Dance Monkey Music
Fisseha Aranda
"Dance Monkey" is a song by Australian singer Tones and I, released on 10 May 2019 as the second single (first in the US) from Tones and I's debut EP, The Kids Are Coming. The song was produced and mixed by Konstantin Kersting.[3]
"Dance Monkey" topped the official singles charts in over 38 countries and peaked within the top ten of many others, including the United States. The song broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart at 24 non-consecutive weeks.[4] It also broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist with 11 weeks at the top. When it hit number four in the US, it became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight years.[5] On Spotify, as of March 2024, the song is the most streamed by a female artist and the eighth-most overall, with over 3 billion streams.[6] The song is was also the first song by a female artist to reach 3 billion streams.[6]
The song has received a number of awards. It won Best Pop Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019,[7] Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2020[8] and Independent Song of the Year at the AIR Awards of 2020.[9] It was also the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.[10]
When interviewed by DJ Smallzy in July 2019 on Australian radio station Nova FM, Tones explained that Dance Monkey's lyrics are about the relationship she had with her audience when she was busking (street performing) on the streets of Australia:
"I wrote this song when I was busking, and about the pressure that I felt to always be entertaining people on the street. And if they didn't like it, when they looked at their phones they could just click something else; ... we are all so used to being entertained at the click of a button."
"So when you're [busking] on the street, .. to command [your] attention, people would be like: 'again! again!' .. 'more! more!' .. or they would just leave. So if you replace [the lyric]: 'dance for me, dance for me' with 'sing for me, sing for me,' it's pretty literal," she said.[11]
Liam Kelly and Nick Kozakis directed the music video, which was released on 24 June 2019, produced by Visible Studios.[12] It follows the character "Mr. Tones" (played by Tones and I), an elderly man who sneaks out of a care home with his friends so they can go to a golf course and have a dance party with other senior citizens.
Due to the overcast weather on the day of filming, every shot of the music video had its sky replaced digitally. In 2020 it was added to APRA billion streams list.[13] As of June 2024, the video has over 2.13 billion views on YouTube.[12] The music video was filmed at Eynesbury Golf Club, Victoria, Australia.[14]
"Dance Monkey" was the sixth highest ranked global digital single of 2019 according to IFPI, moving 11.4 million converted units.[18] In November 2020, "Dance Monkey" was declared the most Shazamed song of all time with 36.6 million searches.[19] In December 2020, Dance Monkey became the third most-streamed song on Spotify with over 2.5 billion streams, making Tones the first female artist to do so.[20]
Tones made her debut on US television on 18 November 2019 with a performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 10 December 2019, Tones appeared as a guest performer again in the US on The Voice. The following week, "Dance Monkey" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten for the first time at number nine, and later peaked at number four on the chart.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Tones and I was nominated for eight awards, winning four. Tones won ARIA Award for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist while "Dance Monkey" won Best Pop Release and The Kids Are Coming EP won Best Independent Release.[7] At the APRA Music Awards of 2020, "Dance Monkey" was nominated for Song of the Year, Most Performed Australian Work of the Year and Most Performed Pop Work of the Year, winning Song of the Year.[8][21] At the AIR Awards of 2020, the song won Independent Song of the Year.[9] In May 2020, "Dance Monkey" was announced as the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.[10]
Hit Songs Deconstructed reports take a deep dive into the what, how, and why behind a current chart-topping hit. These exceptionally comprehensive reports feature a combination of impartial data and insightful analysis illustrated through charts, graphs, and notation.
Based on the Hit Songs Deconstructed PRO report, Essentials delivers high-level takeaways through insightful section-by-section analysis illustrated with charts, graphs and commentary, providing an in-depth understanding of the hit songwriting and production techniques involved in crafting the song.
Watson made her US debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in November 2019, shortly followed by a guest appearance on The Voice the following month in December. One week later, Dance Monkey entered the Top 10 of both the Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Top 40 charts in the US, cementing itself as a global Pop powerhouse hit.
Sub-Structure: Sub-part letters followed by a different number (i.e. b1, b2, b3) are melodically related but not exact. Sub-parts with the same letter (i.e. c) or same letter and number (i.e. b1) are melodically identical in each iteration.
Syllable Count: Top number represents the total number of syllables within a line. Numbers in parentheses represent segmented syllable counts put into effect by melodic and rhythmic changeups.
While the aforementioned characteristics in addition to others help Dance Monkey to both easily connect with audiences and stand out from the pack, its true structural strength is how seamlessly it leads the listener from section to section and develops familiar material in fresh ways throughout the song, creating a highly memorable and engaging listening experience.
Dance Monkey is a Pop song that possesses a combination of Electropop, Alt/Indie and Dance/Club influences that shape its sound and vibe. These influences are put into effect by characteristics of the vocals, instruments, production and lyrics.
In addition to the effective instrument choices themselves, the meticulous manner in which the instruments are arranged throughout the song also greatly contributes to its impact, creating a highly engaging and varied structural flow. Peppered with full and partial accompaniment pulls, groovy chorus breakdowns and engaging section-to-section contrast, Dance Monkey takes its listeners on a roller coaster ride that keeps them tuned in for the entire 3 minutes and 26 seconds.
Wave 1 encompasses the intro through the end of chorus 1. It begins with relatively low energy in the intro due to the sparseness of the arrangement and then increases in both subtle and pronounced ways over the course of the first verse as new elements are added to the mix (save for the lower energy, transitional accompaniment pull in bars 7 and 8).
However, unlike most Pop hits, wave 1 does not end with an energy peak. Instead, the energy level drops off slightly in the chorus due to its breakdown arrangement. However, despite the slight reduction in energy, chorus 1 still provides a satisfying payoff following the tension-heightening verses, featuring a head-bobbing, dance-inspired groove that is designed to lock listeners in and get them moving.
Dance Monkey features a female lead vocal from Tones and I. While female leads in the Hot 100 Top 10 have trailed their male counterparts for many years, they have been gaining in popularity. Looking specifically at songs outside the Hip Hop genre, songs with a female lead have nearly doubled from 26% in 2016 up to 50% during the first two months of 2020, tying their male counterparts. This is the highest level seen in over five years.
Numbers: Denotes the total number of syllables in a line
Numbers in parentheses: Denotes the number of syllables in a specific line segment. Segmentation is achieved through melodic or rhythmic contrast within a line or the use of rests between segments. Lines without parenthesis have no segmentation. Reference the Vocal Melody section of the report for further details.
Colors: Reflect song sections (note that they do not relate to the colors used in the rhyme tables)
Outros have by far been the most common concluding song section over the last five years and accounted for 78% of overall Hot 100 Top 10 hits in 2019. When looking at specific genre subsets, however, note that the use of an outro in Hip Hop hits increased to 95% of songs in 2019, but decreased outside of the Hip Hop genre from 81% in 2018 down to 68% in 2019. This was due to the increased number of songs that ended with a chorus, which nearly doubled to 29% of songs in 2019 including Dance Monkey.
Over the past five years, the vast majority of non-Hip Hop Hot 100 Top 10 hits have included a pre-chorus in their framework. Dance Monkey goes against the grain by not using one. However, the percentage of non-Hip Hop hits that forgo a pre-chorus more than doubled in 2019 to 37% of songs, essentially meaning that more songs are getting to their first chorus faster (the average amount of time shortened from 45 seconds into the song in 2018 down to 39 seconds in 2019). Other major 2019 hits that forgo the pre-chorus are Bad Guy, Circles, Girls Like You and Senorita, among others.
The listener is kept engaged until this point by a 9 second/4 bar intro and a 40 second/16 bar verse, which is split into two shorter 20 second/8 bar segments that possess both familiar and differing qualities to heighten both engagement and memorability.
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