Fast tracks What's with the craze for sped-up songs?

High-octane remixes of original hits are popular on streaming platforms, but who's driving the trend - and why-is less clear

- Alaina Demopoulos

I'm listening to the accelerated, chipmunk voice of the British singer Raye on Escapism, a rebound-sex anthem that's currently topping the UK charts. Raye has a low, brassy singing voice, but I'm not listening to her official version. This one is paced 150% faster than the original song, making it sound like she has inhaled helium. Who wants to listen to a song that sounds like a triple shot of espresso? Perhaps more people than you might think.

The remix can be found on Sped Up Songs, a Spotify-produced playlist liked by more than 975,000 people. It runs over four hours and manipulates songs such as Steve Lacy's recent TikTok anthem Bad Habits and older hits like Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey.

On YouTube, users upload hours-long videos of sped-up songs. One from last year has over 4.9m views and features 2000s pop songs loved by millennials - including Nelly Furtado's Say It Right and Jennifer Lopez's On the Floor. On TikTok, the hashtag #spedupsounds has 9.6bn views. Users dance along to I Wish by Skee-Lo and Thundercat's Them Changes at whiplashinducing beats per minute (BPM).