correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the Killers are a British rock band. They are American. It also said the band broadcast the moment England made a winning goal. It was the moment England won the match. The article has been corrected.
Katie Jewson was among the thousands of fans packed into London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday night to see the Killers when the U.S. rock band paused their performance.
The giant screen behind the stage was suddenly broadcasting the final moments of England’s game against the Netherlands in the 2024 European Championship semifinals. As time expired and England won, the Killers broke into their hit “Mr. Brightside,” from their 2004 debut album.
Jewson, 37, said the crowd went “absolutely mental.” Even after seeing the Killers 29 times, hearing the song’s opening riff as England clinched the win unlocked a new core memory, she said.
Tonight we played for England 🏴! pic.twitter.com/bqvSas14Z5
— The Killers (@thekillers) July 10, 2024
The moment illustrates the staying power of “Mr. Brightside” — dubbed a generational anthem — and the role the song has played throughout the lives of Jewson and other millennials.
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That same day, Guinness World Records solidified the song’s grasp on history. No other song by a group has spent so much time on the U.K. singles chart, nor has another song spent so many weeks — 416, or about eight years — in the top 100 of the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart.
“It’s a generational touch point of a song,” said Janine DeMichele Baggett, a social media influencer who focuses exclusively on 1990s and early-2000s trends and nostalgia. “I always say it was a great time to be a teen. When all that music was coming out, it was so emotional and dramatic.”
Bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance captured the zeitgeist of the early aughts with angsty flair — it was the height of the emo era, and “Mr. Brightside” “really fit the vibe,” DeMichele Baggett said.
Decades after its release, “Mr. Brightside” has permeated pop culture in a way that a lot of songs can’t, said A.J. Miller, a music professor at Washington State University. Even his 18- and 19-year-old college students know all the words to the song — “a banger,” they call it.
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That may be thanks partly to the melody, which Miller said is easy enough for most people to sing along to, whether at a football game, a bar or a wedding. And the lyrics are simple and repetitive.
“It’s got a really driving pulse,” Miller said, adding, “More than anything, it’s just constructed really, really well.”
It’s among a handful of songs that flip a switch for millennials, said Peter West, 37, co-creator of a social media account for nostalgic millennials, along with “Get Low” by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz or “Yeah!” by Usher.
“Whether it’s millennials going [wild] for this song at weddings … or it’s still in movie soundtracks, or massive football moments in the U.K., it’s kind of funny that this one really has that lasting power,” said West, who saw the Killers at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the mid-2000s. When they played “Mr. Brightside,” he can still recall the song “just bouncing off the cliffs” that night, which remains a “major high school memory for me,” he said.
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Maria Cecilia Albino, 43, of Mendoza, Argentina, said she was first drawn to “Mr. Brightside” in her 20s but still returns to the Killers’ music as an adult.
“It’s a masterpiece of music for me,” she said of “Mr. Brightside.” “It’s impossible not to like.”
Other songs have had the same strong cross-generational appeal as “Mr. Brightside,” said Steve Waksman, a music professor at Smith College. “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey was an anthem to baby boomers and early Gen Xers before it got a new audience with younger listeners. Like “Mr. Brightside,” it’s a “big-sounding” song with a quiet start, he said.
And even though there’s an element of melancholy in the “Mr. Brightside” lyrics, Waksman said the song doesn’t sound sad.
“The song is almost like its own antidote to the bad feelings, which I think is actually a very powerful one in popular music,” Waksman told The Washington Post.
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The juxtaposition works, said Lauren McDermott, 38, a Killers fan who has been to more than 10 concerts. “The minute you hear those opening notes, everybody gets all excited,” she said. “It sounds like a party.”
Luckily for fans, the song still appeals to the Killers, too. Frontman Brandon Flowers said “Mr. Brightside” is still “infectious,” even after decades of performances, according to Guinness World Records.
“We just don’t get tired of it,” he added.
