Piece of Me
"Piece of Me" | |
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Song |
"Piece of Me" is a song written by Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg, and Klas Åhlund and recorded by American singer Britney Spears. It was confirmed as the second single from Spears' fifth studio album Blackout on her official website.
The track was released for radio airplay on November 27 2007 in the U.S.[1] and November 29 in the U.K. It is also gaining airplay on radio stations across Australia, Finland, Canada, Ireland(Where it reached number 1 on Spin South West's Top 40 Songs) and Brazil.
Music structure and lyrics
The song is said to be one of the most personal from Blackout, despite the fact that lyrically Spears made no reported contribution to it. The lyrics are essentially a day in the life of the artist from her perspective, the production by Bloodshy & Avant quite a contrast from the hip-hop inspired and clearly successful formula of the first release from Blackout, "Gimme More". Instead, the song delves into a harsher sound, which of course can be seen to relate to its lyrical content. Some have questioned its readiness for radio airplay due to this, but it nevertheless continues to gather success.
Reception
Prior to the release of Blackout, the song was amongst the most praised and recommended of the albums tracks and became a fast favourite of reviewers.[2] More recently, Entertainment Weekly has praised the song in their review[3], as has Billboard, most notably saying "the song drips and drools '80s synths, alongside a drowsy midtempo clip". [1]. Bill Lamb from about.com wrote that the song is brilliant, and is one reason why you will want to listen to it.[4]
Early before "Piece of Me" was released, it already received commentaries. New York Times defined the song as: "[a song] introduced by a sludgy bass line, Ms. Spears waxes defensive, in a heavily synthesized voice that’s the main (and sometimes only) instrument: "I’m Miss Bad-Media-Karma, another day another drama/Guess I can’t see the harm in working and being a mama."[5] Rolling Stone quoted the song as a "tabloid-bashing banger" [6]and also included it in their annual "100 Best Songs of the Year" in the #15 position.[7]
Music video
The music video was filmed on November 27 and November 28, 2007 at exclusive Hollywood nightclub and restaurant, Social Hollywood and had a total cost of $500,000 according to dlisted.com.[8] This is the most expensive Spears's music video since "Toxic", which also had the price tag of $500,000. Only $25,000 were spent for Spears' previous video, "Gimme More". The director is Wayne Isham, who had previously worked with Britney in the video "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" and in an international Pepsi commercial in 2002.
On December 13, 2007, People, Us Weekly and ABC, all posted a small preview of the video on their websites, and it was confirmed on the Canadian music countdown show MuchOnDemand, that MuchMusic would premiere the video on Monday, December 17, 2007. As previously announced, the video made its world premiere on the ABC news magazine 20/20 on Friday, December 14, 2007, and became available a few minutes later on Spears' and MTV's official website.
A day after it's release on popular video sharing site, Youtube it has recieved over half a million views'.
The video starts with Spears' dancers getting ready and dressing up with identical blonde wigs and trench coats, as Spears joins them wearing the same outfit, they get into Mercedes-Benz G-wagen that takes them into a night club, while trying to escape the photographers,[9] inside of the club after Britney has to deal with an infiltrated paparazzi, the group finish off the song while dancing in playful way. The storyline is interpolated with shots of Spears singing in front of a colored background wearing a black sequined-bra, fur gilet and ripped jeans, and other scenes where Britney, wearing a fur coat and silver-sequined dress, is ripping off tabloid covers that dish about her. There is an international version of the video, that changes in the first verse, where Spears is seen this time wearing different clothes and a wig, with a flashing background. The international version also features a quick flash of what the Paparazzi thinks is Spears' naked buttocks, while the United States version shows a less racy covered "derrière" as said in the video. Other than this alteration during first verse the rest of the international video remains the same as the US version. Both videos use an edit of the song, removing the last repeat of the chorus and shortening it by twenty seconds. According to many sources the video will be released on iTunes store on Tuesday December 25 Christmas Day.[10] Some have confused the unfinished director's cut version of the video, which was leaked onto youtube before the video's official premiere, to be the finalised international version, showing green screen still in the video, however this has since proven to be false, as the international video does contain the same scenes of Britney ripping tabloid covers as the US version. [2]
Contest
On November 30, 2007, the "Britney Spears Wants a Piece of You" contest was launched on which fans can make videos of "Piece of Me" themselves. The winning video will be aired on TRL on December 20. MTV, Jive Records and Spears herself will decide which video will be the winner.[11]
Single
There will be an alternate cover for the CD single which will feature images of Spears' fans making up the main image of Spears in a montage form. Fans that had signed up for Sony BMG UK Britney Spears updates received the e-mail which read, "We’re going to create a mosaic montage picture of Britney made up of all your pictures so that you can be a piece of her".
Existing Versions
- Album Version 3:32
- Video Version 3:09
- Bimbo Jones Radio Edit 3:03
- Bimbo Jones Club Mix 6:26
- DJ Tiësto Remix
- Mike Rizzo Rough Mix 2:47
- Soul Power Mix
Track listing
These are the main releases of "Piece of Me":
UK Single[12]
- Piece of Me (Album Version)
Credits
- Vocals: Britney Spears
- Producers: Bloodshy & Avant
- Mixer: Niklas Flyckt
- Keyboard, programming, bass, guitar: Bloodshy & Avant
- Additional guitar: Henrik Jonback
- Additional bass: Klas Ahlund
- Background vocals: Robyn Carlsson
Chart performance
"Piece of Me" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number sixty-five upon the release of Blackout, which made the song available prior to release of the single. The song continues to gain airplay on radio stations within the U.S. and has been increasing download sales, and now sits at number forty-seven. It also debuted at a reasonably higher number thirty-seven on the Canadian Hot 100.
Chart (2007) | Peak position | |||
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Bulgaria Singles Top 40[13] | 25 | |||
Canadian Hot 100[14] | 9 | |||
Sweden Singles Chart[13] | 9 | |||
UK Singles Chart | 56 | |||
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[14] | 40 | |||
U.S. Billboard Pop 100[14] | 55 | |||
German Singles Chart | 88
- |
Iceland | 99 | |
Greenland Mainstream Radio Airplay Hot 100 | 29 | |||
trierer.blogg.se | 1 |
References
- ^ "MMR 24-7 Song Airplay Detail". Mediabase. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
- ^ Lamb, Bill (November 30, 2007). "Music Review: Piece of Me". About.com. About.com. Retrieved 2007-13-10.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Watson, Margeaux (October 23, 2007). "Music Review: Blackout (2007)". Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Lamb, Bill (November 30, 2007). "Music Review: Piece of Me a brilliant song". About.com. About.com. Retrieved 2007-13-10.
{{cite web}}
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and|date=
(help) - ^ Sanneh, Kelefa ((2007-11-29)). "'Miss Bad Media Karma' Sings, Too". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/17046611/review/17118068/blackout
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601363/the_100_best_songs_of_2007/4
- ^ http://dlisted.com/node/19224#comments
- ^ Aswad, Jem (2007-11-28). "Britney Spears Shoots 'Piece of Me' Video". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
- ^ http://www.rcalabelgroup.co.uk/advent/
- ^ Nudd, Tim (2007-11-30). "Britney Spears Wants You to Direct Her Next Music Video". People. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
- ^ HMV UK Store (2007-12-12). "Britney Spears - Piece of Me". Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ^ a b http://acharts.us/song/29207
- ^ a b c Britney Spears — Artist Chart History. Billboard. Retrieved on November 8 2007.
External links
- Official "Piece of Me" music video on YouTube
- Britney Spears Official Site,Coming Soon
- Britney Spears Britney.com
- Britney Spears U.K. Official Website
- Britney Spears Hot Music Official Page
- Britney Spears Hot Music US Official page