Music is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on September 19, 2000 by Maverick Records and distributed byWarner Bros. Records. A two-disc Special Edition was also released in June 2001 to promote the Drowned World Tour, containing an additional CD of remixes and the video of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".
Madonna collaborated with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï for this album. Music is oriented in electronic and dance-pop music, which further developed Madonna's move toward European dance music, however, the album also contains elements of rock,[4] country and folk music.[5] Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from critics, who praised Madonna's collaboration with Mirwais, as well as the album's musical creativity. It was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards although it eventually won only one award for "Best Recording Package". The album is also listed by Rolling Stonemagazine as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Commercially, Music debuted at number one in over 23 countries around the world and sold more than four million copies in the first ten days. With 15 million copies sold worldwide to date, it is her best selling album of the 2000s.
Music spawned three singles and one promotional single. The title track reached the top of the charts in 25 countries and became Madonna's 12th number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as a positive critical reception, being listed by Rolling Stone as one of the best songs of the 2000s[6] and receiving two Grammy Award nominations. The next single, "Don't Tell Me", was also commercially successful, reaching number one in the top ten in the US[7] and the UK[8] and several other countries. "What It Feels Like For A Girl" also did well commercially, reaching the top ten in the UK, Italy, New Zealand and other countries,[9] yet it failed to reach the top twenty in the US, peaking at twenty-three.[10] Its accompanying video generated controversy, with critics deeming it to be violent, and it was banned from US MTV.[11] "Impressive Instant", a promotional single, was also released in 2001 as a club single, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.[12]
Alongside Ray of Light, Music was promoted by the Drowned World Tour, which was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, grossing around $75 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing tour of 2001,[13] and receiving two nominations at the 2001 Pollstar Concert Industry Awards.[14] The album was further promoted by the Don't Tell Me Promo Tour, a promotional tour consisting of two concerts. Songs from the album have been sung in Madonna's following tours.
After the critical and commercial success of her 1998 album Ray of Light, Madonna intended to embark on a new concert tour. 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 Musicalbum. 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."
To achieve a more European dance style of music, Madonna collaborated with French electronica artist 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 onRay 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.
The song "American Pie" was included on all versions of the album outside North America. Also, included as a bonus track only on the Japanese and Australian releases, was a song called "Cyber-Raga". 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 song "Lo Que Siente La Mujer". 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.
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.[citation needed]
The album, described as having a "more experimental direction"[5] essentially consists of dance-pop tracks influenced from electronica and European dance music, and is noted to have elements of Eurodance,[15] Eurodisco,[16] electro,[17] trip hop,[18] and techno music;[19] however, despite this, the album does also contain ballads, and retains a rocky, American edge, incorporating country,[15] folk, and rock music within its composition. 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 spoke in French on the song "Paradise (Not for Me)", and sang 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.
The 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.[26] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic praised the album's layered music, giving it four out of five stars, and described Madonna's collaboration with Mirwais as the reason why the album "comes alive with spark and style".[18] 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.[24] 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.[23] 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".[20] Robert Christgau gave the album an A rating, describing the tracks as "good, all chintzy".[22] Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a A rating, writing that "Who else could release their catchiest album nearly 20 years into a career? The title song recaptures the simple perfection of "Holiday," and brings her career full circle."[21] David Browne from the same magazine claimed that it "doesn't close the book on Madonna, but it pulls only a few new tomes off the shelf."[27] Dimitri Ehrlich from Vibe described the album as "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."[25]
Music earned a total of five Grammy Award nominations. In 2001, the album won "Best Recording Package" and was nominated for "Best Pop Vocal Album", while the title track was nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". In 2002, Madonna received one more nomination for "Don't Tell Me" in the "Best Short Form Music Video" category. The album is listed at number 452 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is Madonna's fourth album on the list, the most among female artists.[28] Music is also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[29]
In the first week of its release, Music debuted at number one in 23 countries around the world.[30] CNN reported that the album sold quickly with the sales of more than four million copies in the first ten days.[31] To date, the album has reportedly sold 15 million copies worldwide.[32] In the United States, the album debuted atop the chart with the first week sales of 420,000 copies.[30] Music became Madonna's first number-one album on the chart in eleven years since Like a Prayer (1989).[30] It was certified three times platinum the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of three million units.[33] Music reached number one on the European Top 100 Albums. It was certified five times platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for shipment of five million copies.[34] In Hong Kong, the album was awarded a Gold Disc Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for becoming one of ten biggest-selling international album for 2001.[35]
"Impressive Instant" was released as a club promo only single with remixes by Peter Rauhofer on September 18, 2001.[36] It went to #1 on the United States Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart where it stayed for two weeks.[37] The song was Madonna's 27th number 1 dance hit. Madonna originally wanted to release it as the fourth single. Warner Bros. wanted "Amazing" as the next single. Madonna felt the catchiness and sound of "Amazing" was too similar to "Beautiful Stranger" and wanted the more eclectic and futuristic "Impressive Instant" so they were deadlocked. Warner Bros. did plan to move forward with the release of "Amazing" without Madonna's help since she was too busy to film a music video due to prepping for her next tour. Warner Bros. planned to promote the single with a music video cut from the live version of "Amazing" from Madonna's Drowned World Tour, but Madonna scrapped the song from the set list to be sure that Warner Bros. couldn't promote it, and the fourth single idea was over.[citation needed]
The Don't Tell Me Promo Tour was a group of two brief promotional concerts to support the album. The first was on November 5, 2000 at Roseland Ballroomin New York City and the other 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. Songs performed included "Impressive Instant", "Runaway Lover", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", "Holiday" (London only), and "Music". 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 and was produced and filmed by Chris Frampton's International webcaster MediaWave, 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.[38]
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.[38]
Throughout the event the MSN sites worldwide stayed online and were more than able to handle the tremendous amount of internet traffic. The Team at Webcaster MediaWave managed the routing of the traffic though their global load balanced network. 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.[38] 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.[38] All of which were Webcast by Chris Frampton's MediaWave, the leading webcaster of the day, and subsequent Microsoft investment.
The album received further promotion from the Drowned World Tour.