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, New Zealand, Finland, Poland, Canada, Ireland and Brazil.
Music structure and lyrics
The lyrics are essentially a day in the life of the artist from her perspective. It shows Spears in her daily life dealing with constant media torture and papparrazi. 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.
Reception
Prior to the release of Blackout, the song was amongst the most praised and recommended of the albums tracks and became a fast favorite 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".[4] Bill Lamb from about.com wrote that the song is brilliant, and is one reason why you will want to listen to it.[5] 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."[6] Rolling Stone quoted the song as a "tabloid-bashing banger" [7] and was included in their annual "100 Best Songs of the Year" at number fifteen.[8]
Music video
The music video[9] was filmed on November 27 and November 28, 2007 at an exclusive Hollywood nightclub and restaurant, Social Hollywood, and had a budget of US$ 500,000[10] compared to her previous video, "Gimme More", amounting to US$25,000. This was the most expensive Spears' music video since "Toxic," which had the budget of $1,000,000.[11] It was directed by Wayne Isham, who had previously worked with Spears in the video "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" and in the international Pepsi commercial campaign in 2002.
On December 13, 2007, People, Us Weekly and ABC 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 and also on her official YouTube channel. The video was then premiered on TRL on December 19, 2007. The video cuts off the repeated chorus and the repeated line at the end of the song. The video was released to the U.S and UK's iTunes Store on December 23, 2007.
The video has already hit over 4.9 million in less than 2 weeks since its release on YouTube. This made the video the top seen music video on Youtube on its first week of release since Justin Timberlake's number one smash hit "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around" with over 2.7 million views on its first week.
The music video begins with a group of ruthless paparazzi taking pictures outside a residential area where various blonde girls are changing clothes and playfully dancing. Spears is then shown in front of a multi-colored illuminated background wearing a brown-fur vest, black bra, and destroyed jeans. Scenes with Spears tearing negative tabloid covers down and creating positive ones are interpolated throughout the video. Spears later joins the other girls who have changed into matching blonde-bob wigs, dark sunglasses, and black trench coats as they enter a car being hounded by paparazzi. The girls make it to the party and exit the car in different clothes. Spears is wearing a sequent purple dress and Kimoto styled jacket. Inside the party a rouge paparazzi joins the girls in the bathroom and Spears finds out he is a pap. She writes “sucker” on his forehead with red lip-stick and begins to dance with her friends in the bathroom. Lastly the girls are seen back at the apartment watching an entertainment news show where the “Britney invasion” from earlier is reported. The final scene shows a close up of Spears’ face smirking.
The video came in two versions: USA Version and International Version.
The International Version included scenes of Britney with a short blonde wig at the beginning. The USA version excluded the wig scenes. The videos both included the same video effects, though.
Contest
On November 30, 2007, the "Britney Spears Wants a Piece of You" contest was launched in which fans can make videos of "Piece of Me" themselves using MTV.com's Video Remixer. The winning video aired on TRL on December 20. MTV, Jive Records and Spears herself chose the winner.[12]
Artwork
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".[13]
Formats and track listings
- UK CD Single
- "Piece of Me" (Main Version)
- "Piece of Me" (Boz O Lo Remix)
- Australian/European CD Single
- "Piece of Me" (Main Version)
- "Piece of Me" (Boz O Lo Remix)
- "Piece of Me" (Bimbo Jones Remix)
- "Piece of Me" (Vito Benito Vocal)
- "Gimme More" (Kimme More Remix feat. Lil' Kim)
- International Asian CD Single
- "Piece of Me" (Radio Edit)
- "Piece of Me" (Mike Rizzo Rough Remix)
- "Piece of Me" (Bimbo Jones Remix)
- "Gimme More" (Kimme More Remix feat. Lil' Kim)
- "Piece of Me" (International Music Video)
Official versions and remixes
- Album Version – 3:32
- Video Edit/Radio Edit – 3:09
- Bimbo Jones Remix – 6:26
- Bimbo Jones Radio Edit – 3:03
- Mike Rizzo Rough Remix – 2:47
- Mysto & Pizzi Remix 4:37
- Tiesto Remix
- Boz O Lo Remix
- Vito Benito Vocal
- DaVinChe Remix
- Bill Hamel Remix
- Johnny Vicious Remix
There is a fake instrumental going around listed as official; however, it's fan-made using a karaoke version plus samples from the original 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 Åhlund
- Background vocals: Robyn Carlsson
Charts
"Piece of Me" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at #65 upon the release of Blackout, which made the song available prior to release of the single. Piece of Me is currently #21. The song continues to gain airplay on radio stations within the U.S. and has been increasing download sales, and now sits at #15 on iTunes. It has reached #11 on the Canadian Hot 100.
Chart (2007) | Peak position |
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Bulgaria Singles Top 40[14] | 20 |
Canadian Hot 100[15] | 11 |
Irish Singles Chart[16] | 24 |
Sweden Singles Chart[14] | 9 |
Australian Digital Singles Chart[17] | 24 |
UK Singles Chart | 69 |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[15] | 21 |
U.S. Billboard Pop 100[15] | 23 |
United World Chart | 38 |
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 2007-10-13.
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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.
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(help) - ^ [1]
- ^ Lamb, Bill (November 30, 2007). "Music Review: Piece of Me a brilliant song". About.com. About.com. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
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(help) - ^ Sanneh, Kelefa ((2007-11-29)). "'Miss Bad Media Karma' Sings, Too". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
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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
- ^ "Video: Britney Spears 'Piece of Me' Preview Now Online!". The Post Chronicle. 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Britney Spears Can Be Replaced". Dlisted.com. 2007-12-04. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ unbreakableboy (2007-11-09). "List: Costly music videos in history". HeyBritneyForums.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2007-12-20.
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- ^ Nudd, Tim (2007-11-30). "Britney Spears Wants You to Direct Her Next Music Video". People. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
- ^ "Piece of Britney Sleeve contest". 2007-12-06. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
- ^ a b http://acharts.us/bulgaria_singles_top_40
- ^ a b c "Britney Spears — Artist Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ http://www.irma.ie/aucharts.asp
- ^ http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display.asp?chart=1DT40
External links
- Official "Piece of Me" music video on YouTube
- Britney Spears' official website
- Britney Spears' Blackout official website
- Official UK website