Do I Wanna Know?

"Do I Wanna Know?"
Single by Arctic Monkeys
from the album AM
B-side	"2013"
Released	19 June 2013 (2013-06-19)
Format	Digital download 7-inch single
Recorded	Sage and Sound Recording (Los Angeles, California) Rancho De La Luna (Joshua Tree, California)
Genre	Indie rock, stoner rock, blues rock
Length	4:33
Label	Domino
Writer(s)	Jamie Cook Matt Helders Nick O'Malley Alex Turner
Producer(s)	Ross Orton
Arctic Monkeys singles chronology
"Come Together" (2012) "Do I Wanna Know?" (2013) "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?" (2013)

"Do I Wanna Know?" is a song recorded by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys for their fifth studio album AM (2013). The song was released as a single on 18 June 2013 together with an accompanying music video, and afterwards became available for digital download via iTunes.^[1][2] A 7" vinyl edition of the single was released on 22 July 2013, with a B-side titled "2013".^[3]

The song was first played live on 22 May 2013 in Ventura, California, at the first concert of the Arctic Monkeys' AM Tour. Throughout the tour, "Do I Wanna Know?" was being played as the opening number.^[1]

"Do I Wanna Know?" has peaked at number 11 in the UK Singles Chart, charted in several other countries, and was the first Arctic Monkeys song to have ever entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, peaking at number 70 in March 2014. In December 2014, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Rock Performance category.^[4]

Composition

Musically, "Do I Wanna Know?" is an indie rock^[5] song with elements of psychedelic music and strong elements of stoner rock and blues rock.^[6][7] In terms of both lyrical content and aesthetic style, the song picks up from where the band's 2012 single "R U Mine?" left off. The guitar riffs are strikingly similar, but the song is more downtempo. The track continues the hard-edged, rocking sound of their previous album Suck It and See.^[8] In concert, singer and guitarist Alex Turner uses a Vox 12-string electric guitar.^[9]

Structurally, the song follows a common pop music "verse-pre-chorus-chorus" form up until its second chorus; from that point on, it follows what Hit Songs Deconstructed calls "a more unorthodox flow" ending in a "pre-chorus/chorus hybrid section". Falsetto backing vocals form an interplay with those of Turner throughout the song. Moreover, the title encapsulates the entire premise of the story, the narrator wondering whether he wants to remain in doubt or know if his feelings are unrequited or mutual.^[10] "Do I Wanna Know?" is in the key of G minor.^[11]

Music video

The music video for "Do I Wanna Know?", directed by David Wilson with animation agency Blinkink,^[12] was first released onto YouTube on 18 June 2013. As of November 2016, it has been viewed over 360 million times.^[13] The video begins with a black background and simple visuals of white sound waves (similar to the AM cover art) that vibrate in synchronization, first with the percussion and lead guitar, then with the lead singer, Alex Turner. As the band enters with the chorus, colored sound waves illustrate new voices. Simple sound waves then give way to fast-moving, representational line-drawing animations that morph between a variety of female, race car, race car engine, and road racing images. At one point, the undulating white line becomes the "trucker's Mudflap girl", seen in the single's cover art. The line drawings are interrupted several times with flashes of full-color animation, several that recall the surrealistic style of Robert Crumb. The increasingly complex video creates, by turns, a somewhat jarring and psychedelic experience, in a style not unlike the Gary Gutierrez animations that were featured in The Grateful Dead Movie (1977). The video ends with the familiar white line becoming two crossed checkered flags, which join together in a single line with the "AM" initials.^[14]

Commercial performance

Despite a midweek on air on sale release, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 11,^[15] making it the band's highest charting single since "Fluorescent Adolescent" in 2007. This was subsequently outperformed by the next single "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?", which debuted at number 8. As of 9 November 2013, "Do I Wanna Know?" has spent 32 weeks in the UK Top 100, this being the longest run of any Arctic Monkeys single, to date.^[16] The single was awarded a Platinum certification by the BPI on 7 February 2015, indicating shipments in excess of 600,000 units; it is the first Arctic Monkeys single to do so.

The song has had moderate success worldwide, charting in countries such as Australia, France, Belgium, Ireland and Israel. In January 2014, the song reached number 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart,^[17] the group's first #1 single in the United States and their first appearance on that chart since "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" peaked at number 7 in 2006.^[18] On 28 March, the track became the 30th song to have occupied the Billboard Alternative Chart top spot for 10 weeks or more. As of the 25 October 2014 issue of Billboard, it has logged 58 weeks on the Alternative Songs list, making it the second-longest running song on the chart. It also became the band's first single to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 70 in March 2014.^[19] On 26 January 2014, the song reached #4 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2013.

In popular culture

"Do I Wanna Know?" was used in a 2013 Bacardi commercial.^[20] In September 2014, the song was used in the pilot episode of ABC's TV series Forever,^[21][22] and the fifth episode of Israeli series Ish Hashuv Meod^[21], and was used in the final episode of the second series of the BBC series Peaky Blinders.^[23]

The song was covered by artists such as MS MR, Sam Smith, Chvrches, Hozier, and Christina Grimmie.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/Sales
Australia (ARIA)[53]	Gold	35,000^
Italy (FIMI)[54]	Gold	15,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[55]	Platinum	600,000
United States (RIAA)[56]	Platinum	1,000,000^
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

Release history

References