Why “Good Time” by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen is One of the Most Culturally Significant Songs of 2012.
The year was 2012. While a majority of the global population panicked about the impending apocalypse forecasted by the Mayans, two pop stars had their attention aimed at something else — their next hit song.
The first of these celebrities, former Canadian Idol contestant Carly Rae Jepsen, was still riding the waves of her smash single “Call Me Maybe,” which catapulted her to international success a few months before. The second, Adam Young, best known for his 2009 debut “Fireflies” under the pseudonym “Owl City,” had been out of the public eye ever since his song faded from the Top 40 charts three years earlier. It’s safe to say the two singers had different motivations behind releasing a new song: Jepsen wanted to maintain her fame, while Young wanted to get his back. So, they joined forces and crafted “Good Time,” an upbeat synthpop song about, well, having a good time. Though the premise of the single is obvious, the methods employed by Jepsen and Young solidify the song’s reputation as a seminal part of North American pop music in the early 2010s. Let’s see why.
The song starts off with a slightly-autotuned Jepsen modulating her voice, while Young utters “it’s always a good time” in the background. This opener is nothing impressive, as it just introduces listeners to the artists and title. However, after a funky rift, Young breaks from the clichés and launches into a solo, steering the song on its path toward greatness.
He begins his verse with “woke up on the right side of the bed,” which might not sound like much by itself (the Rap Genius annotation infers this to mean Young is simply “wide awake [and] ready to party”), but given the circumstances surrounding Owl City’s career, the lyric actually means quite a lot; after “Fireflies,” he put out nine separate singles, none of which had anything close to the success as his first song. Thus, “Good Time” could, in a way, be considered a last-ditch effort by Young to stay famous, and if that was the case, the future of his career depended on the success of this release. Despite these high stakes, Young still takes on a confident and hopeful demeanor, demonstrating how calmly he handles such intense pressure. Additionally, the most impressive lyric in the entire song appears halfway through the verse, where Young uses skillful wordplay involving z-axis directions to extend the offer of a wild time: “hands up, if you’re down to get down tonight.”
Next, the single transitions into the pre-hook and hook, in which Jepsen and Young trade lines about how good of a time they always have. One line that stood out here was about “[waking] up at twilight,” demonstrating the deleterious effects a party-centric lifestyle can have on one’s circadian rhythm. Poignant social commentary indeed.
Perhaps the most important line of the song comes at the beginning of Jepsen’s verse. Once again, though, it’s all about the context. Remember, “Good Time” is the Canadian singer’s first real single since “Call Me Maybe,” meaning that the entire world is wondering whether she can replicate the chart-topping hit she had put out just a few months prior, or if a song about telephonic communication truly is her magnum opus. The legacy of Carly Rae Jepsen literally depended on this track, and she knew it.
Thankfully, she doesn’t disappoint. Starting off by lamenting that she “dropped [her] phone in the pool again,” Jepsen instantly recovers by realizing that the wealth accrued from “Call Me Maybe” makes the phone easily replaceable, since she can just go to an ATM and withdraw the money necessary to buy a new one. By erupting into her quatrain with a level of swagger and sass that even the most established stars lack, Jepsen makes it clear that she is not a one-hit wonder, and the new Queen of Pop is here to stay.
After Jepsen’s contribution, the song returns to its generic- but nevertheless fun- roots and closes with a chorus of children repeating the song’s title as their voices fade into silence. There isn’t much to talk about here in regards to significance, but if one really wanted to delve deep, the decision to have kids sing the last few lines could be interpreted as an attempt from Jepsen and Young to show how their frequent partying has led to a lighthearted, childlike appreciation for the world around them. Probably not though.
On the surface, “Good Time” seems like a run-of-the-mill collaboration between two pop singers with fleeting relevance, and it very well may be just that. Yet, Jepsen and Young end up creating a catchy song that accomplished exactly what they needed it to: Carly Rae Jepsen managed to stay in the public eye for a bit longer, and Owl City resurfaced as a preeminent performing artist and producer. Though it didn’t garner the same popularity as other songs released that year, like Psy’s “Gangnam Style” or Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” “Good Time” helped reinforce the careers of two of the most influential pop artists of 2012 by perfectly capturing the essential vibes of that year. Without it, millions across the globe would not have had a very good time.
If anyone wants to listen to this feat of human music-making, a link to it on Spotify can be found here.
Bradley Wascher is currently a student at Western Kentucky University. There is nothing else interesting about him to include in this second sentence.
