Music

"Music"
Single by Madonna
from the album Music
B-side	"Cyberraga"
Released	August 29, 2000
Format	DVD single CD single CD maxi single Video single Cassette single 7" Single 12" Maxi-single
Recorded	1999 - 2000
Genre	Dance-pop, house
Length	3:45
Label	Maverick, Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Madonna Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Producer	Madonna Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Certification	(see Certifications)
Madonna singles chronology
"American Pie" (2000) "Music" (2000) "Don't Tell Me" (2000/2001)
Audio sample file info · help

"Music" is the first single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 8th studio album Music and was released on August 21, 2000 by Maverick Records. It was also released on DVD single, a debut in this format by Madonna. It was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year in 2001. In 2006, The song was remixed using "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps and was re-named "Music Inferno" for the 2006 Confessions Tour. This version appears on the 2007 live album The Confessions Tour.

Song information

On May 27, 2000 an unauthorized copy of the song leaked onto the Internet. In several days it spread all over cyberspace through forums and Napster. Madonna's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg reacted with the comment that the material was a "work-in-progress which was stolen". To counter the trend of music piracy, Madonna actively campaigned against Napster with fellow musicians from other genres, including hip-hop superstar Dr. Dre and Lars Ulrich, drummer of heavy metal band Metallica. Madonna later performed this song and several others on a promotional tour; her concert at Brixton Academy in London was a live webcast on her website and was watched by a record 10 million people around the world.

The opening line of the song ("Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on, I want to dance with my baby") features a male-sounding voice. The voice is actually Madonna's voice, heavily transformed.

Chart performance

The song shot to the top of the charts very quickly. It went to number one in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, South Africa and Argentina, to name but a few countries. It was Madonna's twelfth number one single in the USA. By reaching number one, it made Madonna the second artist after Janet Jackson to achieve number one hits in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s in the USA. Eventually it went platinum, selling over a million copies, proving to be one of her biggest-selling singles. The song was her first number-one hit in the USA since "Take a Bow" went to number-one in 1995. it was also reported to be the best selling single of 2000. Music was the 24th best selling single of 2000 in the UK.

In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their top 20 Madonna singles of all time by Q magazine. "Music" was allocated the #2 spot.

In 2004, Canadian tech-metal band Out of Your Mouth released a cover version, which reached the Top 40 in Canada.

Music video

"Music"
Single by Madonna
Madonna music video chronology The Madonna Collection (2000) Music (2000) The Ultimate Collection (2000)

Madonna in the "Music" video.

The music video was shot in April 2000 at A&M Stage and a nightclub in downtown Los Angeles by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund. The video starred Madonna and her longtime backup singer Niki Haris and actress Debi Mazar as well as comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as his famous character Ali G. The video started with Madonna along with her friends boarding Ali G's limousine. The song started and Ali G was directed to take them to a club, and later to a strip-club, where he was denied entrance. An animated section followed where, Madonna attacked various neon signs with the names of many of her songs, including "Rain", "Lucky Star", "Bad Girl", "Vogue", "Fever", "La Isla Bonita", "Express Yourself" and "Material Girl". In the extended version, at the end of the animated section, Ali G. briefly interrupts the song to demonstrate his rap skills to persuade Madonna to include him on her next single. An annoyed Madonna asks him to stop and to turn the song back on. Madonna was heavily pregnant with her second child, Rocco, during the shooting and the animated section of the video was added as a result. The video ended with Madonna and her friends travelling in the limousine with many of the strippers and Ali G engaging in a rendezvous with them.

The video won several awards, including Best Pop Clip Of The Year at the Billboard Video Awards in 2000 and Best Dance Video at the International Dance Music Awards in 2000.^[1]

The music video was parodied on MADtv. The parody was called Movies, and featured Mo Collins as Madonna. The video poked fun at Madonna's filmography, with an animated 'Madonna' attacking signs that had the names of her movies.

• Director: Jonas Åkerlund
• Producer: Nicola Doring
• Director of Photography: Eric Broms
• Editor: Jonas Åkerlund
• Production Company: HSI Productions

DVD release

The video to the single was released on DVD only and contains two versions of the music video: a standard version and an extended. It also includes a weblink to an official Madonna "Music" website, but the site is no longer active. The extended version includes the sequence during which Ali G interrupts the song to demonstrate his rap skills.

• Music (4:26 version)
• Music (4:44 version)

Live performances

Madonna performing "Music" during the Confessions Tour.

The first live performance of "Music" was at the 2001 Grammy Awards. Since then, "Music" has appeared in all four of Madonna's tours since it was released: Drowned World, Re-Invention, Confessions and Sticky & Sweet.

For the Drowned World Tour, it was used as the final encore; Madonna wore tight black jeans and a customised Dolce & Gabbana halter top that proclaims "Mother" in the front and "F*cker" in the back. She sang the song surrounded by her dancers, while imagery of her all-time music videos were displayed on backdrop screens.

"Music" was later added to the Re-Invention Tour as the fourth song of the Scottish segment; this mix of the song was slower, Hip-Hop-based. The same version was used at the 2005 Live 8 benefit concert

In the 2006 Confessions Tour, the song was mixed with The Trammps' "Disco Inferno", thus creating the hedonistic Music Inferno. It was preceded by the short video introduction "The Duke Mixes The Hits", and it sampled the chorus from "Where's The Party", a song from her 1986 album "True Blue". Madonna and her two female back-up dancers appeared onstage wearing Saturday Night Fever-inspired John Travolta outfits and started to sing "Music" together.

"Music" was part of the Hard Candy Promo Tour, in support of the Hard Candy album; this version sampled Fedde le Grand's "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit", getting a Dance-version of the song. It was the last song performed during the 2nd act of her Sticky & Sweet Tour, the Old School tribute, where Madonna used the version of the promotional tour, with a sample of Indeep's "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" at the beginning of the song.

Track listings and formats

Charts

Certifications

Chart procession and succession

Trivia

• The song samples a drum loop from the song Never Young Again of Mirwais Ahmadzai who is also the writer and the producer of Music.
• The intro of the Drowned World Tour Version version of the song samples the intro of the song Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk.
• The Re-Invention World Tour version of the song samples a short part from the original soundtrack of Mission Impossible.
• Part of the song was spoofed during Britney Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour
• Madtv made a parody called "My Movies" making fun of the song's repetetive rhythms and Madonna's acting.

References

External links

• Mad-eyes.net - "Music" Single Page