page_title: We Are Young
section_title: Influence and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: We Are Young / Influence and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Glee cast
context_page_description: "We Are Young" is a song recorded by American band Fun featuring American singer Janelle Monáe, for their second studio album, Some Nights. It was released on September 20, 2011, as the lead single from the album. The song received acclaim from music critics, with many noting the song as a breakthrough for the indie genre and praising the song's catchiness. "We Are Young" has attained commercial success worldwide, reaching number one in several countries.
  The track initially only gained attention from online media, although it did receive its first commercial radio airplay on Tampa Bay alternative radio station 97X, debuting on September 19, 2011. However, it was soon covered by the television show Glee. With the Glee version having success on the charts, the song was licensed for use in a Chevrolet Sonic commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLVI. The single song propelled the band into mainstream success, topping the digital charts in February 2012 and becoming a crossover hit, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 through airplay on contemporary hit radio stations, topping the chart for six weeks straight.
context_section_description: The song was covered on Glee on the episode "Hold On to Sixteen", aired in December 2011. The track was given to Glee music supervisors by John Janick, head of Fueled by Ramen, "about five months" before its release, according to Ruess. Janick brought the song to the attention of Glee music supervisor PJ Bloom. "I vividly remember John dropping by my office with a just-mastered 'We Are Young' in hand," said Bloom. "It was still on its original blank CD-R titled in poorly handwritten red Sharpie." When Janick suggested that the track was perfect for the musical show, Bloom demurred. "Glee doesn't break bands, we celebrate existing pop success—that's our core model." Bloom changed his mind after playing the song only once and less than five minutes later sent it to Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy. Bloom called the cover of "We Are Young" one of "the pinnacle song moments of the entire series," and continued, "For Fun, Glee provided a launching pad for much of the success to come. For Glee, Fun allowed us to show the world we could be an A&R source and break a band. It was music business perfection." According to Columbia, which handles Glee releases, "We Are Young" marks the first track that was truly broken by Glee. Producers of Glee were incredibly receptive to the track, and set on including it in an episode regardless of whether it became a hit or not. The Glee cast version topped the Digital Songs chart in December 2011, hitting number one on iTunes and number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. As Glee's version of "We Are Young" gained popularity before the original did, Ruess e-mailed the musical director of the program, writing, "You guys are #1 right now, but we are coming for you, we're going to reclaim the spot!" As of March 2015, the Glee Cast recording has sold 455,000 copies in the United States, making it the seventh best-selling recording in the show's history. It has been covered by Pentatonix whose a cappella version went viral on YouTube.
  "We Are Young" was selected as the soundtrack of a one-minute Chevrolet advertisement for the Chevy Sonic, aired during Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012. Chevrolet's agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners considered "hundreds of songs" before settling on the track. "It's a beautiful song, with a number of different projections in that driving beat and very sweet melody," said Andrew Bancroft, associate creative director for Chevrolet. "He liked the track so much he selected it even before pairing it with the ad's footage, a rarity in music-synching terms," said Billboard. Although most commercials of that kind go through many different competing soundtracks, Chevrolet loved "We Are Young" from an early, rough cut of the spot. After the song's appearance in the spot, it was largely credited for the song's massive commercial success to come. The following year at Super Bowl XLVII, Taco Bell aired its own Super Bowl advertisement with a Spanish version of the song as its soundtrack.
  The song was used by the WWE as background music to highlight the nominees for Game Changer of the Year at the 2011 WWE Slammy Awards on the December 12 edition of WWE Raw and in the Once in a Lifetime: The Rock vs. John Cena special that aired on the USA Network to help promote their highly anticipated match at WrestleMania XXVIII. It was used at the end of Interactive Multimedia's Trash Bash 2012 at MCCTC. "We Are Young" was used in the episode "Chuck versus the Baby" of Chuck's fifth season. It was also featured on both the season finales of Gossip Girl season 5 and 90210 season 4 as the closing number of the episode. It was used as the soundtrack for the trailer of Judd Apatow's film This Is 40. On the June 6, 2012 episode of Conan, the song was parodied in a "Basic Cable Name That Tune" sketch as their "slightly different" version "We Have Pubes."
  On August 21, 2012, British girl band and X Factor 2011 winners Little Mix sped up the original version of the song to celebrate their first anniversary as a band, as well as the release of their debut single "Wings". The band's version received mostly p
caption: The Glee Cast's cover of "We Are Young" boosted the sales of the song as well as leading to widespread recognition in popular culture.
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