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1989 single by Napalm Death From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"You Suffer" is a song by English grindcore band Napalm Death, released on the band's debut studio album, Scum (1987). The song is precisely 1.316 seconds long.[1][2] The song was written by Nicholas Bullen, Justin Broadrick, and Mick Harris during the March 1986 demo sessions for From Enslavement to Obliteration.
| "You Suffer" | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Single by Napalm Death | |
| from the album Scum | |
| A-side | "You Suffer" |
| B-side |
|
| Released | 1989 |
| Recorded | August 1986 |
| Studio | Rich Bitch Studio Birmingham, England |
| Genre | |
| Length | 0:01 |
| Label | Earache |
| Songwriter(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Digby Pearson |
| Music video | |
| "You Suffer" on YouTube | |
The song holds the world record for shortest song,[3] but "The Half Second Song" by Bryant Oden may be shorter, lasting 521ms, if one is willing to count it as a "song". In March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 72 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list.[4]
The official four-word lyrics to the song are: "You suffer, but why?". Justin Broadrick said about the song:
"You Suffer" was largely a comedy thing, one-second song...it's ridiculous, but it was hilarious. We played that song in front of 30 local kids, like, every weekend. We played that song 30 times. It was a laugh.[5]
Nicholas Bullen, writer of the song's four-word lyrics, said that the brevity of "You Suffer" was inspired by Wehrmacht's 1985 song "E!".[6] The song has since been recognized by Guinness World Records as the shortest ever recorded.[7] "You Suffer" would become an influence on the "noisecore" micro-genre, inspiring many bands such as Sore Throat, 7 Minutes of Nausea, Deche-Charge, Anal Cunt, and others to release full-length recordings of exclusively "microsong" content.[8] Swedish metal band Opeth and Finnish gothic metal band HIM have both covered the song live.[9][10]
In 1989, "You Suffer" appeared on one side of a 7" single given away free with copies of a compilation album entitled Grindcrusher. The song on the other side, "Mega-Armageddon Death Part 3" by the Electro Hippies, also lasts approximately one second, making the disc the shortest single ever released. Each side features one groove at the outer edge of the disc containing the music, with the rest of the surface containing etched writing and cartoons.[11]
To coincide with the release of the Scum DualDisc in March 2007, a music video produced by Earache Records was released for the song.[12] The video shows a girl jumping up and down with fake blood/gunshot effects overlayed on the footage.
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