History Music / Gotye

* ShoutOut: Possibly to ''Film/TheWall'' in the video for "Hearts a Mess". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzb3lBOBRrM At the 0:27 mark, the marching long-legged creatures look identical to the]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bDY0DfEjmo marching hammers in "Waiting for the Worms".]]

* CloudcuckooLander: To say the least. Just read [[http://gotye.com/#about.html his biography on his website]].

!!Examples:

* GenderBender: There was a rumor that he was gonna get a sex change. Gotye said, “Do I have to? Maybe it’s fun keeping it open.”

* VillainProtagonist: The main character of "Somebody That I Used To Know" is a passive-aggressive, guilt-tripping, douchebag whose ex likely broke up with due to extemely poor behavior. Music/{{Kimbra}}, playing the ex, rightfully calls out his bullshit in the third verse.

* MorePopularSpinOff: Gotye is, well ''was'' at least until their hiatus ends in 2014, in a Rock band called The Basics, but chances are you only know about them because of Gotye who despite being the drummer could be called the FaceOfTheBand.

* BodyPaint: He and Kimbra in "Somebody That I Used to Know"

* {{Crossover}}: With Kimbra in "Somebody That I Used to Know"

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He's on the receiving end from Kimbra in "Somebody That I Used to Know."

* VillainProtagonist: The main character of "Somebody That I Used To Know" is a passive-aggressive, guilt-tripping, douchebag whose ex likely broke up with due to extemely poor behavior. Kimbra, playing the ex, rightfully calls out his bullshit in the third verse.

[[quoteright:344:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gotye_222_3054.jpg]]

-->"Somebody That I Used to Know"

* ChristianRock: "In Your Light" is about how thrilled Gotye is to have God in his life, though [[NotChristianRock this is his only really religious song]].

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: There are elements of Reggae, Jazz, Worldbeat, Rock and Latin all over his music, but none of those ever appears in pure form.

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe Gotye here.]] He's somewhat tall, Belgian-Australian, male...

* AscendedFanboy: Music/{{Prince}} had the honour of handing Gotye his trophy for Record of the Year (for "Somebody That I Used to Know") at the 2013 Grammys. Prince prefaced the announcement by stating, "Oh I love this song," when glancing at the envelope's contents. Gotye started his acceptance speech by thanking Prince: "Many years listening to this man's music, growing up, and a big reason I was inspired to make music. Thank you."

* PostModernism: "State of the Art," is a song about making a song on the state of the art synthesizer.

* CoverVersion: While Gotye himself hasn't covered anything, "Somebody That I Used to Know" has been covered by many artists such as Music/MileyCyrus, [[{{Music/fun}} Fun's]] front-man Nate Ruess with Hayley Williams, Creator/MattBomer, [[Series/AmericanIdol Phillip Phillips]], Series/{{Glee}}, Music/WalkOffTheEarth, Music/{{Pentatonix}}, and 210,000 Youtubers.

** The bows that appear during the string part of the "State Of The Art" video resemble the ones from the "Toccata and Fugue" segment from ''{{Disney/Fantasia}}''.

** This then reaches its natural conclusion care of a [=YouTuber=] (TRONIX) making a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1N95xZ4es 1980s remix]] of it, followed by a convincing and creative 1980s-style [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgvwIQfNCPo music video]] by another [=YouTuber=] (Alphaweb).

** Gotye himself then remixed a plethora of the aforementioned YouTube covers into one super-version of the song, titling it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opg4VGvyi3M&feature=plcp Somebodies]].

Wouter "Wally" De Backer (born 21 May 1980), better known by his stage name Gotye, is an indie/alternative rock singer song-writer best known for his #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" though other songs of his have charted such as "Eyes Wide Open" which got to #96 on the Hot 100 and "Hearts A Mess" charted #8 on Triple J Hot 100 of 2006. His singing style has been compared to [[Music/ThePolice Sting]] and Music/PeterGabriel, while his music videos were once described by WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows as, "[[SweetDreamsFuel Like happier versions of]] ''Music/{{Tool}}'' [[SurrealMusicVideo videos]]."

** The bows that appear during the string part of the "State Of The Art" video resemble the ones from the "Toccata and Fugue" segment from ''{{Film/Fantasia}}''.

Wouter "Wally" De Backer, better known by his stage name Gotye, is an indie/alternative rock singer song-writer best known for his #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" though other songs of his have charted such as "Eyes Wide Open" which got to #96 on the Hot 100 and "Hearts A Mess" charted #8 on Triple J Hot 100 of 2006. His singing style has been compared to [[Music/ThePolice Sting]] and Music/PeterGabriel, while his music videos were once described by WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows as, "[[SweetDreamsFuel Like happier versions of]] ''Music/{{Tool}}'' [[SurrealMusicVideo videos]]."

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He's on the receiving end from Kimbra in "Somebody I Used to Know."

Wouter "Wally" De Backer, better known by his stage name Gotye, is an indie/alternative rock singer song-writer best known for his #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" though other songs of his have charted such as "Eyes Wide Open" which got to #96 on the Hot 100 and "Hearts A Mess" charted #8 on Triple J Hot 100 of 2006. His singing style has been compared to [[Music/ThePolice Sting]] and Music/PeterGabriel, while his music videos were once described by ToddInTheShadows as, "[[SweetDreamsFuel Like happier versions of]] ''Music/{{Tool}}'' [[SurrealMusicVideo videos]]."

* GenreBusting: His stuff is rather hard to pin down with just one descriptor.