MGMT

MGMT emerged from the Wesleyan University dorm rooms of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser in 2002, initially performing as The Management before abbreviating their moniker. Their 2007 debut Oracular Spectacular became an unexpected commercial juggernaut, propelled by synth-pop earworms "Kids," "Electric Feel," and "Time to Pretend" that soundtracked late-2000s youth culture with their day-glo hedonism and millennial ennui. The album's collision of psychedelic flourishes, new wave propulsion, and self-aware irony captured a generation suspended between digital overstimulation and nostalgic yearning.

Their subsequent work deliberately alienated mainstream audiences. Congratulations (2010) and MGMT (2013) rejected radio-friendly formulas for sprawling psych-rock experimentation, drawing from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and 1960s pastoral weirdness. Critics initially balked, though retrospective assessments recognised their refusal to calcify into festival circuit commodities. Little Dark Age (2018) synthesised accessibility with their experimental impulses, its title track addressing political dread through gothic synthpop architecture.

VanWyngarden and Goldwasser remain studio-focused enigmas, their cultural impact residing in how they exposed pop's appetite for strangeness before retreating into wilful obscurity, preferring artistic autonomy over zeitgeist maintenance.