Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (song)

The song charted in multiple countries and received a double platinum certification in Australia, Sweden, and the United States (RIAA).

[1] According to Noisia, "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" started being worked on in their vocal booth when Skrillex was staying with them, writing songs together,[2] in May 2010.

[2] It was the first track written for Skrillex's second extended play (EP) Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.

[5] Kat Bein of Billboard said that the track is "an aural sleight of hand"; though it begins with a high-pitched, "serpentine melody" and "pleasantly fragmented vocal samples", it takes a sharp and surprising turn when the drop occurs at about forty seconds into the track, with "a load of bass bombs sounding like [an] alien invasion".

[11] Jon O'Brien of AllMusic said that the sample added a lighter touch to the track amidst its "towering beats and distorted bass".

[10] "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" was officially released as the second track from the eponymous EP on October 22, 2010, through Mau5trap and Big Beat.

[14] That year, the song was used in multiple media, including in the film Spring Breakers,[1] in an ad for GoPro featuring kayaker Ben Brown,[15] and in the video games Major League Baseball 2K12[16] and Ridge Racer Unbounded.

[28] "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" appeared in the main charts of France (SNEP)[29] and Norway (VG-lista).

[31] "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" has been described as a highly influential dubstep and electronic dance music (EDM) song;[1][32][33] Valerie Lee of Billboard said that it helped the EDM industry to grow,[34] while Michaelangelo Matos of Rolling Stone Australia said that it brought dubstep to the mainstream.

[35] In 2019, a study published in Acta Tropica suggested that playing "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" could make Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit the dengue fever, attack hosts later and less often as well as mate "far less often".