We Built This City: Difference between revisions

| released = August 198526, (US)1985<ref name="RIAA">{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.riaaworldradiohistory.orgcom/goldandplatinumdata.php?content_selector=goldArchive-platinumAll-searchableMusic/FMQB-database Album/1985/FMQB-1985-08-23.pdf|title=Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – May 28, 2015 FMQB|publisherpage=Record Industry Association of America |access-date=May 28, 201530}}</ref>

| label = [[Grunt Records|Grunt]]/, [[RCA Records|RCA]]

| writer = {{hlist|[[Bernie Taupin]], |[[Martin Page]], |[[Dennis Lambert]], |[[Peter Wolf (producer)|Peter Wolf]]}}

| producer =
*[[Peter Wolf (producer)|Peter Wolf]],
*Jeremy Smith

"'''We Built This City'''" is athe 1985debut songsingle by American [[rock music|rock]] band [[Starship (band)|Starship]], thefrom debuttheir single1985 from thedebut album ''[[Knee Deep in the Hoopla]]''. It was written by English musicians [[Martin Page]] and [[Bernie Taupin]], who were both living in [[Los Angeles]] at the time, and was originally intended as a lament against the closure of many of that city's live music clubs.

The song peaked at numberNo. one1 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]]. Outside the United States, "We Built This City" topped the charts in Australia and Canada, peaked inside the topTop 10 of the charts in Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland, the topTop 20 on the charts in Belgium, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and the topTop 30 of the charts in Austria and the Netherlands.

The song has gained significant scorn, both for the inscrutability of its lyrics (notably the line "[[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]] plays the [[mamba (band)|mamba]]"), and for the contrast between the song's anti-corporate message and its polished, "[[corporate rock]]" sound. It topped a 2011 ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' poll of worst songs of the 1980s by a wide margin, and the magazines ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]'' and ''[[GQ]]'' both called it the worst song of all time.

Song cowritersco-writers [[Martin Page]] and [[Bernie Taupin]] have stated that the song is about the decline of live-performance clubs in [[Los Angeles]] during the 1980s.<ref name="GQ history">{{cite web |url=https://www.gq.com/story/oral-history-we-built-this-city-worst-song-of-all-time |title=An Oral History of "We Built This City," the Worst Song of All Time |last=Tannenbaum |first=Rob |date=August 21, 2016 |website=GQ |access-date=September 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005170727/https://www.gq.com/story/oral-history-we-built-this-city-worst-song-of-all-time |archive-date=October 5, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The lyrics are structured as a plea to corporate interests who are shuttingclosing down rock music clubs ("We just want to dance here/ Someone stole the stage") because the corporations are concerned only with profits and respectability ("Too many runaways"), and have forgotten that rock music was what first broughtattracted people to the city ("Don't you remember? We built this city on [[rock and roll]]!").

Though the song was originally written about Los Angeles, the Starship rendition references [[San Francisco]] (the hometown of both Starship and its predecessors, [[Jefferson Airplane]] and [[Jefferson Starship]]) with a spoken-word interlude in which a [[radio DJdisc jockey]] states, "I'm looking out over that [[Golden Gate Bridge]]". However, the DJdisc jockey then says, "Here's your favorite radio station in your favorite radio city, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps", stressing the universality of the message: while "the city by the bay" is a nickname for San Francisco, the other two phrases are not, and "[[The City That Never Sleeps (nickname)|The City That Never Sleeps]]" is a well-known nickname for [[New York City]]. Capitalizing on the ambiguity, several radio stations added descriptions of their own local areas when they broadcast the song or added their own [[station identification|ident]] in its place.

''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' said that this "unusual rock 'n' roll anthem is as wise as it is rebellious.".<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|date=August 31, 1985|accessdate=2022-08-01|page=83|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCQEAAAAMBAJ|title=Reviews}}</ref> ''[[Cash Box]]'' called it "an ear-catching tune" and described it as "dance rock with sharp hooks.".<ref name=cb>{{cite magazine|title=Single Releases|magazine=Cash Box|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1985/CB-1985-09-07.pdf|date=September 7, 1985|accessdate=2022-08-01|page=9}}</ref>

{{Certification Table Top|caption=Certifications for "We Built This City"}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=DenmarkCanada|type=single|artist=Starship|title=We Built This City|award=Gold|relyear=1985|certyear=2022|id=110751985|access-date=August 2, March 20222023}}

!scope="col"| Chart (2018)

!scope="col"| Peak<br />position

[[Category:StarshipSynth (band)rock songs]]