In 2001, two students at Wesleyan College in Connecticut started messing around with stock loops on their laptops, making dance songs as a joke.
They'd write ironic songs about being superstars and living the rock star lifestyle while drunk in their dorm rooms at 3am, before putting on fur coats and performing in friends' living rooms.
They called themselves The Management as a jab at the music industry which they resented. They released a lo-fi EP full of the most sardonic and sarcastic songs they could muster. As far as they were concerned, it was all a very elaborate joke.
Columbia Records didn't seem to realize the joke. They sent an email out to the pair offering a record deal, not aware that the duo had moved to separate cities and were doing odd jobs like construction.
They accepted the record deal.
They would say in later interviews of their decision “We didn't want to be ironic this time. We wanted to actually put some effort into the songwriting.”
And so the duo began crafting their debut album, weaving in the ironic songs of their university years with more sincere and psychedelic songs they genuinely loved making. And in the spirit of giving their music a sincere effort, they shortened their ironic name down to just four letters, MGMT.
On October 2nd 2007, MGMT released Oracular Spectacular to rave reviews. It went platinum in the UK and Australia.
But Andrew Van WynGarden and Ben Goldwasser weren't the only people with access to a laptop and music making software. As it turns out, Soulja Boi released his debut studio album SOULJABOITELLEM.COM on the very same day. He'd go on to sell over 1.3 million copies of the album and garner negative reviews from critics around the world.
Which of these albums is a joke that's been taken too far? We're gonna find out. Welcome to When Albums Collide.