On the surface, Smash Mouth’s “All Star” seems like a jaunty, upbeat ditty that’s the right song to soundtrack Shrek’s forays around his swamp, and a generation of memers who got the memo that the years start coming and they really don’t stop coming. Look underneath the hood of this unlikely hit, and you will find “All Star” is a smart, genre-defying anthem that challenges free will, the status quo of modern life and climate change. All while giving haters the shape of an L from their forehead.
Smash Mouth’s “All Star” Hides A Deeper Meaning
The argument that there’s more to the song than meets the ear isn’t meant to take away from the obvious ingredients that make “All Star” undeniable as one of the biggest songs of the turn of the millennium. Its zany approach to songwriting, playful musicality, and unrelenting sense of fun is very much the Side A of what makes this song so beloved. However,there is a very different side to “All Star” that is worth investigating- one that tackles free will, the system and climate change.
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Not to sound too Patrick Bateman when describing its brilliance, butSmash Mouth hid incredibly profound thought within the lyrics of “All Star”. It issues a challenge to people to defy a corrupt system (fed to the rules/and I hit the ground running) that is designed to corrode the years of a person’s lifespan (“The years start coming/And they don’t stop coming”), and to instead adopt the fantastical mindset of youth that is systematically and deliberately broken down by life and civilization itself (Didn’t make sense not to live for fun/Your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb). Andthat’s all before we have even gotten to the part about climate change.
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Yes, the truth is out there asVice questioned Smash Mouth about “All Star”’s bizarre, mid-song detour into climate changeand the O-Zone Layer. “I set out to write more of a self affirmation song,” said guitarist, Greg Camp. “It’s saying to enjoy your youth because life continues to get harder with age. And then, yes, the “meteor man” is the scientist who is reporting what they can see from space and how climate change is an issue. It goes on to lighten up the subject like, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We wanted to give a little hope back”.
Why “All Star” Connected So Well With An Entire Generation
There are many reasons “All Star” spoke to its era and continues to speak new generations. It’s themes of hope and self-expression are universal, but the song itself is so anti-trend, dare it be said “uncool”, that nothing can date it to any one time period (not even the “go to the moon” record scratch part). This has resulted in Smash Mouth’s biggest hit being revived more times than Jason Vorhees and the T-1000 combined. “All Star”’s peak on the Billboard Chart may have been Number 4, and it didn’t ever crack the UK Top 20 Singles Chart, but better times were on the way.
The all-conquering animated behemothShrekcame in 2001, two years after the song’s initial release, kickstarting a run of success and exposure that continues to this day. The song opens the movie, showing Shrek going about his Ogre-tastic day, andthe generation-defining success of Shrek catapulted the song’s notoriety into an orbit that has rarely slowed down since. Other properties to use the song includeThe Simpsons,Mystery Men,Rat Race,9-1-1,Family Guy,Digimon: The Movie,Inspector Gadget,and aSaturday Night Livesketch involving them terrorizing someone by continuously jumping out of a closet.
