"Cake by the Ocean" is the debut single by American band DNCE, released for sale on September 18, 2015 and to radio on September 29, 2015 through Republic Records. It serves as the lead single from their debut EP, Swaay, and is also included on their debut studio album, DNCE. The song reached the top 10 on multiple national record charts including those of Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It has also topped the US BillboardAdult Pop Songs airplay chart and been certified Gold or higher by a number of recording industry associations. Billboard ranked "Cake by the Ocean" at number 44 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list. Nielsen Music named "Cake by the Ocean" the second most-played song in Canada for 2016, behind only Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself".
Composition
"Cake by the Ocean" was co-written by Joe Jonas, Justin Tranter, and Swedish duo Mattman & Robin, who also produced the song. Lyrically, the song is about sexual intercourse, but is also often interpreted to be referring to the cocktail Sex on the Beach. The song's title originated from Mattman & Robin's repeatedly confusing the phrase "sex on the beach" for "cake by the ocean." The song is composed in E minor, with a tempo of 120 beats per minute.
Music video
The video, directed by Black Coffee and Jonas' then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, was released on October 16, 2015. It depicts DNCE performing "in front of a giant piece of cake on the beach" when a cake-throwing battle ensues between The Fat Jew and "a bunch of bikini clad women who are 'Team DNCE'". Both vie "to become the 'cake fight champion', but as it turns out, everyone is a winner, as the scene becomes one giant beach party".
The song is featured in the films Pitch Perfect 3, Bad Moms, ', Malibu Rescue,The King of Staten Island, and in trailers for Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and '. It has also been featured in the television series Telenovela, South Park, No Tomorrow, The Real O'Neals, and Mary + Jane, and appeared in an Indonesian Mizone commercial in August 2016. The clean version of the song is a playable track in Just Dance 2017. It was also featured in the Brazilian teen soap-operaMalhação during its 24th season.
Censorship
The official clean and radio versions of the song censor the line "go fucking crazy" with "go crazy crazy", with the word "crazy" repeated from the audio. The line "God damn" is replaced with "hot damn". The phrase "fucking delicious" is replaced with "so delicious". Music channels in the UK owned by The Box Plus Network censor "fucking" by reversing the audio, rather than adopting the official clean version of the song. Jonas' mouth is blurred when he sings the obscenity. MTV channels in the UK replace the line "...Go fucking crazy..." with "...Go for me crazy...", lifting audio from "Walk for me, baby", though no visual editing is imposed in this instance.
