-to-speech audio.[12][13] This trend of trying to recite "Revenge" in Discord spread rapidly, undertaking the moniker "Creeper Challenge"—in reference to the first line of the song. The trend also spawned a broader trend of challenging one's Discord server to sing any song (given that they know the lyrics).[12]

After the "Creeper Challenge", the song's popularity skyrocketed. On July 29, 2019, the video had reportedly gotten the most amount of views it had ever gotten in one day.[‡ 4] Due to the challenge, YouTuber PewDiePie described "Revenge" in a Meme Review episode as "the song everybody's [heard of]."[6][14] According to Genius, the song's page topped their charts, amassing over 750,000 pageviews as of 2019 and 121,912 in one single day, July 29, one day after PewDiePie released his video.[6]

Awards

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Guinness World Records currently recognizes[a] the video as the most-viewed Minecraft video on YouTube. At the time of its recording it had precisely 163,883,566 views.[15] The company also recognizes it as being the most-viewed machinima on YouTube[16] and the most-viewed fan film based on a videogame (Minecraft).[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b Poole, Malcolm (August 19, 2021). "CaptainSparklez' hit song "Revenge" reaches very special anniversary". COGconnected. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Russell, Anna (August 12, 2012). "Lovers of Minecraft Are Belting Out Odes to Digging and Smelting". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023.
  3. ^ Scott-Jones, Richard (April 10, 2019). "Taio Cruz's people want you to know a Minecraft parody only passed *one* of the Dynamite videos on YouTube". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 6, 2023.
  4. ^ Burkett, Jacob (February 22, 2024). "Top 10 most viewed Minecraft music videos". Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Perera, Joshi (April 22, 2021). "The Best Ever 'Minecraft' Songs, Ranked". Junkee. Archived from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d Abad, Russell; Coker, Hillary; Morel Jr., Jacques; Fu, Eddie (August 1, 2019). "CCaptainSparklez's 'Minecraft' Parody Song "Revenge" Sees Renewed Interest Thanks To A Discord Meme". Genius. Archived from the original on March 24, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "CaptainSparklez' "Revenge"". Know Your Meme. 2019. Archived from the original on December 31, 2023. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  8. ^ "Revenge". TuneBat.
  9. ^ The Big Book of Building. Triumph Books. November 2014.
  10. ^ "CaptainSparklez: Meet the Man Behind YouTube's Minecraft Music Videos". Best Life. March 9, 2018. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024.
  11. ^ Giantino, Linda (August 30, 2022). "The 10 Best Minecraft Parody Songs of All-Time". Archived from the original on June 10, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Creeper, Aw Man Discord Game". Know Your Meme. 2019. Archived from the original on December 25, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  13. ^ Anderson, Sage (July 30, 2019). "The 'Creeper Challenge' has group chats fighting to finish song lyrics in the right order". Mashable. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  14. ^ Kjellberg, Felix. Creeper? Aw man... [MEME REVIEW] 👏 👏#62. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ "Most watched Minecraft YouTube video". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on June 26, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  16. ^ "Most watched machinima on YouTube". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  17. ^ "Most watched fan film based on a videogame". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Primary sources

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  1. ^ Maron, Jordan (August 3, 2019). CaptainSparklez "Revenge" Official Lyrics & Meaning. Retrieved April 21, 2024 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ Gordienko, Igor (July 5, 2017). Revenge – via Spotify.
  3. ^ Maron, Jordan (May 5, 2013). Vidcon, Revenge At 100 Million, Draw My Life, Stuff. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ Maron, Jordan (July 30, 2019). Reacting To The Return Of Revenge. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via YouTube.

Notes

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a. ^ Last updated on July 21, 2016.

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