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Virtual Insanity

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"Virtual Insanity"
Song
B-side"Bullet"

"Virtual Insanity" is the lead single from Jamiroquai's third studio album, Travelling Without Moving. The song reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted at #38 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart upon the single's release in America in 1997.

Music video

"Virtual Insanity" is Jamiroquai's best known music video. At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards in September 1997, it earned ten nominations, winning four awards, including "Breakthrough Video" and the "Best Video of the Year." In 2006, it was voted 9th by MTV viewers in a poll on music videos that 'broke the rules.' It was directed by Jonathan Glazer. The single was released in the U.S. in 1997. At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Jamiroquai performed the song, recreating the famous floor moving concept with two moving walkways on the stage floor, going in different directions, for Jay Kay to use to dance on.

Video description

File:Virtualinsanityvideo.JPG
Jay Kay in the "Virtual Insanity" music video

The video consists mainly of Jamiroquai's singer, Jay Kay, dancing and performing the song in a bright white room with a grey floor. Throughout the video, there are several combinations of couches and easy chair, which are the only furniture in the room. The video earned recognition from critics for its special effects: the floor appears to move while the rest of the room stays still. At some points the camera tilts up or down to show the floor or ceiling for a few seconds, and when it returns to the central position, the scene has completely changed. Other scenes show a crow flying across the room, a cockroach on the floor, the couches bleeding and the other members of Jamiroquai in a corridor being blown away by wind. This became the second video released by Jamiroquai to be successfully done in one complete, albeit composited, shot, Space Cowboy being the first. In a short making-of documentary, director Jonathan Glazer describes how the walls move on a stationary grey floor with no detail, to give the illusion that the floor is moving. In several shots, chairs or couches are fixed to the walls so that they appear to be standing still, when in fact they are moving. In other shots chairs remain stationary on the floor, but the illusion is such that they appear to be moving. The moving walls were not completely rigid and can be seen in some shots to wiggle slightly.

Single information

The first B-side of the single is the song "Do You Know Where You're Coming From", which features M-Beat. It was released as a single earlier in 1996. The second B-side of the single, "Bullet", is probably one of the most mysterious Jamiroquai tracks ever written. The song starts with a 3-second percussion intro, and switches into a longer, very claustrophobic introduction. During this part, very faint vocals can be heard in the background, while the melody progresses. The vocals remained shrouded in a veil of mystery, until recently, after a fan did some "research" on the song.[1] The broken lyrics seem to have been printed out by accident in a misprint of the booklet of the band's second album, The Return of the Space Cowboy.

Track listing

UK CD1 (663613 2)
  1. "Virtual Insanity" – 4:04
  2. "Do You Know Where You're Coming From?" (Original Mix) – 4:59
  3. "Bullet" – 4:19
  4. "Virtual Insanity" (Album Version) – 5:40
UK CD2 (663613 5)
  1. "Virtual Insanity" – 4:04
  2. "Space Cowboy" (Classic Radio) – 4:01
  3. "Emergency On Planet Earth" (London Rican Mix) – 7:10
  4. "Do You Know Where You're Coming From" – 4:59
Cassette (663613 4)
  1. "Virtual Insanity" – 4:04
  2. "Virtual Insanity" (Album Version) – 5:40
  3. "Virtual Insanity" (Unreality Mix) – 3:54

Chart performance

Chart (1996/1997) Peak
position
Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia)[2] 15
Canadian RPM Singles Chart[3] 64
Finnish Singles Chart[2] 7
French Singles Chart[2] 15
German Singles Chart[4] 63
Irish Singles Chart 7
Italian Singles Chart[5] 1
Swedish Singles Chart[2] 32
UK Singles Chart[6] 3
U.S. Billboard Pop Songs[7] 39
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[8] 38
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40[9] 37
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play[10] 34

References

  1. ^ "International Jamiroquai Fan Discussion Forum". Jamirotalk. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Steffen Hung. "Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  3. ^ "Top Singles - Volume 65, No. 22, August 04 1997". RPM. Retrieved 26 February 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche". musicline.de. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: J". Hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  6. ^ "Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity". Chart Stats. 31 August 1996. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  7. ^ "Jamiroquai : Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Jamiroquai : Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  9. ^ "Jamiroquai : Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  10. ^ "Jamiroquai : Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
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