"Mood" is a song by American rapper 24kGoldn featuring fellow American rapper Iann Dior. It was released on July 24, 2020, through Records and Columbia Records, as the lead single from 24kGoldn's debut studio album, El Dorado (2021). The pop rap and rap rock song is built around a guitar riff inspired by indie rock and post grunge music and also features hi-hats and snare drums in the style of trap music. On the song, 24kGoldn and Dior sing-rap about their toxic relationships in which their lovers are always in a "mood".
The song came about while the artists were playing Call of Duty together and producers Omer Fedi and KBeaZy were working on a beat, and 24kGoldn idly sang what would become the song's hook. After an early version of the song was completed, Blake Slatkin was soon brought on as a producer to make the song more pop-oriented. It became a commercial success after earning popularity on the video-sharing app TikTok and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Mood" peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent eight non-consecutive weeks and also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. It also reached number two on the Global 200. "Mood" was positively received by critics, who praised it as being catchy, and it was included on lists of the best songs of 2020 published by Slate, Billboard, and The New York Times.
24kGoldn and Dior performed the song live at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards preshow, the American Music Awards of 2020, the season 19 finale of The Voice, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. A music video for "Mood", in which 24kGoldn and Dior have disputes with two separate girls, was released on August 5, 2020, and directed by Sebastian Sdaigui. A remix of the song with Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber and Colombian singer-songwriter J Balvin was released on November 6, 2020.
Background and promotion
According to 24kGoldn and Dior, they were playing Call of Duty while the song's producers, Fedi and KBeazy, were working on a beat, and as Fedi played a guitar riff, 24kGoldn idly began singing along with it. 24kGoldn then created a hook for the song while Dior performed a verse. After an early version of the song was written and produced by the four, producer Blake Slatkin was brought in to give the track a "pop polish".
24kGoldn teased a snippet of the song on his Instagram account before the song was officially released on July 24, 2020. To promote "Mood", Columbia Records pitched the song to various pop and "Gen Z" playlists on popular music streaming services. 24kGoldn's team also pitched the song to pop radio stations, and it quickly found success on contemporary hit radio. Video-sharing platform TikTok was also used as part of the marketing strategy to promote "Mood", and the song went from being used in approximately 12,000 videos on the platform in mid-August to over two million by October. 24kGoldn also used his own money to fund marketing campaigns for the song and get promotions from social media influencers.
Composition
"Mood" is an uptempo pop rap and rap rock song, described by several publications as "genre-bending". According to sheet music published by Musicnotes.com and provided by Universal Music Publishing Group, the song is written in common time in the key of G minor with a tempo of 91 beats per minute, and 24kGoldn and Dior's vocals range from a low of F3 to a high of G4. Its instrumental includes an indie and post-grunge-influenced guitar riff played by Omer Fedi (which is warped and echoed at points throughout the song), and "trap-style" hi-hats and snare drums.