Selfie (song)

Key takeaways

Selfie (song) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Selfie (song) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Selfie (song) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"#Selfie" (stylized in all caps) is a satirical song produced by American DJ duo the Chainsmokers. It was released on January 29, 2014 with Dim Mak Records.

Background and promotion The Chainsmokers, composed of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, had noticed how the word selfie had become a trend and they wanted to take advantage of it. They made a demo of a song containing a monologue from a female clubber about taking good selfies. Inspiration came from the regular club-going women that the Chainsmokers saw on their nights out in New York City, with one of the goals of the track being to incorporate the line "let me take a selfie." The Chainsmokers described in an interview with The Phoenix New Times,

Honestly, "#Selfie" is kind of a phenomenon for us. We made it and thought it was funny and put it out as an edit. Then Dim Mak wanted to buy it, and they bought it from us and put it out officially and we made a video for it. This was all just because we thought it was fun. And then the song just kind of took on a life of its own. Which is honestly really great because it's brought in a new audience of people that listen to music that we've made that we're more passionate about.

The duo released the track to their SoundCloud account along with other posts in Vine and Instagram.

Music video A music video for the song was also released and features actual selfies from Steve Aoki, founder of Dim Mak, Snoop Dogg, David Hasselhoff, Tyler Breeze, A-Trak, The Knocks, Acacia Brinley, and Ian Somerhalder among others. Oliver Luckett, CEO of social media marketing firm TheAudience, said that the song is "so on point – it's shit-white-girls-say-meets-a-club-remix". TheAudience introduced the Chainsmokers to Aoki, helped create the "#Selfie" video and released it on January 29, 2014, on YouTube, utilizing the network of celebrities to promote it. According to Pall, "the video inherently had this viral concept built into it, which certainly helped get it off the ground".

Composition "#Selfie" includes spoken word verses; the uncredited female voice is Alexis Killacam. The song details a narcissistic young woman at a club, presumably speaking to friends, as she is concerned about taking selfies and uploading them to her Instagram account, while she criticizes other people at the club, including their outfits, in addition to dealing with a guy named Jason with whom she has a love/hate relationship. At the end of each spoken verse, she says "Let me take a selfie". The lyrics make several cultural references, including to Instagram and the Cedric Gervais remix of Lana Del Rey's song, "Summertime Sadness".

Critical reception The song has been compared to the viral impact of "Harlem Shake" by Baauer. The Chainsmokers explained that one of their initial intentions with "#Selfie" was to re-create the viral impact that "Harlem Shake" had, with the general public taking the song and maybe including their own interpretations along with the beat. The structure of it has drawn comparisons to the 1982 hit "Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa and his daughter, Moon Unit Zappa.

Commercial performance "#Selfie" debuted on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart at number 19, with first week sales of 9,000 digital downloads according to Nielsen SoundScan. The next week, "#Selfie" sold another 53,000 digital downloads and debuted at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest debut of the week. The sales drove the song to number six on the Dance/Electronic Songs and number three on the Dance/Electronic Digital Songs charts. "#Selfie" additionally debuted at number seven on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, becoming only the sixth song in the chart's 11-year history to debut as high or above and the first since Lady Gaga entered at number six with "Alejandro" in May 2010. In its third week of release, the song sold another 88,000 downloads (up by 64%) to move into the top ten of the Hot Digital Songs chart. It also reached a peak of number 27 on the Pop Songs chart. On the Hot 100, the song consecutively jumped to number 28. It also started on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart at number 33. The fourth week saw the song sell a further 111,000 digital downloads and moved to number 18 on the Hot 100. It reached the top of the Dance/Electronic Songs, and also moved up the other charts like Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (16–7; 1.4 million US streams, according to Nielsen BDS), Dance/Mix Show Airplay (4–2) and Hot Dance Club Songs (33–19). "#Selfie" sold another 101,000 copies next week and moved to number 16 on the Hot 100. As of June 2014, the song has sold 865,000 copies in the United States. In the United Kingdom, "#Selfie" debuted at number 115 on the UK Singles Chart and moved to number 42 the next week. The song finally peaked at number 11 in the UK. In Australia "#Selfie" debuted at number 98 on the ARIA Charts, and moved to a peak of number 3. In 2015, the Japanese pop trio MAX released a cover version of the song, renamed "#SELFIE ~ONNA NOW~." The song was released to commemorate their 20th anniversary.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links "#SELFIE" music video on YouTube

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Selfie (song)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Selfie (song) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Selfie (song) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Selfie (song) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Selfie (song)

In research: Selfie (song) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Selfie (song) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Selfie (song) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 singles, 2014 songs, American satirical songs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Selfie (song) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Selfie (song) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Selfie (song) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Selfie (song) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Selfie (song) in simple terms?

"#Selfie" (stylized in all caps) is a satirical song produced by American DJ duo the Chainsmokers. It was released on January 29, 2014 with Dim Mak Records.

Why does Selfie (song) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Selfie (song)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Selfie (song).