The song was released in November 2019.[6] On October 23, 2020, Swedish duo DJs Galantis and American DJ Nghtmre released a remix version of the song.[7] At the end of 2020, the song was ranked number one on Octane Sirius XM[broken anchor] as the most played rock song on the radio in the United States. On May 7, 2024 the band released the single "Ronald" and after 7 years of the release of their fourth studio album Coming Home, the band finally announced that they would be releasing their fifth studio album called Popular Monster and it will be released on August 16, 2024.[5]
Composition and lyrics
The song was composed and written by Ronnie Radke, Cody Quistad of Wage War, and Tyler Smyth of DangerKids. It talks about Ronnie Radke exploring his demons, particularly that of his depression and accusations made against him throughout his life, and eventually transforming into a werewolf. Ronnie Radke says about the song:
"'Popular Monster' is the voice inside my head, waiting for you to hear it. It is the story of a hero who has been falsely accused and destroyed by society. Show what happens when you've been pushed too hard. You become exactly what they say, you are exactly what they want you to be, a monster."[8]
When writing the song, Ronnie Radke drew inspiration from the 2019 film Joker.
As for the composition, Radke continues to experiment with rap, the first and second verses of the song are very noticeable rapping. However, the band does not leave aside its rock roots since the pre-chorus and the choruses continue to sound like heavy metal, even making the song lean more towards rap metal or nu metal. The song has a breakdown which marks that the band remains faithful to their metalcore sound that their fans fell in love with so much.[8]
Music video
The music video for the song was directed by Jensen Noen.[9] The music video depicts Ronnie Radke exploring his demons in which he eventually transforms into a werewolf.[10] This is the last music video to feature rhythm guitarist Derek Jones, who died in April 2020.[11]
Commercial performance
The song peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, number 15 on the Rock Airplay chart, and number one on the Mainstream Rock chart.[12] On the Billboard Canada Rock chart, the song peaked at number 38, while in on the UK Rock & Metal Singles chart, it peaked at number 17, the song debuted at number 33 in Hungary. In June 2020, Billboard introduced two new rock charts, with "Popular Monster" becoming the first song to top the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and peaking at number 11 on the Hot Alternative Songs chart.[13] On December 8, 2020, the song was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) equivalent to 500,000 units. Later they obtained their first platinum record.[14]
The song began to gain popularity on the TikTok video platform, several users began to use the song for their videos, this also helped the song continue to trend.[35] The song is the entrance theme of British wrestlerZak Zodiac brother of Ronnie Radke's partner and All Elite Wrestling wrestler, Saraya (known as Paige in WWE), who works for different independent wrestling companies.[36] In 2020, the song was included in a DLC of the video game Rock Band 4.[37]
