Zero Gravity (song)

Last updated
"Zero Gravity"
Kerli Zero Gravity.png
Single by Kerli
ReleasedMarch 20, 2012
Format Digital download
Recorded2011-2012
Genre Dance-pop
Length3:51
Label Island Def Jam
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) SeventyEight
Kerli singles chronology
"Army of Love"
(2011)		"Zero Gravity"
(2012)		"Glow in the Dark"
(2012)

"Zero Gravity" is a single by Estonian recording artist Kerli,produced by Jakob Hazell and Svante Halldin. It was officially released on March 20, 2012 by The Island Def Jam Music Group on digital media stores. The song draws heavy inspiration from space tourism, air, and more prominently, sylphs, [1] as reflected in the music video which premiered on March 22. [2] The song is about "merging with the spirit, becoming all love." [1]

Kerli Estonian singer

Kerli Kõiv, better known mononymously as Kerli, is an Estonian singer and songwriter.

The Island Def Jam Music Group American record label group formed in 1998

The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American record label group formed in 1998 by combining the operations of 14+ record labels including Island Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Mercury Records. In 2011, Motown Records was split from The Universal/Motown Records Group and subsequently became a division of The Island Def Jam Music Group. On April 1, 2014, Universal Music announced that Island Def Jam's operations would be split between three entities: Island Records, Motown Records, and Def Jam Recordings.

Space tourism Space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes

Space tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. To date, orbital space tourism has been performed only by the Russian Space Agency. Work also continues towards developing suborbital space tourism vehicles. This is being done by aerospace companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. In addition, SpaceX announced in 2018 that it is planning on sending two space tourists on a free-return trajectory around the Moon on the upper stage of SpaceX's BFR rocket, known as the Big Falcon Spaceship (BFS).

Contents

"Zero Gravity" debuted at number 32 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the week of April 28, 2012. [3] During its eighth week on the chart, the song peaked at number 6 for the week of June 16.

<i>Billboard</i> (magazine) American music magazine

Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style, and is also known for its music charts, including the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular songs and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows.

Background

Kerli debuted "Zero Gravity" during a performance in Chicago in August 2011 and a demo of the studio version premiered on the Seattle radio station C89.5 on September 2, 2011. [4] On March 6, 2012, C89.5 premiered the final version of the song.

Composition

Kerli recalled thinking to herself upon hearing of space tourism, specifically the project of Richard Branson (who Kerli admires) "This is incredible! Who would have known I can witness this during my lifetime? I should write a song about this and it should be called 'Zero Gravity'." Kerli began to write the song shortly before abandoning it. A year later, Kerli was scheduled for two studio sessions while in Stockholm. With only five hours remaining in the second session, Kerli "had kinda given up on the idea that any producer would actually get [her] and become [her] musical soulmate" before meeting her "favorite producers and friends for life", Svante Halldin and Jakob Hazell [5] (the team known as "SeventyEight", [6] who also collaborated on "Lucky Ones" by Kerli [7] ). [8] Kerli played for them the Wolfgang Gartner song "Space Junk" (2010), stating she "wanted to channel that but also mix some ethereal elements into that. Something like Enya or classical music. Something that sounds like angels on acid." The song was finished in the final hours of the session. [1]

Richard Branson English business magnate, investor and philanthropist

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies.

Stockholm Capital city in Södermanland and Uppland, Sweden

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries; 960,031 people live in the municipality, approximately 1.5 million in the urban area, and 2.3 million in the metropolitan area. The city stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is also the capital of Stockholm County.

Wolfgang Gartner American DJ and producer

Joseph Thomas Youngman, better known by his stage name Wolfgang Gartner, is an American DJ and music producer. Much of his music prior to 2010 was released through his own record label, Kindergarten, but he signed with Ultra Records in 2010 and Ministry of Sound in the UK in 2011.

Kerli stated the lyrics of the song were written in "the honor of" the air spirit, sylph, and that song is about "merging with the spirit, becoming all love", continuing to say she "[loves] the air element and it kinda seems to be something that keeps popping up throughout the music [she makes]." [1]

Sylph mythological spirit of the air

Sylph is a mythological air spirit. The term originates in the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as of the air, his elementals of air.

The song begins with a simple 10-note piano chord before being picked up by a synthy drum beat. The pre-chorus features a dizzying up and down feel before the chorus merges the drum beat with the piano chord and some more prominent synths. The second chorus finds a dubstep-like wobble bass before the bridge brings a heavier take on the pre-chorus's dizzy feel, also containing a drop, drawing further inspiration from dubstep. The song ends with the piano chord.

Synthesizer electronic instrument capable of producing a wide range of sounds

A synthesizer or synthesiser is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals that may be converted to sound. Synthesizers may imitate traditional musical instruments such as piano, flute, vocals, or natural sounds such as ocean waves; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse, syncopated rhythmic patterns with massive wobbly basslines that contain prominent sub-bass frequencies and epic gigantic breakdowns. The style emerged as an offshoot of UK garage, drawing on a lineage of related styles such as 2-step and dub reggae, as well as jungle, broken beat, and grime. In the United Kingdom the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.

A drop in popular music, especially electronic dance music styles, is a point in a music track where a sudden change of rhythm or bass line occurs, which typically is preceded by a build section and break.

Critical reception

"Zero Gravity" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Bill Lamb of About.com called Zero Gravity "straightforward dance pop", saying "the imagery of the accompanying video is more unique". [2] Bradley Stern of MTV called the song "a trip" and compared it to Alexandra Burke's song "Elephant". [9]

Commercial performance

"Zero Gravity" debuted at number 32 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, which "Army of Love" previously peaked at number 1 on. "Zero Gravity" peaked at number 6 during its eighth week on the chart. [3]

Music video

The two characters ("the Sky Princess" on the left, "Cosmic Geisha" on the right) hold their hands out as the sphere glows in between them. Kerli Zero Gravity music video.jpg
The two characters ("the Sky Princess" on the left, "Cosmic Geisha" on the right) hold their hands out as the sphere glows in between them.

The music video premiered on March 22, 2012. It is directed by Canadian director Alon Isocianu. [2] The video begins with Kerli hanging upside down from inside a chrysalis in a forest. Two sylphs wander by and remove her from it. The scene cuts to Kerli singing above clouds in the sky before cutting back to her, now indoors, with the two sylphs who are grooming her. A new scene cuts featuring Kerli as a character which she named "the Sky Princess"[ citation needed ] performing in front of another character portrayed by herself, "Cosmic Geisha." [10] After the performance, Kerli walks off the stage to meet with her. They each hold out their arms before the glowing sphere in between them explodes. Many creative elements of the music video came from an early treatment written by transmedia artist Jan Lucanus and filmmaker Aurore Barry and developed with Kerli herself. Original designs of the Cosmic Geisha were created by comic book artist Mihailo Vukelic in collaboration with Creative Impulse Entertainment as part of plans for a larger Kerli-themed project. [11]

Track listing

Charts


Chart (2012)Peak
position
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs [3] 6

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kerli (March 12, 2012). "Inspiration behind Zero Gravity". Buzznet . Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Lamb, Bill (March 22, 2012). "Kerli Returns With Dance-Pop Single and Esoteric Video "Zero Gravity"". About.com . Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "Chart Highlights: Blake Shelton Raises 'Drink' to No. 1 on Country Songs". Billboard . April 16, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  4. ↑ Kerli. "i like zero gravity, the vocals are weird, but we get used to. i love the lyrics, the synth solo, is perfect, ok? better than dollface and bubblegum". Formspring . Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Zero Gravity (Legal Title)". Broadcast Music, Inc. March 22, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Publishing/Producer Management". Mr Radar Music. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Lucky Ones (Legal Title)". Broadcast Music, Inc. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Zero Gravity music video out!". Mr Radar Music. March 22, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  9. ↑ Stern, Bradley (March 27, 2012). "Madonna, Kerli, Garbage + More: 5 Must-Hear Pop Songs Of The Week". MTV . Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  10. ↑ Kerli (March 28, 2012). "Cosmic Geisha Look". Buzznet . Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Cosmic Geisha Original Design by Mihailo Vukelic". Creative Impulse Entertainment. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  12. ↑ "Zero Gravity - Single by Kerli". iTunes Store. March 20, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Zero Gravity (Remixes): Kerli". Amazon.com. April 3, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
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