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Kevin Ruddy
Proff. Hellmers
English Comp
8/7/21

Feel Good Inc.

The British rock group, Gorillaz, 2005 hit song "Feel Good Inc." is a desperate call for

humanity to awake from a hedonistic slumber. The video for Feel Good Inc, first appearing on

MTV in 2005, was a shocking look into the dystopian reality imagined by the Gorillaz. Since its

initial release many have covered the song, but perhaps no one has added more of their own

touch than Thia Megia. With a complete early 20th century aesthetic, Thia Megia and her jazz

band give the Gorillaz’ “Feel Good Inc.”, a life it was never meant to live with their soulful 2017

rendition of the track. 

In the earliest days of England’s first industrial revolution, English poet William Blake

wrote of a satanic landscape, where dark factories billowing smoke had replaced the windmills

in the countryside. British rock group Gorillaz take similar aims in their video for Feel Good Inc

but wish to awake those who have fallen asleep to our new reality, a new ultra-industrialized

techno-dystopia of sorts. Feel Good Inc addresses the short comings of our “feel good”

consumption driven society, it’s dark and gloomy sounds are accompanied by the occasional

shot of dopamine from short “feel good” sounds. While this track seems destined to have a life

of its own, Theia Megia and her Jazz band defy the odds and truly turn it into their own. Theia

Megia and her band perform their rendition of Feel Good Inc in a upbeat post-modern jazz,

their video is complete with an early 21st century aesthetic that transports the viewer to a
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1920s speakeasy. While the Gorillaz paint a grim picture for the viewer, Megia and her band

provide a state of nostalgia.

            The Gorillaz video for Feel Good Inc is an overwhelming and shocking depiction of their

imagined dystopic society. In the video we are first presented with a wastelandish terrain, with

not a blade of grass or tree in sight, viewers are then brought into the dark “Feel Good Inc.”

tower. Inside the Gorillaz famous cartoon characters are found wasting away in hangover from

the ongoing orgy of consumerism. The Gorillaz lead singer seems to realize the trappings of the

Feel Good Tower are more of a prison than a paradise, but as he tries to make the rest of his

band aware, no one seems to even care enough to wake up. The only person capable of waking

up the rest of the band is their newfound arbiter of truth, who only appears via big screen tv

occasionally. The lead singer “2-D” is constantly reminded of his grim reality by a floating

windmill he can see outside a window, but as his will has been lost, so has his escape. The video

is deep with meaning and is highly relevant to our postmodern times, but as these postmodern

times present society with a challenge to all meaning, Theia Megia does the same with her

cover of Feel Good Inc.

            Theia Megia, accompanied by her jazz band, defy all meaning the Gorillaz set out to

convey in their 2017 cover of Feel Good Inc. Theia Megia and her band bring the viewer to a

reality vastly different than the one presented by the Gorillaz, one with seemingly zero

resemblance to the Gorillaverse. In a ritzy wood panel room, Megia and her band perform Feel

Good Inc in a slow jazz. As the viewer is taken in by the setting, the 1920s attire of Megia and

the band members, and the music, the original message of waking up from a dystopia seems to

disappear. Rather than making the viewer aware of the technological hedonism that grips
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society, Megia encourages the viewer to indulge in the same pleasures seemingly found in a

speakeasy. Without the Gorillaz original video, the depth of the song seems to disappear, and

the only meaning seems to become the pure enjoyment that is listening to Megia, and her band

perform. Megia appeals to the viewer with a sophisticated pathos that invokes a nostalgia, far

from the state of peril the Gorillaz provoke.

            Feel Good Inc. is a wakeup call to the seemingly asleep masses, a wake up from what

intellectual Aldous Huxley would call a brave new world. A world where we are ruled and

controlled by a tyranny of pleasure. But while the Gorillaz overwhelming convey this message in

their video, the message is lost in Megia’s rendition of the hit track. Megia’s version, which is

featured on the “Postmodern Jukebox” YouTube channel, embodies everything our new

postmodern society is striving towards, the discovery of a subjective truth and sometimes

nonsensical meaning in all domains. Megia and her band create a completely new life for Feel

Good Inc., while the song originally found itself in a dark dystopian reality, highly capable of

inducing an overwhelming fear by the viewer, Megia and her band provide it with a warm

existences souly for the viewer's enjoyment.

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Works Cited

(Feel Good Inc., Gorillaz, WMG, 2005)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k&ab_channel=Gorillaz

(Feel Good Inc., Gorillaz, Theia Megia cover, Post-Modern Jukebox, 2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=plIZho8Nd2g&ab_channel=PostmodernJukebox