The “Cup Song” has a few different “creators” depending on what part you mean: the original song, the cup rhythm, or the viral version from Pitch Perfect.

Core answer

  • The song’s lyrics and melody come from the folk song “When I’m Gone” , written by A. P. Carter and first recorded by The Carter Family in 1931.
  • The modern cup rhythm routine is widely attributed to Christian musician Rich Mullins , who used a similar cup pattern as percussion for his 1987 song “Screen Door.”
  • The version that went globally viral as “The Cup Song” is Anna Kendrick’s performance of “Cups (When I’m Gone)” in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect , which turned the old folk song plus the cup game into a mainstream hit.

Mini history of the Cup Song

  • 1931: The Carter Family record “When I’m Gone,” a simple country/folk song with no cup game attached.
  • 1980s: Rich Mullins uses a coordinated cup pattern as a rhythmic accompaniment in live performances of “Screen Door,” giving rise to the recognizable cup-game style.
  • Late 2000s: Indie group Lulu and the Lampshades (Heloise Tunstall-Behrens and Luisa Gerstein) mash up the folk song “When I’m Gone” with the cup game rhythm, creating the direct template for what people now call the Cup Song.
  • 2012–2013: Anna Kendrick performs the song with the cup routine in Pitch Perfect , then releases it as “Cups (When I’m Gone),” sending it into charts and school cafeterias everywhere.

So who “made” it?

If someone asks “who made the Cup Song,” you can honestly answer from a few angles:

  1. Original songwriter
    • A. P. Carter (of The Carter Family) wrote the original “When I’m Gone.”
  1. Cup-game mashup originators
    • Lulu and the Lampshades popularized combining “When I’m Gone” with the cup game pattern.
  1. Viral pop version
    • Anna Kendrick made “the Cup Song” famous worldwide through Pitch Perfect and the single “Cups (When I’m Gone).”

In casual conversation, most people mean Anna Kendrick’s Pitch Perfect version when they say “the Cup Song” , but its roots go back nearly a century to old American folk music and later creative cup routines.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.