Around the World (Daft Punk song)
Encyclopedia
"Around the World" is a song by the French
electronic music
duo Daft Punk
. It appeared on the duo's debut album, Homework and was released as a single the same year. It subsequently became a major club hit around the world and arrived at #1 in dance charts. The song is particularly known for the repeated phrasing of its title. It is also known for its music video
, which was directed by Michel Gondry
and choreographed by Blanca Li
. In October 2011, NME
placed it at number 21 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
is a steady bassline and a vocoder
-processed voice singing "around the world" in continuous chains. The phrase occurs 144 times in the album version and 80 times in the radio edit
.
Upon analysis of the song, Michel Gondry
noted its distinctive structure: "I realized how genius and simple the music was. Only five different instruments, with very few patterns, each to create numerous possibilities of figures. Always using the repetition, and stopping just before it's too much." He also noted the similarity between the bassline
of "Around the World" and that of the Chic
song "Good Times".
A cover version
of "Around the World" was released in 2006 as "Around the World Again" by Nicky Van She and Dangerous Dan. A remix of the will.i.am
song "I Got It from My Mama
" included a sample from "Around the World." Daft Punk failed to approve use of the sample and refused will.i.am permission to release the remix. A music video was produced with the sample included, however. A song titled "Around the World" was released by rapper
P.M. that contains a sample of "Around the World". Señor Coconut released a cover of "Around the World" on his 2008 album, Atom™ presents: Around the World with Señor Coconut and his Orchestra.
's music video
for the song features robot
s walking around in a circle on a platform (which represents a vinyl record), tall athletes (as described by Gondry) wearing tracksuit
s with small prosthetic
heads walking up and down stairs, women dressed like synchronized swimmers (described by Gondry as "disco girls") moving up and down another set of stairs, skeletons dancing in the center of the "record," and mummies
dancing in time with the song's drum pattern.
This is meant to be a visual representation of the song; each element in the video represents a different instrument. According to Gondry's notes, the androids represent the singing robot voice; the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/descending bass guitar; the femininity of the disco girls represents the high-pitched keyboard; the "itchy" skeletons serve for the guitars; the mummies represent the drum machine.
"Around the World" was Gondry's first attempt at bringing organized dancing to his music videos. "I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don't think choreography should be shot in close-ups." The sequence, initially developed by Gondry, was further expanded and streamlined by choreographer Blanca Li. Costumes for the video were designed by Florence Fontaine, the mother of Gondry's son. The flashing lights were operated by the director's brother, Olivier "Twist" Gondry. As Michel Gondry stated, "It all came down to a family affair."
Elements of the music video appear in the video for the LCD Soundsystem
song "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
". The overall design has also been replicated for the Freemasons
' "Rain Down Love" video.
CD
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
duo Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
. It appeared on the duo's debut album, Homework and was released as a single the same year. It subsequently became a major club hit around the world and arrived at #1 in dance charts. The song is particularly known for the repeated phrasing of its title. It is also known for its music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
, which was directed by Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
and choreographed by Blanca Li
Blanca Li
Blanca Li is a choreographer and ballet dancer from Granada, Spain. She was born January 12, 1964. Her style varies from flamenco to hip hop.One of her choreographic works were for the video Around the World by Daft Punk.- External links :...
. In October 2011, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
placed it at number 21 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Composition
The key hookHook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
is a steady bassline and a vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
-processed voice singing "around the world" in continuous chains. The phrase occurs 144 times in the album version and 80 times in the radio edit
Radio edit
In music, a radio edit is a modification to make a song more suitable for airplay, whether it be adjusted for length, profanity, subject matter, instrumentation, or form...
.
Upon analysis of the song, Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
noted its distinctive structure: "I realized how genius and simple the music was. Only five different instruments, with very few patterns, each to create numerous possibilities of figures. Always using the repetition, and stopping just before it's too much." He also noted the similarity between the bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
of "Around the World" and that of the Chic
Chic (band)
Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...
song "Good Times".
A cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Around the World" was released in 2006 as "Around the World Again" by Nicky Van She and Dangerous Dan. A remix of the will.i.am
Will.i.am
William James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...
song "I Got It from My Mama
I Got It from My Mama
"I Got It from My Mama" is a hip hop song by American rapper will.i.am. It was released as the lead single from will.i.am's third solo album, Songs About Girls. It is primarily concerned with the inheritance of sexual attractiveness of human females through the maternal genetic line...
" included a sample from "Around the World." Daft Punk failed to approve use of the sample and refused will.i.am permission to release the remix. A music video was produced with the sample included, however. A song titled "Around the World" was released by rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
P.M. that contains a sample of "Around the World". Señor Coconut released a cover of "Around the World" on his 2008 album, Atom™ presents: Around the World with Señor Coconut and his Orchestra.
Music video
Michel GondryMichel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
's music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the song features robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s walking around in a circle on a platform (which represents a vinyl record), tall athletes (as described by Gondry) wearing tracksuit
Tracksuit
A tracksuit is an article of clothing consisting of two parts: trousers and a jacket usually with front zipper. It was originally intended for use in sports, mainly as what athletes wore over competition clothing and would take off before competition. In modern times, it has become commonly worn...
s with small prosthetic
Prosthesis
In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control...
heads walking up and down stairs, women dressed like synchronized swimmers (described by Gondry as "disco girls") moving up and down another set of stairs, skeletons dancing in the center of the "record," and mummies
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
dancing in time with the song's drum pattern.
This is meant to be a visual representation of the song; each element in the video represents a different instrument. According to Gondry's notes, the androids represent the singing robot voice; the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/descending bass guitar; the femininity of the disco girls represents the high-pitched keyboard; the "itchy" skeletons serve for the guitars; the mummies represent the drum machine.
"Around the World" was Gondry's first attempt at bringing organized dancing to his music videos. "I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don't think choreography should be shot in close-ups." The sequence, initially developed by Gondry, was further expanded and streamlined by choreographer Blanca Li. Costumes for the video were designed by Florence Fontaine, the mother of Gondry's son. The flashing lights were operated by the director's brother, Olivier "Twist" Gondry. As Michel Gondry stated, "It all came down to a family affair."
Elements of the music video appear in the video for the LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem was a prominent American dance-punk band from New York City. It was fronted by American singer-songwriter and producer James Murphy, co-founder of record label DFA Records...
song "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
"Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" is the fifth single from LCD Soundsystem, released on February 21, 2005. The accompanying music video paid tongue-in-cheek homage to Spike Jonze's and Michel Gondry's music videos for Daft Punk's "Da Funk" and "Around the World," respectively...
". The overall design has also been replicated for the Freemasons
Freemasons (band)
Freemasons are an English dance band from Brighton, East Sussex, England. The act consists of producers Russell Small and James Wiltshire .-2005-2007: Early Career:Their name is taken from the Brighton pub, Freemasons Tavern, Hove, which they frequently...
' "Rain Down Love" video.
Track listing
12" (catalog V25D-38608)- "Around the World" (radio edit) – 3:11
- "Around the World" (Tee's Frozen Sun mix) – 7:56
- "Around the World" (Motorbass Vice mix) – 6:39
- "Around the World" (album version) – 7:07
CD
- "Around the World" (radio edit) – 3:59
- "Around the World" (album version) – 7:07
- "Teachers" (extended mix) – 5:51
- "Around the World" (Motorbass Vice mix) – 6:39
Chart positions
| Charts (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
11 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 15 |
| Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) | 15 |
| Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia) | 4 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 28 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 9 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 5 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 20 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 14 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 20 |
| Billboard Hot 100 | 61 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 1 |
External links
- "Around the World" music video at MTV MusicMTV MusicMTV Music is a video/music sharing website launched on October 28, 2008 by MTV. The website offers a large collection of music videos that date back to the early 1980s...