Loser (song)
Encyclopedia
"Loser" is a song by the American alternative rock
singer Beck. It was written by Beck and record producer Carl Stephenson, who both produced the song with Tom Rothrock
. "Loser" was initially released as Beck's second single by independent record label
Bong Load Custom Records
on 12" vinyl format with catalogue number BL5 on March 8, 1993.
When it was first released independently, "Loser" began receiving airplay on various modern rock
stations, and the song's popularity eventually led to a major-label record deal with Geffen Records
-subsidiary DGC Records
. After the song's re-release under DGC, the song peaked at #10 on the United States Billboard Hot 100
in April 1994, becoming Beck's first single to hit a major chart. The song was subsequently released on the 1994 album Mellow Gold
.
anti-folk
scene. He returned to his hometown of Los Angeles
in early 1991, due to his financial struggles. Described by biographer Julian Palacios as having "no opportunities whatsoever", Beck worked low-wage jobs to survive, but still found time to perform his songs at local coffeehouses and clubs. In order to keep indifferent audiences engaged in his music, Beck would play in a spontaneous, joking manner. "I'd be banging away on a Son House
tune and the whole audience would be talking, so maybe out of desperation or boredom, or the audience's boredom, I'd make up these ridiculous songs just to see if people were listening. 'Loser' was an extension of that." Tom Rothrock
, co-owner of independent record label
Bong Load
, expressed interest in Beck's music and introduced him to Carl Stephenson, a record producer
for Rap-A-Lot Records
.
"Loser" was written and recorded by Beck while he was visiting Stephenson's home. Although the song was created spontaneously, Beck has claimed to have had the idea for the song since the late 1980s; he once said, "I don't think I would have been able to go in and do 'Loser' in a six-hour shot without having been somewhat prepared. It was accidental, but it was something that I'd been working toward for a long time." Beck played some of his songs for Stephenson; Stephenson enjoyed the songs, but was unimpressed by Beck's rapping
. Stephenson recorded a brief guitar part from one of Beck's songs onto an 8-track
, looped
it, and added a drum track to it. Stephenson then added his own sitar
playing and other samples
. At that point, Beck began writing and improvising lyrics for the recording. For the song's vocals, Beck attempted to emulate the rapping style of Public Enemy's Chuck D
. According to Beck, the line that became the song's chorus
originated because "When [Stephenson] played it back, I thought, 'Man, I'm the worst rapper in the world, I'm just a loser.' So I started singing 'I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.'" According to Rothrock, the song was largely finished in six and a half hours, with two minor overdubs several months later.
song, "Loser" is influenced by blues
, hip hop
, and folk
. Beck acknowledged the impact of folk on the song, saying "I'd realized that a lot of what folk music is about taking a tradition and reflecting your own time. I knew my folk music would take off, if I put hip-hop beats behind it." He had also perceived similarities between Delta blues
and hip hop, which helped to inspire the song. "Loser" revolves around several recurring musical elements: a slide guitar
riff
, Stephenson's sitar, the bassline
, and a tremolo
guitar part. The song's drum track is sampled from a Johnny Jenkins
cover
of Dr. John
's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" from the 1970 album Ton-Ton Macoute!
. During the song's break
, there is a sample of a line of dialogue from the 1994 Steve Hanft
-directed film Kill the Moonlight
, which goes "I’m a driver/I’m a winner/Things are gonna change, I can feel it". Hanft and Beck were friends, and Hanft would go on to direct several music video
s for Beck, including the video for "Loser".
Referred to as a "stoner rap" by Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine
, "Loser"'s lyrics are mostly surrealistic
and nonsensical. The song's chorus, in which Beck sings the lines "Soy un perdedor/I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?", is often interpreted as a parody of Generation X
's "slacker
" culture. However, Beck has denied the validity of this meaning, instead saying that the chorus is simply about his lack of skill as a rapper. Jon Pareles
wrote in The New York Times
that "The sentiment of 'Loser' [...] reflects the twentysomething trademark, a mixture of self-mockery and sardonic defiance", noting Beck's "offhand vocal tone and free-associative lyrics" and comparing his vocals to "Bob Dylan
talk-singing". After "Loser"'s recording, Beck thought that the song was interesting but unimpressive. He later said, "The raps and vocals are all first takes. If I’d known the impact it was going to make, I would have put something a little more substantial in it." The relationship between Beck and Stephenson soured after "Loser"'s release as a single. Stephenson regretted his involvement in creating the song, in particular the "negative" lyrics, saying "I feel bad about it. It's not Beck the person, it's the words. I just wish I could have been more of a positive influence."
station KXLU
was the first to play it, followed by modern rock
station KROQ-FM
. The song then spread to Seattle through KNDD
, and KROQ-FM began playing the song on an almost hourly basis. By the time stations in New York were requesting copies of "Loser", Bong Load had already run out. Beck was soon beset with offers to sign with major labels. Convinced that the song was a potential hit, Rothrock gave a vinyl pressing of the single to his friend Tony Berg, who had been working in the A&R
department for Geffen Records
. Berg said, "I just lost my mind when I heard it. He left my office, and I swear, by the time he got home, I had left a message asking him to introduce me to [Beck]". Beck, in spite of his hesitance to be on any major label, signed with Geffen subsidiary DGC. He explained, "I wasn't going to do anything for a long time, but Bong Load didn't have the means to make as many copies as people wanted. Geffen were involved and they wanted to make it to more of an organized place, one with a bigger budget and better distribution."
In January 1994, DGC reissued "Loser" on CD and cassette, and Geffen began heavily promoting the single. Bong Load, having retained the rights to release Beck's songs on vinyl due to the nature of Beck's contract with DGC, re-pressed the 12" single in larger quantities than before. "Loser" quickly ascended the charts in the US, reaching a peak of number ten on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart and topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song also charted in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. "Loser"'s worldwide success shot Beck into a position of attention, and the media dubbed him the center of the new so-called "slacker" movement. Beck refuted this characterization of himself, saying, "Slacker my ass. I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything."
The single ranked first place in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop
critics' poll. In 2004, this song was ranked number 203 in Rolling Stone
s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
. In September 2010 Pitchfork Media
included the song at number 9 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
. Hanft had worked for a week on storyboard
s for the video, then called a meeting with Bong Load and requested a $300 budget. Filming for the video was done in Humboldt County, California
, including at Rothrock's home and backyard. The video is a mashup of various home videos and psychedelic color experiments. Beck insisted they were "fucking around" when they made the video; he told Option in 1994, "We weren't making anything slick – it was deliberately crude. You know? It wasn't like one of these perfect new-wave color soft-focus extravaganzas." Hanft, inspired by 1920s surrealist films, included stop-motion animation footage of a moving coffin in the video. Two coffins were used, one which was a prop borrowed from a local drama school and the other which had been built by Beck and Hanft.
"Loser" ranked sixth in the music video category in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop
poll.
, except where noted.
Bong Load 12" (BL5)
US CD (DGCDM-21930)
US 7" (DGCS 7-19270) and US cassette (DGCS-12270)
UK 7" (GFS 67) and UK cassette (GFSC 67)
UK CD (GFSTD 67) and Swedish CD (GED 21891)
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
singer Beck. It was written by Beck and record producer Carl Stephenson, who both produced the song with Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock is an international record producer, composer and musician. Tom Rothrock has produced albums with James Blunt, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Yonder Mountain String Band, Athlete, Sloan and Roman Carter....
. "Loser" was initially released as Beck's second single by independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Bong Load Custom Records
Bong Load Custom Records
Bong Load Custom Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles which was founded by producers Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and partner Bradshaw Lambert. One of their biggest signings was Beck in 1991. Other notable bands from the original Bong Load Custom Records include Fu Manchu, Wool,...
on 12" vinyl format with catalogue number BL5 on March 8, 1993.
When it was first released independently, "Loser" began receiving airplay on various modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
stations, and the song's popularity eventually led to a major-label record deal with Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
-subsidiary DGC Records
DGC Records
DGC Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and currently operates as an auxiliary label of Interscope Records.-Company history:...
. After the song's re-release under DGC, the song peaked at #10 on the United States Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in April 1994, becoming Beck's first single to hit a major chart. The song was subsequently released on the 1994 album Mellow Gold
Mellow Gold
Mellow Gold is the third studio album by American alternative rock musician Beck, as well as his major label debut. Mellow Gold was released on March 1, 1994 on the strength of the surprise hit "Loser"...
.
Conception and recording
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Beck was a homeless musician in the New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
anti-folk
Anti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
scene. He returned to his hometown of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in early 1991, due to his financial struggles. Described by biographer Julian Palacios as having "no opportunities whatsoever", Beck worked low-wage jobs to survive, but still found time to perform his songs at local coffeehouses and clubs. In order to keep indifferent audiences engaged in his music, Beck would play in a spontaneous, joking manner. "I'd be banging away on a Son House
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...
tune and the whole audience would be talking, so maybe out of desperation or boredom, or the audience's boredom, I'd make up these ridiculous songs just to see if people were listening. 'Loser' was an extension of that." Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock is an international record producer, composer and musician. Tom Rothrock has produced albums with James Blunt, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Yonder Mountain String Band, Athlete, Sloan and Roman Carter....
, co-owner of independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Bong Load
Bong Load Custom Records
Bong Load Custom Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles which was founded by producers Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and partner Bradshaw Lambert. One of their biggest signings was Beck in 1991. Other notable bands from the original Bong Load Custom Records include Fu Manchu, Wool,...
, expressed interest in Beck's music and introduced him to Carl Stephenson, a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
for Rap-A-Lot Records
Rap-A-Lot Records
Rap-a-Lot Records is a Houston hip hop record label. Rap-a-Lot was created in 1986. Sublabels include Smoke-a-Lot Records. The label was founded by James Prince in the mid-1980s and, with its most famous act the Geto Boys, put the South on the hip hop map. Since then, it has maintained its success...
.
"Loser" was written and recorded by Beck while he was visiting Stephenson's home. Although the song was created spontaneously, Beck has claimed to have had the idea for the song since the late 1980s; he once said, "I don't think I would have been able to go in and do 'Loser' in a six-hour shot without having been somewhat prepared. It was accidental, but it was something that I'd been working toward for a long time." Beck played some of his songs for Stephenson; Stephenson enjoyed the songs, but was unimpressed by Beck's rapping
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
. Stephenson recorded a brief guitar part from one of Beck's songs onto an 8-track
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
, looped
Music loop
In electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns...
it, and added a drum track to it. Stephenson then added his own sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
playing and other samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
. At that point, Beck began writing and improvising lyrics for the recording. For the song's vocals, Beck attempted to emulate the rapping style of Public Enemy's Chuck D
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...
. According to Beck, the line that became the song's chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
originated because "When [Stephenson] played it back, I thought, 'Man, I'm the worst rapper in the world, I'm just a loser.' So I started singing 'I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.'" According to Rothrock, the song was largely finished in six and a half hours, with two minor overdubs several months later.
Composition and lyrics
Despite being primarily regarded as an alternative rockAlternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
song, "Loser" is influenced by blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. Beck acknowledged the impact of folk on the song, saying "I'd realized that a lot of what folk music is about taking a tradition and reflecting your own time. I knew my folk music would take off, if I put hip-hop beats behind it." He had also perceived similarities between Delta blues
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
and hip hop, which helped to inspire the song. "Loser" revolves around several recurring musical elements: a slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
, Stephenson's sitar, the bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
, and a tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
guitar part. The song's drum track is sampled from a Johnny Jenkins
Johnny Jenkins
Johnny Edward Jenkins was an American left-handed blues guitarist, who helped launch the career of Otis Redding...
cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" from the 1970 album Ton-Ton Macoute!
Ton-Ton Macoute!
Ton-Ton Macoute! is the 1970 album by Johnny Jenkins, a former bandleader who first hired Otis Redding in his band, The Pinetoppers, as a singer. "Ton-Ton Macoute!" was originally intended as a Duane Allman solo album, before he departed to form The Allman Brothers. Most of the guitar tracks were...
. During the song's break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
, there is a sample of a line of dialogue from the 1994 Steve Hanft
Steve Hanft
Steven P. Hanft , more commonly known as Steve Hanft, is an American independent film director.-Early life:Hanft was born in Ventura, California. He started making films at the age of 11 growing up in California. His first works consisted of surf films and nature films followed later by...
-directed film Kill the Moonlight
Kill The Moonlight (film)
Kill the Moonlight, completed in 1994, is an American independent film by Steve Hanft. It was not officially released until much later.Filmmaker and video director Steve Hanft's first independent feature film, started when he was enrolled in CalArts in the early '90s.The film inspired Beck's song...
, which goes "I’m a driver/I’m a winner/Things are gonna change, I can feel it". Hanft and Beck were friends, and Hanft would go on to direct several music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s for Beck, including the video for "Loser".
Referred to as a "stoner rap" by Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
, "Loser"'s lyrics are mostly surrealistic
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and nonsensical. The song's chorus, in which Beck sings the lines "Soy un perdedor/I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?", is often interpreted as a parody of Generation X
Generation X
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...
's "slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
" culture. However, Beck has denied the validity of this meaning, instead saying that the chorus is simply about his lack of skill as a rapper. Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
wrote in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
that "The sentiment of 'Loser' [...] reflects the twentysomething trademark, a mixture of self-mockery and sardonic defiance", noting Beck's "offhand vocal tone and free-associative lyrics" and comparing his vocals to "Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
talk-singing". After "Loser"'s recording, Beck thought that the song was interesting but unimpressive. He later said, "The raps and vocals are all first takes. If I’d known the impact it was going to make, I would have put something a little more substantial in it." The relationship between Beck and Stephenson soured after "Loser"'s release as a single. Stephenson regretted his involvement in creating the song, in particular the "negative" lyrics, saying "I feel bad about it. It's not Beck the person, it's the words. I just wish I could have been more of a positive influence."
Release and reception
"Loser" was first released in March 1993 as a 12" vinyl single on Bong Load, with only 500 copies pressed. Beck felt that "Loser" was mediocre, and only agreed to its release at Rothrock's insistence. "Loser" unexpectedly received radio airplay, starting in Los Angeles, where college radioCampus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
station KXLU
KXLU
KXLU is an FM radio station broadcasting out of Loyola Marymount University in southwest Los Angeles, California. It was first on the air in 1957, and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is a non-commercial college radio station that plays many styles of music broadly classified under...
was the first to play it, followed by modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
station KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
. The song then spread to Seattle through KNDD
KNDD
KNDD , also known as "107.7 The End", is an alternative rock radio station in Seattle, Washington. It is operated by Entercom Communications Its studios are located in the Metropolitan Park West tower between Downtown and South Lake Union in Seattle...
, and KROQ-FM began playing the song on an almost hourly basis. By the time stations in New York were requesting copies of "Loser", Bong Load had already run out. Beck was soon beset with offers to sign with major labels. Convinced that the song was a potential hit, Rothrock gave a vinyl pressing of the single to his friend Tony Berg, who had been working in the A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
department for Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
. Berg said, "I just lost my mind when I heard it. He left my office, and I swear, by the time he got home, I had left a message asking him to introduce me to [Beck]". Beck, in spite of his hesitance to be on any major label, signed with Geffen subsidiary DGC. He explained, "I wasn't going to do anything for a long time, but Bong Load didn't have the means to make as many copies as people wanted. Geffen were involved and they wanted to make it to more of an organized place, one with a bigger budget and better distribution."
In January 1994, DGC reissued "Loser" on CD and cassette, and Geffen began heavily promoting the single. Bong Load, having retained the rights to release Beck's songs on vinyl due to the nature of Beck's contract with DGC, re-pressed the 12" single in larger quantities than before. "Loser" quickly ascended the charts in the US, reaching a peak of number ten on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
singles chart and topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song also charted in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. "Loser"'s worldwide success shot Beck into a position of attention, and the media dubbed him the center of the new so-called "slacker" movement. Beck refuted this characterization of himself, saying, "Slacker my ass. I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything."
The single ranked first place in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics' poll. In 2004, this song was ranked number 203 in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
. In September 2010 Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
included the song at number 9 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
Music video
The experimental video for "Loser" was directed by Beck's friend Steve HanftSteve Hanft
Steven P. Hanft , more commonly known as Steve Hanft, is an American independent film director.-Early life:Hanft was born in Ventura, California. He started making films at the age of 11 growing up in California. His first works consisted of surf films and nature films followed later by...
. Hanft had worked for a week on storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
s for the video, then called a meeting with Bong Load and requested a $300 budget. Filming for the video was done in Humboldt County, California
Humboldt County, California
Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located on the far North Coast 200 miles north of San Francisco. According to 2010 Census Data, the county’s population was 134,623...
, including at Rothrock's home and backyard. The video is a mashup of various home videos and psychedelic color experiments. Beck insisted they were "fucking around" when they made the video; he told Option in 1994, "We weren't making anything slick – it was deliberately crude. You know? It wasn't like one of these perfect new-wave color soft-focus extravaganzas." Hanft, inspired by 1920s surrealist films, included stop-motion animation footage of a moving coffin in the video. Two coffins were used, one which was a prop borrowed from a local drama school and the other which had been built by Beck and Hanft.
"Loser" ranked sixth in the music video category in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
poll.
Formats and track listing
All songs by BeckBeck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
, except where noted.
Bong Load 12" (BL5)
- "Loser" (Beck, Carl Stephenson) – 3:58
- "Steal My Body Home" – 5:18
US CD (DGCDM-21930)
- "Loser" (Beck, Carl Stephenson) – 3:58
- "Corvette Bummer" – 4:57
- "Alcohol" – 3:51
- "Soul Suckin Jerk (Reject)" – 6:10
- "Fume" – 4:29
US 7" (DGCS 7-19270) and US cassette (DGCS-12270)
- "Loser" (Beck, Carl Stephenson) – 3:58
- "Alcohol" – 3:51
UK 7" (GFS 67) and UK cassette (GFSC 67)
- "Loser" (Beck, Carl Stephenson) – 3:58
- "Alcohol" – 3:51
- "Fume" – 4:29
UK CD (GFSTD 67) and Swedish CD (GED 21891)
- "Loser" (Beck, Carl Stephenson) – 3:58
- "Totally Confused" – 3:28
- "Corvette Bummer" – 4:56
- "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" (Lounge Version) - 3:29
Peak positions
| Chart (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
10 |
| U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Modern Rock Tracks |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks |
39 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
15 |
| Australian Singles Chart | 8 |
| Canadian RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
7 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 5 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 8 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 6 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 19 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 10 |
| French Singles Chart | 20 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (1994) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 50 |