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Before the album was released, Madonna recorded a statement to her fans, stating about the album and Ahmadzaï: ''"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."''
 
Before the album was released, Madonna recorded a statement to her fans, stating about the album and Ahmadzaï: ''"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."''
 
===Development===
 
===Development===
  +
Madonna approached British house DJ Sasha to work on her album, and began writing new material together. She also planned to continue her work with Orbit for the album.
  +
  +
He commented that the material was ''"quite a little edgier than Ray of Light, elaborating that "It's almost like we started off with a lot of slow ballad songs and she's started to kind of chuck 'em out in favor of more edgy tracks. The album is getting more kind of fast, very European sounding, very English and French sounding, naturally, 'cause everybody working on it apart from her is English or French. Pretty exciting, actually. It's like a follow-up for Ray Of Light without stopping still. It's perfect".''
  +
  +
However, after some recording sessions, Madonna felt that she needed a different sound for her project, so she scrapped most of the material and began looking for new producers to work with.
  +
  +
The recording sessions for "Music" began in January 2000 at Sarm West and East Studios in London, England. It was then that French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï was introduced by Madonna's partner Guy Oseary.
  +
  +
In an interview with CNN, Madonna stated: ''"Guy Oseary, my partner at Maverick [Records], was given a demo by a French artist called Mirwais. [He] slipped it to me and said, 'What do you think [of him] as an artist to sign at Maverick?' [...] I just said 'Oh my God, this is what I want.' I just flipped over it and said, 'Please find out if he wants to work with me.'"''
  +
  +
Ahmadzaï spoke little English, and Madonna commented: ''"The first couple of days we were recording, I wanted to rip my hair out. [...] It didn't seem like there was any way for us to communicate. His manager had to come in and translate everything at first."''
  +
  +
She also commented about working with Ahmadzaï and the other producers of the album: ''"I love to work with the weirdos that no one knows about—the people who have raw talent and who are making music unlike anyone else out there. Music is the future of sound."''
  +
  +
Madonna had later proclaimed Ahmadzaï to be a musical "genius". In an interview with MTV's Total Request Live, she said Ahmadzaï was ''"really influenced by 1970s funk and R&B" and said that the album was "more electronic than her last record, but it is edgier and a bit funkier".''
  +
  +
Talking about the inspiration behind "Music," Madonna said the album was ''"To join the coldness or the remoteness of living in the machine age in the world of high technology with warmth and compassion and a sense of humor. [...] Music is supposed to be a reflection of what's going on in society, and as far as I'm concerned, we've become too complacent."''
  +
  +
In an interview with The Face, Madonna was questioned about her mood while developing the album. She commented: ''"To tell you the truth, I didn't know what the mood was. I feel like an animal that's, like, ready to be sprung from a cage. I've been living a pretty low-key domestic existence and I miss things. Like, I miss performing, and dancing, and being on the road, that kind of energy. So part of the record is about that. And then the other part is about love. So there's the frivolous side of my life and then there's the –hopefully– non-frivolous side of my life. I usually make a record that's one or the other, and I feel I did both on this one".''
  +
 
===Structure\Composition===
 
===Structure\Composition===
 
===Artwork===
 
===Artwork===

Revision as of 12:42, 2 August 2019

Music is Madonna's eighth studio album that was released on September 18, 2000 by Maverick & Warner Bros. Records.

Tracklisting

  1. Music 3:44
  2. Impressive Instant 3:37
  3. Runaway Lover 4:46
  4. I Deserve It 4:23
  5. Amazing 3:43
  6. Nobody's Perfect 4:58
  7. Don't Tell Me 4:40
  8. What It Feels Like For A Girl 4:43
  9. Paradise (Not For Me) 6:33
  10. Gone 3:24

Album Background

After the critical and commercial success of her album "Ray of Light," Madonna intended to embark on a new concert tour in September of 1999, but due to the delay of her film "The Next Best Thing" (which she started filming in April of 1999), it was cancelled.

In June of 1999, she recorded the song "Beautiful Stranger" for the film "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." The song peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy Award for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media" at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards.

In March of 2000, Madonna covered Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" which was featured on the soundtrack to "The Next Best Thing." The song received mixed reviews and was successful in Europe. Although it wasn't commercially released in the United States, the song managed to peak at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 due to strong radio airplay. By 2000, Madonna became pregnant with her son Rocco, from her relationship with director Guy Ritchie. Wanting to distract herself from the media frenzy surrounding this news, she concentrated on the development of her eighth studio album, entitled "Music."

Buoyed by the commercial success of her previous album, she was keen on getting back to the studio to record new music. Madonna was well disposed towards William Orbit, producer of Ray of Light, but by 2000, his production and sound had become ubiquitous.

Also, the music scene was being dominated by a younger generation of singers such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, prompting Madonna to look for a distinctive sound within this market. She was then introduced to French DJ and producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï.

Madonna instantly liked his pitch-shifting, pulverizing rhythms and his utilization of acid bass in his songs. Ahmadzaï always preferred taking musical risks and hence he wanted the collaborations with Madonna to get out the best from her.

Before the album was released, Madonna recorded a statement to her fans, stating about the album and Ahmadzaï: "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."

Development

Madonna approached British house DJ Sasha to work on her album, and began writing new material together. She also planned to continue her work with Orbit for the album.

He commented that the material was "quite a little edgier than Ray of Light, elaborating that "It's almost like we started off with a lot of slow ballad songs and she's started to kind of chuck 'em out in favor of more edgy tracks. The album is getting more kind of fast, very European sounding, very English and French sounding, naturally, 'cause everybody working on it apart from her is English or French. Pretty exciting, actually. It's like a follow-up for Ray Of Light without stopping still. It's perfect".

However, after some recording sessions, Madonna felt that she needed a different sound for her project, so she scrapped most of the material and began looking for new producers to work with.

The recording sessions for "Music" began in January 2000 at Sarm West and East Studios in London, England. It was then that French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï was introduced by Madonna's partner Guy Oseary.

In an interview with CNN, Madonna stated: "Guy Oseary, my partner at Maverick [Records], was given a demo by a French artist called Mirwais. [He] slipped it to me and said, 'What do you think [of him] as an artist to sign at Maverick?' [...] I just said 'Oh my God, this is what I want.' I just flipped over it and said, 'Please find out if he wants to work with me.'"

Ahmadzaï spoke little English, and Madonna commented: "The first couple of days we were recording, I wanted to rip my hair out. [...] It didn't seem like there was any way for us to communicate. His manager had to come in and translate everything at first."

She also commented about working with Ahmadzaï and the other producers of the album: "I love to work with the weirdos that no one knows about—the people who have raw talent and who are making music unlike anyone else out there. Music is the future of sound."

Madonna had later proclaimed Ahmadzaï to be a musical "genius". In an interview with MTV's Total Request Live, she said Ahmadzaï was "really influenced by 1970s funk and R&B" and said that the album was "more electronic than her last record, but it is edgier and a bit funkier".

Talking about the inspiration behind "Music," Madonna said the album was "To join the coldness or the remoteness of living in the machine age in the world of high technology with warmth and compassion and a sense of humor. [...] Music is supposed to be a reflection of what's going on in society, and as far as I'm concerned, we've become too complacent."

In an interview with The Face, Madonna was questioned about her mood while developing the album. She commented: "To tell you the truth, I didn't know what the mood was. I feel like an animal that's, like, ready to be sprung from a cage. I've been living a pretty low-key domestic existence and I miss things. Like, I miss performing, and dancing, and being on the road, that kind of energy. So part of the record is about that. And then the other part is about love. So there's the frivolous side of my life and then there's the –hopefully– non-frivolous side of my life. I usually make a record that's one or the other, and I feel I did both on this one".

Structure\Composition

Artwork

Chart Performance

"Music" debuted at #1 in 23 countries. It debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 with over 420,000 copies sold, becoming the first Madonna album to reach the top of the charts in 11 years in the US since "Like a Prayer" in 1989.

The album was certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on November 21, 2005.

As of August 2010, "Music" has sold 2,925,000 copies there according to Nielsen SoundScan and sold more than 11 million copies worldwide.

Critical Reception

At Metacritic, "Music" received an average score of 80 based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised the album's layered music and described Madonna's collaboration with Mirwais as the reason why the album "comes alive with spark and style".

Dimitri Ehrlich from Vibe called the album "a masterpiece of brilliantly arranged keyboards, futuristic drums, and electronica dressings. With folky acoustic guitars and a vaguely spiritual bent to her lyrics (like those on Ray of Light), it's a weird and fresh-sounding album."

Andrew Lynch of Entertainment.ie, who gave the album three out of five stars, claimed that it contains "brilliant futuristic dance music", yet, claimed that the lyrics were "trite".

Robert Christgau from The Village Voice said the record has "consistency and flow" because all of its songs are good and lowbrow: "From Vocoder to cowgirl suit, she's got her sass back."

David Browne was less enthusiastic in Entertainment Weekly, calling it "her most patchwork record since the Sean Penn years... In the way it tiptoes around sundry moods and beats, Music is frustratingly inconsistent, as if Madonna herself weren't sure where to venture next. At times, it feels like a collection of sounds -- clever, intriguing ones, to be sure -- that seek to compensate for ordinary melodies and Madonna's stoic delivery."

Spin said that the album "is a much-needed breath of fresh VapoRub."

Danny Eccleston, in a review for Q, called it a "brave, radical and punchy (at a refreshing 49 minutes in length) album".

A retrospective review in Blender remarked: "Her first 'headphones album'... It's more playful and less pompous than Ray of Light."

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.

Mojo magazine said that "Music is fitful and its charms aren't all immediate, but Madonna is still doing what she does best--giving a lick of pop genius to the unlikely genre of experimental dance music."

NME said that the album is "vocodered, stretched, distorted, warped, deliberately upstaged by beats so showy they belong in a strip joint – quite simply, she's almost managed to make herself disappear. That bluntly explicit title isn't just pointless irony. This record is about the music, not Madonna; about the sounds, not the image."

Slant Magazine criticised Madonna's collaborations with William Orbit, who had worked with her on "Ray of Light", calling them repetitive and uninteresting despite being catchy.

In 2015, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said that "Music" is "still [Madonna's] hardest-rocking and most seductive album."

Promotion

Following the album's release and motherhood, Madonna appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on November 3, 2000, being the first time since her controversial appearance in 1994, and performed "Don't Tell Me".

Madonna made a concert on November 5, 2000, at Roseland Ballroom in New York City. 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. Songs performed included "Impressive Instant", "Runaway Lover", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", and "Music".

In the performance of New York, Madonna wore a T-shirt with "Britney Spears" written on it. She then traveled to Europe to further promote the album. sheperformed "Don't Tell Me" on German game-show Wetten, dass..? on November 11, 2000.

At the MTV Europe Music Awards 2000, Madonna performed "Music" on November 16, 2000 in Stockholm, Sweden.

After being introduced by Ali G as "Maradona", she performed the song wearing a T-shirt with the name of Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue printed on it. She later performed "Don't Tell Me" and "Music" on British television program Top of The Pops, in an appearance aired on November 17, 2000.

On November 24, 2000, Madonna performed the latter songs live on French television program Nulle Part Ailleurs. She then played another concert on November 29, 2000, at Brixton Academy in London. It was shown via the internet to an estimated record-breaking 9 million viewers across the world.

The setlist was the same from the Roseland Ballroom's concert, with the song "Holiday" being added to the setlist. Singer Richard Ashcroft and the Scottish band Texas opened the concert. Shen then performed "Don't Tell Me" on Carràmba! Che fortuna in Italy, on December 2, 2000.

On February 21, 2001, Madonna performed "Music" at the 43rd Grammy Awards.

For the performance, the stage had five giant video screens, which showed images from her career. She entered onto the stage in a classic Cadillac driven by rapper Bow Wow.

She emerged from the back seat of the car in a full-length fur coat and a hat, quickly removing the clothes to reveal a tight leather jacket and jeans. Madonna removed her jacket to reveal a black tank top with the words "Material Girl" printed on it.

Host Jon Stewart commented right after, talking about how he was getting older and commenting, "As I was watching Madonna writhing around on the hood of the car, all I could think was — that’s really gonna drive up her insurance premiums."