Pitch Perfect Made "Cups" the Song You'll Never Get Out of Your Head. Here's How.
Cosmopolitan US|Issue 07, 2022
For the movie's 10th anniversary, Anna Kendrick and a bunch of the cast and crew tell you an almost unbelievable story.
ILANA KAPLAN
Pitch Perfect Made "Cups" the Song You'll Never Get Out of Your Head. Here's How.

Before 2012, you probably never once tried to slam a cup on a table in rapid succession to see what sound it would make or ever thought to google "a cappella groups at [insert the name of your university]." But with a hilarious take on the surprisingly cutthroat world of college singing competitions that was like Glee but (hot take) funnier, Pitch Perfect changed all of that. On top of making $115 million at the box office, it also gave us a she's-a-movie-star-now performance by Anna Kendrick; the absolute banger of a line, "I'm gonna kill him! I'm gonna finish him like a cheesecake"; and the true phenomenon here, "Cups."

The refresher you probably don't need: In the film, Kendrick sits onstage in a dark auditorium to perform the song as her audition for The Bellas. And even though her routine lasts just 30 seconds, it was a big enough deal to prompt a single on the movie's soundtrack and a stand-alone music video which now has upward of 638 million YouTube views. Basically, it's the type of viral sensation that would have taken over TikTok had TikTok existed back then-and maybe still will, given the fact that a new show set in the Pitch Perfect universe is just about to drop on Peacock. In the meantime, please enjoy this ultimate behind-the-scenes experience.

Kendrick first saw a video of the folk-pop song "Cups (When I'm Gone)" by musical duo Lulu and the Lampshades on Reddit, where it hadn't gotten much traction. She studied its clap-smack-table choreography at that point, basically, just a party trick before auditioning for the role of Beca.

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