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Music (Madonna album)

History

After the success of her 1998 album Ray of Light Madonna intended to embark on a new concert tour. However, after filming and promoting The Next Best Thing her record company encouraged her to return to the studio and record new music before going on the road. These sessions became the Music album.

Before the album was released, Madonna recorded a statement to her fans:

Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on… Hi, it's Madonna. You've probably been hearing about my new record, "Music", for a while. Well, I just wanted to make sure you knew that the single is gonna drop very soon. I worked on it with a French guy named Mirwais, and he is the shit. The album will be released worldwide on September 19, and I hope you like my music.

The album featured mostly upbeat and up-tempo songs which further developed Madonna's move toward European dance music, but still retains a rocky, American edge. To achieve a more European dance style of music, Madonna collaborated with French electronica wizard Mirwais. According to Madonna, they both had some problems with understanding each other in the studio at first, since Mirwais did not speak any English, and Madonna spoke almost no French. Again, like on Ray of Light, Madonna collaborated with William Orbit, with whom she co-wrote and produced three songs which made it onto the album. The album was Madonna's first album not to have been totally recorded in the United States. Instead, it was mostly recorded at Sarm West and East Studios in London, England.

Musically, the album is different from what Madonna had done in the past. The album featured dark electronic beats ("Impressive Instant"), folk guitars ("Don't Tell Me", "I Deserve It", "Gone"), and the heavy use of the vocoder, which would appear again on later Madonna albums. Madonna also sang in French on the song "Paradise (Not for Me)", and in Spanish on the song "Lo Que Siente La Mujer" (What It Feels Like for a Girl), which appeared on disc two of the Special Edition. The song, "Runaway Lover", was an up-tempo dance track which differed from the crystalline perfection of her previous album.

For the first time, a complete Madonna album leaked onto the internet and fans all around the world were able to listen to all the songs from the album months ahead of its release. Warner Bros. Records and Madonna were not pleased by this at all, closing down sites with the tracks and suing Napster at the same time.

The song "American Pie" ended up being included on the European, Latin-American, Australian, and Asian versions of the album; however, Madonna regrets having it included on the album after "being talked into it by some record company executive." She rather would have seen it only on The Next Best Thing (Music from the Motion Picture). Also, included as a bonus track only on the Japanese and Australian releases, was a song called "Cyberraga". The song, which was written and produced by Madonna and Talvin Singh, is an adaptation from a traditional text taken from the Vedic Mantra and from the Mahabharata. The song was later used as a B-side on different European and U.S. single releases.
Music was re-issued in several countries replacing "American Pie" with the remix and the Spanish version of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".
Music is the first Madonna full length-album that does not feature the lyrics in the CD booklet. Instead, the listener is advised to visit Madonna's official Web site. This trend would continue with future albums.
Music won the award for Best Recording Package at the Grammy Awards of 2001. In 2003, the album was ranked number 452 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Madonna performed "Music", "Impressive Instant", "I Deserve It", "Nobody's Perfect", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", "Paradise (Not for Me)" and "Gone" on her 2001 Drowned World Tour; "Music" and "Don't Tell Me" on her 2004 Re-Invention Tour; and "Music" and "Paradise (Not for Me)" on her 2006 Confessions Tour and "Music" on her 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour.

Critical reception

Initial critical response to Music was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 80, based on 16 reviews.Slant Magazine praised songs such as "Music," but criticised Madonna's collaborations with William Orbit, who had worked with her on Ray of Light, calling them repetitive and uninteresting despite being catchy. Slant Magazine Retrieved 2008-05-06 Rolling Stone stated that the album was a rough and improvised version of Ray of Light, but lauded that Madonna had chosen to make a more "instinctive" record than her previous endeavours. Rolling Stone Retrieved 2008-05-06

Promotional tour

The Don't Tell Me Promo Tour was a group of two, brief promotional concerts to support the album. Comprising of a date on November 5, 2000 at Roseland Ballroom in New York City and another on November 29, 2000 at Brixton Academy in London. Accompanying musicians performing with Madonna were; Mirwais Ahmadzaï on guitar and longtime backing singers Niki Haris and Donna DeLory. The costumes for the show and the set was designed by Dolce & Gabbana.

Madonna's performance at Brixton Academy was shown via the internet to an estimated 9 million viewers across the world, which became a world record. With an audience of 2,800, it was shown on the MSN website in conjunction with Madonna's official website madonna.com. Madonna, dressed in a sequined t-shirt bearing her children’s names Rocco and Lola, performed to a celebrity audience including Mick Jagger, Kylie Minogue, Sting and Melanie C. The show was available for viewing for two weeks.
Tracy Blacher, Marketing Manager at MSN said:

This was the performance of a lifetime. It was historic for Madonna and for MSN and will be remembered as the most ambitious web event in history, which drew the biggest Internet audience ever. MSN.co.uk gave people the chance to see and hear Madonna’s fantastic return to the stage and witness the first ever online live performance for free, and they responded in record numbers. This was a huge success for MSN and Madonna - no-one has ever attempted anything on this scale before, we broke new ground.

Throughout the event the MSN sites worldwide stayed online and were more than able to handle the tremendous amount of internet traffic. Some users may have experienced delays because of sheer weight of internet traffic, or pressure on their local ISPs. Other users may have experienced temporary delays as they queued to access the video and audio streams. But by the time Madonna went live they had been rerouted to different servers around the world where demand was less intense – such as Australia which was still asleep. This was done to ensure everyone had the best picture and audio quality for their connection speed.
Madonna’s Brixton concert was the latest in a line of concert webcasts from the MSN.co.uk site which has also included Paul McCartney’s return to the Cavern Club – previous record holder for the largest web cast and seen by 3 million people - Robbie Williams return to Manchester, and Mel C’s final show of her nationwide tour.

Set list

"Impressive Instant"

"Runaway Lover"

"Don't Tell Me"

"What It Feels Like for a Girl"

"Holiday" (London only)

"Music".

Madonna promoted the album further on the 2001 Drowned World Tour.

Track listing

CD bonus track (outside North America)Japanese and Australian CD bonus trackAdditional notes

"What It Feels Like for a Girl": contains an excerpt from the motion picture The Cement Garden, courtesy of Charlotte Gainsbourg and Constantin Film AG. David Torn has been credited as songwriter by ASCAP.

2001 special edition bonus CD

The special edition CD was released to coincide with the Drowned World Tour in 2001. It included two CD discs, one with the original 10-track album and a bonus CD, listed below. In the UK, the album had to be withdrawn as it did not include the BBFC classification "12" to accompany the music video. It was later re-released including this.
Additional notes

"What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Video): Directed by Guy Ritchie, Produced by Lynn Zekanis, Director of Photography: Alex Barber.

Singles

From the album, Madonna released three official singles, and one promo single:

"Impressive Instant"

"Impressive Instant" was released as a club promo only single with remixes by Peter Rauhofer on September 18, 2001. It went to #1 on the United States Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart where it stayed for two weeks. The song was Madonna's 27th number 1 dance hit.