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On this, the 20th day of March and on International Happiness day no less, it's time to bury "Happy." It's been eight months and seven days since we heard Pharrell's Motown melodies slip and slide between those handclaps and into our ears. Stop Googling — the song was featured on the Despicable Me soundtrack, and the movie premiered in the U.S. last July.
But age isn't the only reason we should consider retiring the song. Trend killers are. "Happy" is now at a point where old politicians are dancing to it in hopes to inspire viral vidoes — a true sign that the song's lifecycle is over. Here's how we got here:
July 3, 2013
Despicable Me 2 comes out. People like the movie. It makes a lot of money. But no one is like: "Yo, man. I love that song from Despicable Me 2." The lyric video to the song was actually published almost one month before the movie's premiere:
November 10-25, 2013
"Happy" and Pharrell begin to make its first dent in Google's searches.
Pharrell releases his music video for the song on November 21, 2013, and then promotes his 24-hour "Happy" music video:
At this point, "Happy" is still fresh and likable. Watching people dance goofy is great, and not unlike that one Sara Bareilles song that Katy Perry bit off.