Music sensation Billie Eilish won the Best Song Grammy Award for Bad Guy on Monday, just two days after claiming the No.1 spot on the Triple J Hottest 100.
It might be worth remembering that some of the inspiration for Bad Guy is thanks to Australia’s traffic lights and their seemingly unique sounds.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine last month, Eilish and her brother/producer, Finneas, explained in great detail how they crafted the song.
It turned out the pulsating beat that dominates the chorus of Bad Guy is actually a sample of the “doop doop” sound of an Australian traffic light when it tells pedestrians it’s safe to cross.
Eilish told Rolling Stone she took a sample of the sound during a visit to Sydney in 2018.
“My mum and I went for a walk in Sydney. We were across the street from the hotel,” she explained.
“The crosswalk was this … you press it and it’s like ‘doop doop’ and I was like that’s hard. That’s the sound that it makes when you have to wait.”
Eilish decided to take out her phone and record the traffic light sounds.
Odd as it may seem, Finneas explained that the frenetic crossing sound was adapted and formed the basis for the Bad Guy beat.
