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Around the World (Daft Punk song)

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"Around the World"
Song

"Around the World" is a song by the 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 throughout 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.

Structure

The key hook is a steady bassline and a vocoder-processed[1] 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."[1]

A cover version of the song was released in 2006 as "Around the World Again" by Nicky Van She and Dangerous Dan.[2]

Music video

Michel Gondry's music video for the song features robots walking around in a circle on a platform (which represents a vinyl record), tall athletes walking up and down stairs, women dressed like synchronized swimmers (described by Gondry as "disco girls")[1] 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,[1] the androids represent the singing robot voice; the physicality and 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."[3] 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."[1]

Elements of the music video have been replicated for the Freemasons' "Rain Down Love" video.

Track listing

  1. Around the World (Radio Edit) (3:59)
  2. Around the World (Album Version) (7:07)
  3. Teachers (Extended Mix) (5:51)
  4. Around the World (Motorbass Vice Mix) (6:39)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e The Work of Director Michel Gondry companion book (2003)
  2. ^ Around the World Again at Discogs. Retrieved on August 30 2007.
  3. ^ "Around the World" director-file.com. Retrieved on October 17, 2006.
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