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Virtual Insanity

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"Virtual Insanity"
Single by Jamiroquai
from the album Travelling Without Moving
B-side
Released19 August 1996 (1996-08-19)
GenrePop, acid jazz, dance-pop, funk
Length
  • 5:40 (album version)
  • 4:04 (single version)
  • 3:46 (radio edit)
LabelSony Soho Square
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Al Stone
Jamiroquai singles chronology
"Do U Know Where You're Coming From"
(1996) 		"Virtual Insanity"
(1996) 		"Cosmic Girl"
(1996)
Audio sample
Music video
"Virtual Insanity" on YouTube

"Virtual Insanity" is a song by British funk and acid jazz band Jamiroquai, released on 19 August 1996 by Sony Soho Square as the second single from their third studio album, Travelling Without Moving (1996). The song was written by Jay Kay and Toby Smith, and produced by Al Stone. Its music video, directed by Jonathan Glazer, was released in September 1996, garnering ten nominations and winning four, including for Video of the Year, at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. The music video has since become an Internet meme.

"Virtual Insanity" was a number-one hit in Iceland and reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. As well as becoming a top ten hit in Finland, Ireland, and Italy, the song also climbed to number 38 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart upon the single's release in the United States in 1997 becoming one of their biggest U.S. hits. The song also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.[1]

Composition

[edit]

The song's lyrics took inspiration from a walk in an underground city in Sendai, Japan, by singer Jay Kay and the band's didgeridoo player, Wallis Buchanan, with Kay writing:[2] "Everything was covered in snow and there was absolutely no one about. [We took] these stairs that led down to this whole underground city … with all the color and noise you get in Japanese streets."[3] The song's title is a play off virtual reality.[4]

Initially recorded as a rough demo, it was only after the label requested a single for Travelling Without Moving that the song was fully realised and was the last track to be properly recorded.[5] The song has a piano opening with "buoyant keyboards and soaring strings."[6][7] The riff continues throughout the song.

Thematically, the lyrics are concerned with issues like overpopulation, human genetic enhancement, eugenics, and ecological collapse.[8][9]

The first B-side of the single is the song "Do U Know Where You're Coming From", in collaboration with M-Beat. It was released as a single earlier in 1996. The second B-side of the single is "Bullet".[10][11]

In the beginning of the song's album version, a sound that is sampled from the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien appears. It is the sound sequence when the S.O.S. signal appears on the screens of the spaceship Nostromo at the start of the film.[12] The album version is longer, including the addition of extra vocals and a bridge.[13]

Critical reception

[edit]

The song received favourable reviews from music critics. Scottish Aberdeen Press and Journal viewed it as "cool if lyrically trite".[14] Justin Chadwick from Albumism said that the "midtempo, piano-driven groove" finds the singer "lamenting the proliferation of technology at the expense of human connection and preservation of our planet", as best evidenced in the chorus with lines such as, "Always seem to, be governed by this love we have / For useless, twisting, our new technology / Oh, now there is no sound—for we all live underground". He added, "While the song itself reflected Jamiroquai's more mature and polished sound at the time, it was the accompanying video unveiled the following month that became the band's transformative, watershed moment."[15] Larry Flick from Billboard described it as "wriggling" and "funk-fortified".[16] In 2023, the magazine ranked "Virtual Insanity" number 68 in their list of "The 100 Best Pop Songs Never to Hit the Hot 100", writing, "An infectiously groovy bit of future-fearing Stevie Wonder pastiche from a British funk band — with one of the all-time great music videos, featuring singer Jay Kay getting down with his bad self on a magically-moving dancefloor while wearing a somewhat ridiculous, now-iconic furry hat."[17] A reviewer from Liverpool Echo noted, "If you stop dancing, and listen to the lyrics, you see a whole new side to singer Jay Kay."[18] Music Week gave it four out of five, adding, "From its simple piano opening onwards, this gorgeous, immaculately-recorded track doesn't put a note wrong. Further evidence that Jay Kay is maturing musically."[19] Ted Kessler from NME named it a "bittersweet" gem and a "fine" single.[20] Sam Taylor from The Observer remarked its "effortless swank".[21] Aidin Viziri from Salon felt the singer "keeps the party alive with unbridled enthusiasm", "exploring the chaos of modern life".[22]

Music video

[edit]
A screenshot from the "Virtual Insanity" music video
A screenshot from the beginning of the music video for "Virtual Insanity", with singer Jay Kay balancing still as he appears to be propelled towards the camera.

The music video for "Virtual Insanity" was directed by English filmmaker Jonathan Glazer. It was filmed on 12 August 1996.[23] Glazer was specifically chosen to direct the video due to his work on Radiohead's music video for "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".[24] At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards in September 1997, it earned ten nominations and won four awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography, and the highly coveted Video of the Year. In 2006, it was voted ninth by MTV viewers in a poll on music videos that "broke the rules".[citation needed] At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Jamiroquai performed the song on travelators (which Kay had originally intended for the music video),[4][25] recreating the famous floor-moving concept with two moving walkways on the stage floor that went in opposite directions. Kay danced on the walkways, with the two bugs crawling through the hall, a bird flying, and red blood all over the floor.[26]

Content and ideation

[edit]
Row House in Sumiyoshi by Tadao Ando, 1976. Ando's concrete-based architectural style inspired the set design for the music video.

The music video consists mainly of Jamiroquai's singer, Jay Kay, dancing and singing the song in a bright white room with a grey floor. Throughout the video, there are several combinations of plastic-wrapped leather couches and chairs seemingly moving around the room on their own accord, which are the only pieces of furniture in the room, and Kay is seen using a sequence of elaborate dance manoeuvres to avoid being hit by them.[27] The video earned recognition from critics for its special effects, ultimately winning an MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects.[28] The floor appears to move while the rest of the room stays still; in fact, this was the original idea but was later determined by one of Glazer's team that it would cost about £280,000 (equivalent to £663,856 in 2023; ~US$810,000 in 2024 terms) for the rig alone; the final cost for the entire video was about £150,000 (equivalent to £355,637 in 2023; ~US$452,000 in 2024 terms).[29] Instead, it is the walls that move, an idea from one of Jonathan Glazer's crew which was initially seen as comically ridiculous by most of Glazer's team but was immediately recognised as brilliant by Glazer, who called up Kay at about 1am to inform him of the idea. Kay, possibly half asleep, did not understand the idea until he arrived at the set and understood Glazer's intention and saw the rig in action.[29]

"No computer trickery was used," Glazer said. "What we did was put the whole set on wheels and attach the camera to one wall. The furniture also had little wheels, and we had guys moving the set and the furniture [outside of the frame]. The floor never moved. It was like a magician's trick."[30]

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; this was done to mask the cuts and make it look like a continuous take (when in fact there were a total of four takes).[31] 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.[27]

In a short making-of documentary, Glazer describes how the walls move on a stationary grey floor with no detail, which give the illusion that objects on the floor are moving.[32][29] 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, the furniture remain stationary on the floor, but the illusion is such that they appear to be moving.[33] Parts of the floor had tape markings as a reference point for Kay, which had to be digitally deleted in post-production, but Kay said he had to improvise parts such as where he does a blind 180-degree spin on his knees to avoid hitting a wall or when he tiptoes past an incoming couch that was about to pin him against the wall; in both cases, it was only upon playing the footage back that he realised how finely he had avoided danger.[29]

In September 2021, a remaster of the video in 4K was premiered on YouTube to promote a new vinyl release of Travelling Without Moving.[34]

Popularity

[edit]

In addition to heavy rotation on MTV and other music television networks upon release and still to this day, the video for "Virtual Insanity" has amassed more than 280 million views on YouTube as of April 2024[35][36] and has seen renewed attention on TikTok, gaining millions more views through various internet memes and remixes.[37]

[edit]

The music video for "Virtual Insanity" has been parodied, referred to, remixed, or imitated in countless music videos, television shows, and internet memes. A TV promo by comedian Chris Rock was made for the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, whereby Rock imitates Jay Kay in a comedic fashion through digital superimposition.[38] In 2007, the video's original director, Jonathan Glazer, uploaded a parody of the video whereby the room was digitally turned into a bathroom and had Jay Kay appear to interact with patrons in a comedic fashion, again using digital superimposition.[39]

Austin Mahone and Pitbull took inspiration from it in the video for their 2014 single "Mmm Yeah",[40] and it is one of the many songs parodied in the video for FIDLAR's 2015 single "40oz. on Repeat".[41][42] Other notable parodies include a cutaway from the season 14 Family Guy episode "Scammed Yankees", which went viral as an internet meme in 2023 under the portmanteau "Cartermiroquai".[43][44] It was also referenced in the season 11 Robot Chicken episode "May Cause the Exact Thing You're Taking This to Avoid". The music video also inspired a video game entitled Jamiroquai Game, wherein the player must avoid the various objects in the scene, akin to the video.[45]

Junya Watanabe of Comme des Garçons presented a men's fall/winter 2022 mini fashion show in tribute to Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" music video.[citation needed]

Accolades

[edit]
Year Organization Award Result
1997 MTV Video Music Award Video of the Year Won
Best New Artist Nominated
Breakthrough Video Won
Best Direction (Directors: Jonathan Glazer) Nominated
Best Choreography (Choreographers: Jason Kay) Nominated
Best Visual Effects (Visual Effects: Jonathan Glazer and Sean Broughton) Won
Best Art Direction (Art Director: John Bramble) Nominated
Best Editing (Editor: Jonathan Glazer and John McManus) Nominated
Best Cinematography (Cinematographer: Stephen Keith-Roach) Won
International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Europe Nominated

Track listings

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Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Italy (FIMI)[79] Gold 25,000‡
Japan (RIAJ)[80]
Full-length ringtone 		Gold 100,000*
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[81] Gold 30,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[82] Platinum 600,000‡

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

[edit]
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
United Kingdom 19 August 1996
  • CD
  • cassette
 Sony Soho Square [83]
Japan 11 September 1996 CD Epic [84]
United States 20 May 1997
Work [85]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Considine, J.D. (26 February 1998). "Odd Spins; Grammys: Upsets are sprinkled through the Grammy Awards, but Dylan and other veterans get their due.: [Final Edition]". The Baltimore Sun. ProQuest 407010278. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
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  3. ^ Kay, Jay (2013). Travelling Without Moving (liner notes). Jamiroquai. Sony Music Entertainment. 88691967912.
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