Music / Mike Posner

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Mike Posner (born February 12, 1988) is an American singer and songwriter from Detroit who is known for his songs “Cooler Than Me” and “I Took A Pill in Ibiza” and its remix by Seeb.

He started his career in 2007 and released his debut album A Matter of Time in 2009.

Discography

• A Matter of Time (2009)
• 31 Minutes to Takeoff (2010)
• At Night, Alone. (2016)
• A Real Good Kid (2019)
• Keep Going (2019)
• Operation: Wake Up (2020)

All I know are sad tropes, sad tropes:

• 15 Minutes of Fame: In “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” he thinks his own song “Cooler Than Me” was this.
• Alternate Music Video: “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” has two videos. One of him holding cards is silent with the song’s lyrics for the original song, while Seeb’s remix is him with a giant head at a club in the said location after taking the pill.
• Bait-and-Switch: He says the title as the first lyric of “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” before going to the chorus where the lyrics are different than what you expected from the title.
• Bowdlerize: The title is sometimes changed to “I Took A Plane To Ibiza” for some radio stations.
• Break-Up Song: "Please Don't Go", which is unsurprisingly about the narrator not wanting his love interest to leave him.
• Celebrity is Overrated: "I Took A Pill In Ibiza", based on his experience of becoming famous after "Cooler Than Me". The song talks about topics such as even though he gets a lot of women interested in him he can't open up to them, and in the third verse he takes a plane back to his hometown to tell his fans the painful truth, since they still think he's famous.
  But you don't wanna be high like me
  Never really knowing why like me
  You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
  You don't wanna ride the bus like this
  Never knowing who to trust like this
  You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing
  Stuck up on that stage singing
  All I know are sad songs, sad songs
• Crazy Jealous Guy: “Cooler Than Me” is about his obsession with a girl who tries to be cooler and he is trying to impress her.
• Going Home Again: He flies back to Detroit in the third verse of “I Took A Pill in Ibiza” and tells his fans about the reality of his fame who still think he’s famous.
• Irony: His song “I Took a Pill In Ibiza” is about him lamenting his loss of fame while this song became just as famous as “Cooler Than Me” and charted in nearly the same way.
• Determinator: In 2019, he walked across the entire United States, a nearly 3,000 mile journey. Even after being airlifted to the hospital following a rattlesnake bite, he recovered and finished his wak.
• Jaded Washout: "I Took a Pill In Ibiza" has the singer present himself as feeling unfulfilled with his life since his career as a pop singer crashed and burned after only one hit song six years prior (ironically, this song would become his second hit). The song's title refers to a time when Posner did ecstasy at a party to impress Avicii, who only got famous in the years after Posner's career flopped. Posner still found modest success as a songwriter for other artists, but admits in the song that the money, women, and fancy cars can't make up for what he feels he lost.
• Precision F-Strike: In "I Took a Pill In Ibiza".
  And when I finally got sober, felt ten years older but fuck it, it was something to do.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: "Cooler Than Me" is what his other song "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" is primarily about.
• Rock-Star Song: "I Took a Pill In Ibiza". The song opens with an attempt to show a different artist that the singer is "cool" (taking the titular pill), and goes on a downward spiral from there, mentioning things like spending money on meaningless things and being unable to maintain a relationship. The music video also sells the idea: it alternates between footage of people dancing, and the singer helping a friend vomit, having bathroom sex, and other rock bottom activities.
• Self-Empowerment Anthem: “Be As You Are”
• Shout-Out: In "I Took A Pill In Ibiza", he mentions that he took the pill to show Avicii he was cool.
• Surreal Music Video: In the video “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” he has a huge papier-mâché version of his own head after having the pill in question at a club.