"Pop Goes the World" is the title of a song recorded by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 New Wave group Men Without Hats

Men Without Hats

Men Without Hats is a Canadian New Wave group from Montreal, Quebec. Their music was characterized by the distinctive baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing...

. It was released in 1987 as the lead single from the album of the same name

Pop Goes the World

Pop Goes the World is the third studio album by Canadian New Wave group Men Without Hats, released in 1987. It contained the single "Pop Goes the World", which reached the top twenty in Canada and the United States....

.

Content

The song very generally tells a story of "Johnny" and "Jenny," the two members of a fluid musical group (both the members' instruments of choice and the band name appears to change throughout the song, though Johnny is primarily a guitarist and Jenny is a bassist) on their quest for fame in the industry, though at one point the lyrics note that they come to the realization that they could make "more money on a movie screen." The lyrics imply that the fictional group's best-known single is, in fact, called "Pop Goes the World."

Music video

The music video for the song features lead singer Ivan Doroschuk

Ivan Doroschuk

Ivan Doroschuk, is an American-born Canadian musician of Ukrainian origin. He is the lead vocalist and founding member of Men Without Hats. Doroschuk was born on October 9, 1961 in the U.S. state of Illinois and at a young age he and his family moved to Canada, settling in the city of Montreal,...

 who tells the story of "Johnny and Jenny" played by guitarist Stefan Doroschuk (impersonating Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

) and an unknown actress (playing a Höfner 500/1

Höfner 500/1

The Höfner 500/1 violin bass is a hollow-bodied bass guitar manufactured by Höfner under several varieties...

 bass) dancing around a bubble-filled stage along with numerous other characters including a keyboard-playing baby and Bonhomme Carnaval (the mascot of Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

's annual Winter Carnival. The word "Pop!", in writing reminiscent of a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 appears periodically on screen, often timed with the popping noises that punctuate the song. The Video was released on a CD Video

CD Video

CD Video was a format introduced in 1987 that combined the technologies of compact disc and laserdisc. CD-V discs were the same size as a standard 12 cm audio CD, and contained up to 20 minutes worth of audio information that could be played on any audio CD player...

 in 1988.

Charts

Chart (1987)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	1
Canadian RPM Top Singles	2
New Zealand Singles Chart	15
Swedish Singles Chart	1
U.S. 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...	20
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	27

In popular culture

The song was featured in the 1987 film Date with an Angel

Date with an Angel

Date with an Angel is an American film which was released in 1987, starring Emmanuelle Béart, Phoebe Cates and Michael E. Knight. The romantic fantasy/comedy was an updated reworking of the 1942 film I Married an Angel and released by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. The film was written and...

, which starred Phoebe Cates

Phoebe Cates

Phoebe Cates is an American film actress, model, and entrepreneur known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins.-Early life:...

, Emmanuelle Béart

Emmanuelle Béart

Emmanuelle Béart is a French film actress, who has appeared in over 50 film and television productions since 1972. Béart won a César Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film Manon des Sources . She has been nominated a further seven times for Most Promising Actress and Best Actress.- Early...

 and Michael E. Knight

Michael E. Knight

- Biography :Knight is best known for playing Tad Martin on the soap opera All My Children. His first stint on the show ran from 1982–1986. He returned from 1988–1990, and again from 1992 until the series finale in 2011...

. The song was also featured very briefly in the 1991 film Scanners II: The New Order

Scanners II: The New Order

Scanners II: The New Order is the 1991 sequel to the 1981 feature film Scanners. The sequel was written by B.J. Nelson and directed by Christian Duguay...

.

The main tune of the song has caught up among sports fans cheering for their teams in several countries across the world. In Argentina, for instance, it is arguably the most popular tune sung by football fans, no matter what team or division they belong to. If it is River Plate

Club Atlético River Plate

Club Atlético River Plate is an Argentine sports club based in the Nuñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its professional football team, which currently competes in Nacional B, the second tier of Argentine football....

, they would sing "Ooo, vamos River Plate! River Plate, River Plate, vamos River Plate!".

It is also used by fans of the Yokohama F. Marinos

Yokohama F. Marinos

is a Japanese association football team that participates in the fully professional J. League Division 1; the top Japanese professional football league. Having won the J-League title three times and finished second twice, they are one of the most successful J-League clubs. The team are based in...

 soccer team in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and by fans of Sport Club Internacional

Sport Club Internacional

Sport Club Internacional is a Brazilian football team and multi-sport club from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, founded on April 4, 1909, and are one of the only five clubs to have never been relegated, along with Santos, São Paulo, Flamengo and Cruzeiro. They play in red shirts, white shorts and...

 soccer team in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

., and Olimpia

Olimpia

- Sports teams :*Club Deportivo Olimpia, a football team from Honduras*Club Olimpia, a football team from Asunción, Paraguay*Olímpia Futebol Clube, a football team from Brazil*Olimpia Elbląg, a football team from Elbląg, Poland...

 from Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

Cover versions

Stacy Ferguson covered the song in a 1988 episode of Kids Incorporated

Kids Incorporated

Kids Incorporated, is an American children's television program that was produced from 1984 to 1993. It was largely a youth-oriented program with musical performances as an integral part of each and every storyline....

. LMP

La Musique Populaire

La Musique Populaire is an American indie pop band.Members Ryan Bassler and Eric Haugen formed a band called Lorenzo Music in 1992, but faced with legal action from the actor of the same name they changed it to La Musique Populaire, more commonly shortened to LMP.Likened to Ween, The Raspberries...

 also covered the song in their box-set A Century of Song

A Century of Song

- Disc Two 1923-1939 :- Disc Three 1940-1959 :- Disc Four 1960-1981 :- Disc Five 1981-2000 :- Disc Six 'holus-bolus' :...

.