Honestly, music in 2006 was just a different kind of fever dream. You had Fergie singing about "London Bridge," Justin Timberlake bringing sexy back, and then, right in the middle of it all, there was Gwen Stefani. She didn't just walk back into the spotlight; she yodeled her way back. When Gwen Stefani Wind It Up first hit the airwaves as the lead single for her second solo album, The Sweet Escape, people didn't know whether to dance or check if their radio was malfunctioning.
It was weird. It was loud. It was unapologetically camp.
But here’s the thing about "Wind It Up"—it’s probably the most chaotic successful song of the decade. It samples The Sound of Music. It features a marching band drumline. It has Pharrell Williams basically daring the listener to keep up with a bassline that feels like it’s vibrating in a different dimension. If you were there, you remember the polarizing "love it or hate it" energy that followed this track everywhere from MTV’s TRL to the local mall.
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The Secret History of the Yodel
Most people think "Wind It Up" was a calculated attempt to recreate the "Hollaback Girl" magic. In reality, it started as a total fluke for a fashion show. Back in 2005, Gwen was prepping the 2006 collection for her L.A.M.B. clothing line. She needed something high-energy for the runway. She’d already been working with Pharrell and The Neptunes in Miami, and they had this rough track.
Gwen—who has gone on record saying The Sound of Music is her favorite movie of all time—had a wild idea. She asked DJ Jeremy Healy to mash her new track with "The Lonely Goatherd."
Pharrell hated it.
He literally told her it was "lame" and "horrible." He didn't see the magic. But Gwen, being Gwen, was so obsessed with the idea that she eventually wore him down. She saw the "cultural collision," as Pharrell later called it, between the Austrian mountains and a heavy club beat. It’s that exact stubbornness that gave us the "lay-od-lay-od-lay-he-hoo" hook that still lives rent-free in the heads of anyone who lived through the mid-2000s.
Why Critics Hated It (And Why They Might Have Been Wrong)
If you look back at the reviews from 2006, they were... brutal. AllMusic called the lyrics "clumsy material-minded" fluff. Entertainment Weekly complained about the lack of melody. Even the Rolling Stone crowd was skeptical of Gwen’s transition from ska-punk royalty to a high-fashion, yodeling pop star.
They weren't entirely wrong about the lyrics. Gwen Stefani Wind It Up isn't exactly Shakespeare. Gwen herself admitted, "A song like 'Wind It Up' isn't about anything." It’s a track about watching girls dance in the club and, quite frankly, a three-minute advertisement for her L.A.M.B. merch. "They like the way that L.A.M.B. is going 'cross my shirt" isn't deep, but in the context of 2006 fashion-pop, it was a vibe.
Despite the critical lashing, the song was a monster on the charts. It debuted at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100—Gwen’s highest debut ever—and eventually climbed to number 6.
Why? Because it was impossible to ignore. In a sea of mid-tempo R&B, "Wind It Up" felt like a shot of pure adrenaline. It was performance art. It was theater. It was the "pinnacle of madness," as The Guardian put it, and sometimes that’s exactly what pop music needs to be.
The Visuals: Maria Von Trapp Goes to the Club
The music video, directed by the legendary Sophie Muller, is where the concept really clicked. You've got Gwen playing a nun, Gwen as an orchestra conductor, and Gwen as a stylized Maria Von Trapp.
- The Curtains: There's a scene where she looks at curtains and turns them into outfits, a direct nod to the movie.
- The Escapology: She pulls a key out of her mouth, a weirdly cool tribute to Harry Houdini.
- The Harajuku Girls: As always during this era, her dancers were front and center, dressed in sailor suits that felt like a twisted version of the Von Trapp children's uniforms.
Julie Andrews actually liked it. She told reporters in 2007 that Gwen "does a lot of good yodeling" and even joked that Gwen might yodel better than she does. If you have the blessing of the original Maria, the critics don't really matter.
The Legacy of the "Wind It Up" Sound
Looking back nearly 20 years later, you can see how "Wind It Up" paved the way for the "hyperpop" and experimental pop movements of today. The song’s structure is fragmented. It’s dissonant. It’s built on a "rubbery" bassline that shouldn't work with a yodel, yet somehow does.
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It taught a generation of pop stars that you don't have to play it safe. You can be weird. You can sample a 1965 musical and put it over a Neptunes beat. You can talk about your clothes for three minutes straight.
What You Can Learn From the "Wind It Up" Era:
- Trust Your Gut over the Experts: Pharrell is a genius, but he was wrong about the yodel. If you have a creative hunch that feels "insane," it might be the thing that actually sticks.
- Visuals Matter: The song is 50% better when you’re watching the video. For any creator, the "package" is just as important as the core product.
- Polarization is Power: A song everyone "sorta likes" is forgotten. A song half the people hate and half the people love becomes a cult classic.
Gwen recently posted a video on Instagram of herself out fishing, using "Wind It Up" as the soundtrack. She joked, "Who knew wind it up was about fishing this whole time??" It shows she’s in on the joke. She knows the song is campy, over-the-top, and a bit ridiculous. But that’s exactly why we’re still talking about it in 2026.
If you want to revisit the madness, go back and watch the music video with fresh eyes. Ignore the "critics" of 2006 and just listen to the production. The way that drumline kicks in after the first yodel? That’s pure pop alchemy.
Next Steps for the 2000s Pop Fan:
Go listen to the original "The Lonely Goatherd" and then immediately play the Neptunes' instrumental of "Wind It Up." You'll hear the technical difficulty of what Pharrell actually pulled off—mapping a 3/4 time signature feeling onto a 4/4 club beat. It’s a masterclass in production that most people missed because they were too busy laughing at the yodeling.