Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or you drive in an awkward silence rather than listening to your car radio, you’ve probably heard will.i.am and Britney Spears’ new smash single, “Scream and Shout.” The upbeat dance and electropop song, whose lyrics revolve around having fun in a club, was released for digital download on Tuesday, Nov. 20. That next Tuesday the song was sent to mainstream radio stations. The song slowly rose to the top of the iTunes singles chart after being released, and after being promoted on The X-Factor, it reached number one; it has consistently stayed in the top five since then. Last week, the club banger went number one worldwide. Why has the song done so well? That’s easy for me to say, who has listened to the song hundreds of times.

Unique and refreshing sound

The song features Britney singing in a lower register and in a British accent, which fans of the Oops!…I Did It Again haven’t heard from her before. This, along with the catchy and the futuristic sound, makes it stand out in comparison to other singles right now. Britney sounds barely auto-tuned and although will.i.am seems to have auto-tuned himself a lot, it works just fine with this song.

Britney’s famous tagline

Britney’s well known 2007 song “Gimme More” starts out with “It’s Britney, b****.” That one line, which she had only recorded while playing around in the studio, has become a staple that everyone thinks of when Britney comes to mind. “Scream and Shout” took this line from the song and features it before each chorus. As a Britney fan, this makes the song for me.

Flawless music video

The video is basically shots of Britney and will.i.am singing with a ton of random but awesome clips thrown into the mix (i.e. a girl smashing a golden disco ball, people hung as dancing taxidermy). I’ve watched the video practically one million times just to stare at how perfect Britney looks. Within a span of only around two months, the video has recieved over 80 million views. Once the video reaches 100 million views, it will become VEVO certified. I’ve never seen a YouTube video get views this fast; clearly the world is eating “Scream and Shout” up.