Songfacts®:

• This dystopian single, Grimes' first new offering in three years, finds the Canadian songstress heading in a direction that is heavily influenced by industrial sounds. The song emerged after Grimes took inspiration from the Moranbong Band, a North Korean girl group whose members were selected by the country's supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
• Lyrically, the song is inspired by both propaganda and the increasing dominance of artificial intelligence.
  
  People like to say that we're insane
  But AI will reward us when it reigns
  Pledge allegiance to the world's most powerful computer
  Simulation: it's the future
  
  Grimes said in a press release: "'We Appreciate Power' is written from the perspective of a Pro-A.I. Girl Group Propaganda machine who use song, dance, sex and fashion to spread goodwill towards Artificial Intelligence (it's coming whether you want it or not)."
• Grimes is joined on the track by her friend Hana Pestle, aka HANA. The American singer-songwriter performed as support for the Canadian on her 2016 European tour.
• A blindfolded Grimes performed the song live on TV for the first time during the December 10, 2018 episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. The Canadian was joined by a guitar-wielding HANA and backed by two models brandishing large lances on a podium.
• HANA cries at the beginning of the chorus, "What will it take to make you capitulate?" According to Google trends, searches for 'what does capitulate mean' went up 500% in the day following the song's release as fans brushed up on their post-AI takeover terminology. The searches were mostly conducted in North America.
  
  In case you're wondering, according to the Songfacts dictionary, to capitulate means, "to yield or surrender to an opponent or unwelcome demand."
• Chris Greatti helped Grimes produce "We Appreciate Power." Once part of pop-punk band Basic Vacation, Greatti is now a production gun for hire, whose other credits include Halsey and Yungblud's "11 Minutes."
• Soon after this song was released, Grimes started dating another futurist, Elon Musk. They had a son in 2020.
• Grimes sees some advantages to a world ruled by AI. "I'm not necessarily positive that A.I. would not be a good form of government," she told the New York Times. "With corruption in government, it's potentially worth taking the chance of having an A.I. leadership. Because at least it's objective and probably doesn't care about money."