This Too Shall Pass (OK Go song)

The lyrics to "This Too Shall Pass" are written to encourage its audience, burdened with some figurative weight, to "let it go, this too shall pass" in the near future instead of continuing to let the weight keep them from enjoying life, akin to the meaning of the original phrase, This too shall pass. The song continues much of the theme of Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, which, according to Damian Kulash, was about "searching for hope in hopeless times"; "This Too Shall Pass" and other songs from the album were written at the onset of the late-2000s recession. Billboard considered the song to be a "psych-pop anthem", similar to MGMT's "Kids"; this is in part due to the album's producer Dave Fridmann who had also worked with MGMT and The Flaming Lips and brought some of the same musical stylings along. ==First music video: marching band==

The first video for the song was released on YouTube, on January 12, 2010, to coincide with the release of the album and the single. Co-directed by Damian Kulash and Brian L. Perkins, it was filmed in October, 2009, in South Bend, Indiana. The video is somewhat unusual in that it does not feature the album version of the song. Rather, it features an original recording that was actually performed live during filming of the video. OK Go's Tim Nordwind noted that the song lent itself well to large orchestration. In the video, the members of OK Go are seen in a field wearing marching band garb. The uniforms were originally from Rochelle Township High School of Rochelle, Illinois. They begin to march and, as the song progresses, the band is joined by members of the University of Notre Dame's Marching Band many of whom rise up camouflaged in ghillie suits. They are also joined in the final chorus by a children's choir cobbled together from two local South Bend preschools. Like many of their other videos, the marching band video was shot in one take. The marching band video was created to bridge the time between the release of the album and the expected completion of the Rube Goldberg video. The band had originally planned to release the marching band version after the debut of the Rube Goldberg video. However, they found time during October 2009 to work with the Notre Dame band, and realizing the length of time to complete the Rube Goldberg machine, went ahead and completed the marching band version. ==Second music video: Rube Goldberg machine==

The second music video for "This Too Shall Pass" was co-directed by Damian Kulash and James Frost. Similar to the band's video for "Here It Goes Again", the "This Too Shall Pass" video features a four-minute, apparent one shot sequence of the song being played in time to the actions of a giant Rube Goldberg machine built in a two-story warehouse from over 700 household objects, traversing an estimated half-mile course. Alongside the LEGO car, several LEGO mini-figurines are displayed as a reference to the marching band video. While they considered the idea of the machine for each song on Of the Colour, they opted to use "This Too Shall Pass" to make the end result "majestic and epic", even though it already duplicated the previous marching band video. They sought help through online science message boards, eventually coming in contact with Syyn Labs. Damian Kulash's father (Damian Kulash Sr.) also participated in the machine's construction. The team had to work on a limited budget, using recycled trash for many of the props in the device; Smaller objects like dominoes were found to be the trickiest to set, as their patterns would be less predictable than larger and bulkier objects, which are more predominant in the later parts of the machine. While the video was filmed as a single shot on at least three different occasions, they planned on using post-editing to slow down or speed up certain parts of the take to keep it in time with the final soundtrack. ==Responses==

The Rube Goldberg machine video premiered on YouTube on March 2, 2010. Within a day of the video's premiere, it was viewed more than 900,000 times. The video had more than 10 million views in its first month of release. As part of the success of both videos, the band has begun auctioning props from the videos, including uniforms worn by the band for the marching band video and the individual ping-pong balls from the second video. Despite the success of the videos on the Internet, this has not translated into sales for the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky which the song is a part of, selling only 40,000 copies in the two months after its January release. Part of this is attributed to the "unremarkable" music on the album and for the video; musician Max Tundra suggested that the band should "record an innovative, exciting piece of music – and make a plodding, nondescript video to go with it." This has led OK Go to "look at making videos like [they] look at making records — it's part of the art of what [they] do", according to Nordwind. The video was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards. In May 2010, after the band split with EMI, the single debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, their first appearance on the chart since "Here It Goes Again" in 2006. The song eventually peaked at number 36. At the time of the creation of the video, Syyn Labs had just been formed; the viral success of "This Too Shall Pass" brought the company to light for several similar creative projects involving the innovative combination of technology. When OK Go appeared on The Colbert Report on April 29, 2010 in which they performed "This Too Shall Pass", Stephen Colbert opened the show with another, shorter Rube Goldberg machine created by Syyn Lab's Brett Doar, one of the chief creators of the "This Too Shall Pass" music video, using assorted props from the show. Syyn Labs have since created advertisements for Disney and Sears, and have been contacted for future work in music videos and movie opening sequences, and are considering a reality television show based on their creative process. The Song was also used as the theme for the American remake of British sitcom, The Inbetweeners. ==Difficulties with EMI==

The marching band video sparked much controversy online immediately after its release. Because of deals between the band's label, EMI (through Capitol Records), and YouTube, the video was not embeddable, nor was it viewable across the globe, frustrating many fans and music industry professionals who wanted to post the video on their blogs. The band, led by singer Damian Kulash, explained the label's rationale via the band's blog and through an op-ed piece in The New York Times. According to Kulash, EMI disallowed the embeddable play of the video because they only receive royalties for views on the YouTube site itself. He further pleaded to allow embedding of their next video, citing a 90% drop in viewership when EMI disabled embedding on existing videos, affecting the band's own royalties from viewership. The band was able to secure the rights to allow the "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg video to be distributed via embedding prior to its premiere, in part due to funding support from State Farm Insurance, which helped to settle issues with EMI; in exchange, State Farm had some say in the creative process, and the video includes elements with the State Farm logo, including a toy truck that is used to start the machine. The video was completed a week later than expected; according to sources close to the band, Capitol Records considered the window of opportunity for promoting the single to radio to be closed due to the delay, and would not be available again until June 2010. The band has since decided to break away from the EMI label on amiable terms, due to a combination of the issues of video embedding and radio promotions, and has become its own independent recording label, Paracadute Recordings. ==Track listings==

CD single • This Too Shall Pass • This Too Shall Pass (Instrumental) • This Too Shall Pass (Sunday Hangover Passion Pit Remix) CD Remix EP • This Too Shall Pass (Passion Pit Remix) • This Too Shall Pass (Shoes Remix) • This Too Shall Pass (Ra Ra Riot Remix) • This Too Shall Pass (J. Arthur Keenes Band Remix) • This Too Shall Pass (Album Version) • End Love (Neil Voss Remix) • End Love (Subtractive Remix) • End Love (Album Version) ==Charts==