All-TIME 100 Songs

Have the lyrics to “Hey Ya!” ever heard the music? Has the music read the lyrics? Written, produced and performed by André 3000 for Outkast’s double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the song is a popcorn popper of musical styles—everything from shades of British Invasion pop to Prince-crowned funkadelics—built on a simple and sturdy drumbeat, sweetly skipping synth lines and a burbling bass part (plus droplets of watery, guitarish synth that streak into the mix partway through). Incongruously, the words—delivered alternately as karaoke testimonial and lonely falsetto croon—come from a man dismayed and frustrated, asking a romantic interest why “[we’re] so in denial when we know we’re not happy here.” But by the time André gets to shaking it like a Polaroid picture, happiness hardly matters, because “Hey Ya!” is resolved to dance the sad away.

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