A Brief History of MGMT

MGMT originally formed in 2002, under the name The Management, by members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, who both attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut. The first three years were mainly experimenting with sound before they established their genre of psychedelic. Once they graduated in 2005 they began an extensive tour supporting the band Of Montreal and promoting their Time to Pretend EP.

Before the release of their debut album the band would change their name to MGMT as the name The Management was already in use by another band. 

In 2006 the band were signed to the record label Columbia Records and went on to create their debut album Oracular Spectacular, in which the song 'Kids' featured. The album was released in 2007 and had ten tracks, three of which were released as singles. The album was a success, selling over one million copies worldwide.

They did a vast amount of touring, supporting artists such as Radiohead, Beck and Paul McCartney, as well as conducting a successful headlining tour.

In 2010, the band released their second album Congratulations. They decided to massively alter their sound, leaning more towards a progressive, guitar-driven style. The album received both positive and negative reviews as some people didn't appreciate their change and craved more songs with the sound of 'Kids.' But on it's first week of release it reached the number four status in the UK charts and number two in the US Billboards chart.

Originally, the band stated they would not release singles from the album stating that the album "was meant to be a complete body of songs rather than an album with stand-out singles." Yet,  they released four of the nine songs as singles.

MGMT are set to release a self-titled third album in 2012.