Unearthed footage from 20 years ago shows popular synth pop-duo MGMT performing what has become one of their biggest hits – but fans are losing it over a small detail in the clip.
A now-viral video shows Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser when they were fresh-faced students at Wesleyan University in 2003, playing an early version of their hit single Kids to a small crowd.
While many have marveled over how long ago the song came out, the duo’s pronunciation of their name has sent fans into a spin – learning it’s not em-gee-em-tee like the letters of MGMT, but it actually stands for ‘Management.’
In the clip, which has been shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok, shows VanWyngarden introducing the band telling the crowd: ‘We are the Management.’
‘The Management?’ a TikTok creator called Ryan O’Malley responded incredulously.
‘I’ve been calling them MGMT my whole life!’ he continued. ‘Their name is the Management?’
‘Is ACDC the aqueduct? What the f?’ he concluded the short rant.
The video spawned thousands of responses, some just appalled, and others sharing their hypothesizes.
A now-viral video shows Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser when they were fresh-faced students at Wesleyan University in 2003
‘That’s from when they first started. They changed it to MGMT because there was already a band called The Management. It’s 100% pronounced “MGMT” now,’ a user wrote.
‘I refuse to receive this information as fact,’ another shared.
‘I work in HR. I’ve called them Management for years as a joke. Joke’s on me, I guess?’ a third commented.
Someone else gloated: ‘I called them Management when I first heard of them until I heard people call them MGMT and I was so embarrassed. My pretentious 20 year old self would be so smug right now.’
The grainy footage is sure to evoke immediate nostalgia, showing the young men energetically jumping around a makeshift stage in a white dress shirt and slacks to a small crowd of students.
The full performance, split into six parts, is available on YouTube uploaded by Rad Scientist.
Kids was released in 2007, and was the third and final single from their debut studio album Oracular Spectacular. They were nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and Kids was nominated for Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals.
‘We used to think about how to make the most stereotypical pop song and that’s one of the ones we did,’ VanWyngarden told Q magazine after Kids’ release.
According to an article published by Vulture in 2008, the band’s label, Columbia, and a publicist told them it’s ‘definitely pronounced’ em-gee-em-tee
The video spawned thousands of responses, some just appalled, and others sharing their hypothesizes
In an interview with The Independent, Goldwasser said the song ‘was a result of us being 19 years old, in this fantasy college world, which is a little bit like childhood because you don’t have much responsibility.’
According to an article published by Vulture in 2008, the band’s label, Columbia, and a publicist told them it’s ‘definitely pronounced “Em Gee Em Tee.”‘
Several sources noted that the band’s original name was The Management, but they shortened to MGMT after discovering another artist had the rights to it.
The Grammy-nominated song, which was officially released five years later, was a phenomenon in the early 2000s, and has made a comeback with Gen Z discovering the song – many stunned to learn it’s more than 20 years old.
The band’s fifth studio album, Loss of Life, was released on February 23, 2024.
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