"Year 3000" is a song performed by British pop rock band Busted. It was released on 13 January 2003 as the second single from their debut studio album Busted (2002).
"Year 3000" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and became the 34th-biggest seller of 2003 with 165,000 units. The single was also a success in the rest of Europe, reaching number two on the Irish Singles Chart while reaching the top 10 in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, and the Netherlands.
The song has been covered by US pop band Jonas Brothers, with whom Busted recorded another version for their 2023 compilation album, Greatest Hits 2.0.
Background
The idea for "Year 3000" came from Busted member James Bourne. It was inspired by his obsession with the 1980s film Back to the Future, hence the references to the flux capacitor and the fact that the time machine mentioned is "like the one in a film I've seen".[2] Bourne has stated that the song was also inspired by Robbie Williams's 1998 hit, "Millennium".[3][4]
Bourne further explained how the song came about in a TikTok in July 2023.[5]
The music video was partly filmed at Upstairs at The Garage in London and directed by Tom Gravestock through Passion Pictures London.[7][8] The video begins with Matt Willis playing a video game called "Stay Alive". When he loses, the video zooms out to view the band playing the song's intro in a bedroom. After Charlie Simpson starts singing, they hear an explosion-like sound outside. They look out of a window to the backyard and find their neighbour Peter, played by James Bourne's brother Chris,[9] standing next to a Vauxhall Viva customised like the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future. They get in the car and Peter takes them to the future. The song continues as they go through a time vortex, and arrive in the year 3000. They see many changes, such as various aliens, flying cars and the fact that everyone now lives under the ocean. They also see three triple-breasted women, one of whom throws her bra at them and the three boys fight over it.
As the song continues, Busted look at a billboard and see themselves very much older. James and Matt react embarrassed with their future selves, but Charlie nods in appreciation and looks relatively happy with his. At the song's bridge, Busted come across a concert hall with a sign saying "Busted, Live Tonight". They sneak in, lock their older selves inside a green room and jump onto the stage, where the song continues in front of an audience. At the closing of the song, the setting switches back and forth from the concert to the bedroom from the video's intro, and ends with Busted jumping into their logo.
As of October 2023, the video has 18 million views on YouTube.
In 2006, Busted member James Bourne permitted the Jonas Brothers to record a cover of "Year 3000". Since the song would be played on Radio Disney, all the sexually-suggestive lyrics were simplified – the line "and your great-great-great granddaughter is pretty fine" is changed to "doin' fine" and "Triple-breasted women swim around town, totally naked" is changed to "girls there, with round hair like Star Wars, float above the floor."[40] Also, the line "Everybody bought our seventh album, it had outsold Michael Jackson" is changed to "it had outsold Kelly Clarkson".
Chart performance
After the song's release in early 2007, the song debuted at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Year 3000" was the group's first single to chart and their first Top 40 hit. The song eventually peaked at #31 and sold 1,050,000 copies in America.[41] The group's cover was the first single they released under Disney's Hollywood Records, and it was the only song Hollywood received distribution rights to after the group was dropped from Columbia. It was re-released as the lead single from their next album, Jonas Brothers on March 13, 2007.[42]
Music video
The music video for the Jonas Brothers' cover was directed by Andrew Bennett and produced by Justin Cronkite, visual effects were designed by Trance.[43] It was shot in 2006. It begins with the band entering a decorated garage, which includes posters of the band's labelmates at the time with Sony BMG, including Incubus, Augustana, Aqualung, Cartel, Cheyenne Kimball, System of a Down, Foo Fighters, John Mayer, and more. where they take their instruments: Nick and Kevin pick guitars, and Joe first plays the keyboard, then uses a microphone. As they play the intro, Nick comes home on a bike. He starts singing while the video's story side views him noticing a flash of light next door. He goes over there, and is joined by Joe and Kevin. Their neighbour "Peter" shows them that he made a time machine. However, this one is different from the one in Busted's video. This one is Pete's sofa rather than the car. While they continue to play the song, they enter the time machine, and when in the year 3000 they are in an all-white room. There they see girls with round, pink hair instead of three triple-breasted girls in Busted's.
At the bridge, the girls show the band their 7th album, and the album by Kelly Clarkson that their album outsold rather than Michael Jackson. Later, one of the girls shows Joe the city on the outside, while another shows Kevin the band's "great-great-great granddaughters". Towards the end of the song, the brothers jump into the time machine and return to their own time. At the end of the song, Nick sings, while Joe claps the rhythm and Kevin plays the ending riff on his guitar. It premiered on Disney Channel in January 2007.[44]
Response from Busted
In November 2016, in an interview with PopBuzz, Busted were asked what they thought of the Jonas Brothers' cover of the song. Matt Willis responded: "Dude, they paid my mortgage for four years, I'm stoked to bits. Thank you very much Jonas Brothers," whilst James Bourne said, "The thing about it is that...when I heard their version of it, I didn't really like it. But there has been some really good things that have happened as a result of it. I didn't like how they changed words around. But the thing is, what's mental is that "Year 3000" was synced in The Simpsons [episode "Mathlete's Feat"] recently...But the thing is, when I asked them to do that, they already had chosen to use the original version. And [...] I don't think they'd have been aware of the song if that hadn't have happened. So we ended up getting our version on The Simpsons which was cool. If someone had said to me all those years ago 'if you let them do it you'll get your song on The Simpsons' I would have done it immediately."[45]
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