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For The Record: Carole King's 'Tapestry'

Carole King

Photo: Jim McCrary/Redferns

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For The Record: Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50 carole-king-tapestry-anniversary-record

For The Record: Inside The Historic Legacy Of Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50

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Revered as one of the greatest albums of all time, Carole King's 1971 chart-topping, multiplatinum classic 'Tapestry' solidified the singer/songwriter genre and forever cemented her as an iconic artist and songwriter
Rob LeDonne
GRAMMYs
Feb 7, 2021 - 2:10 pm

Fifty years ago, A&M Recording Studios in Los Angeles was buzzing. In Studio A, the popular group the Carpenters were recording their self-titled third album. Over in Studio C, the singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell was also laying down tracks. But it was in Studio B, with the lights down low and candles flickering, where a songwriter was crafting an iconic work that would indisputably change the course of music history.

"I have two words," Carole King would later say of the astounding success of her classic 1971 album, Tapestry, which critics would later regard as one of the greatest of all time. "Who knew?"

The success of Tapestry seems like a given today, a ubiquitous part of the pop culture landscape. Even King's monumental career seems obvious, with a reputation and pedigree as the consummate singer/songwriter. At the 14th GRAMMY Awards, in 1972, King earned the distinction of becoming the first woman to win multiple GRAMMYs in the General Field, with Tapestry winning Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female as well as Song Of The Year ("You've Got A Friend") and Record Of The Year ("It's Too Late"); all three releases were later inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, while King received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

In addition to its critical acclaim, Tapestry was also a commercial behemoth, topping the Billboard albums chart in the U.S. and reaching diamond status in 1995; this week, the album was certified 13 times multiplatinum.

Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50 | For The Record

"Tapestry struck a chord with a whole new legion of fans, including me," former President Barack Obama remarked in 2013 when King received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, becoming the first woman to win that honor. "It cemented Carole's status as one of the most influential singer/songwriters that America has ever seen."

To understand Tapestry's impact and King's triumph, you'd have to rewind the narrative. King's talents were on full display from an early age. The Brooklyn-born daughter of a piano-teacher mother, she was a music prodigy by 15, and by 17, she became a Brill Building powerhouse, penning the Shirelles' standard "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," the first No. 1 song by a Black girl group. 

Alongside writing partner and former husband Gerry Goffin, King poured out songs. The Goffin-King discography eventually became the soundtrack of the '60s: the upbeat "Up on the Roof" for the Drifters, Little Eva's dance anthem "The Loco-Motion," the peppy "One Fine Day" for the Chiffons and Aretha Franklin's sparkling "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman." It was a run so impressive, the Beatles, who once recorded the Goffin-King track "Chains," remarked at the time that they aimed to be the Goffin and King of the U.K. 

"It's hard to describe," King once said, musing about the flow of creative inspiration. "If you ever worked on a story—typed it into a computer and watched the story come out of you—it's a similar thing. People who are creative in any way, sometimes that happens."

Read More: For The Record: Joni Mitchell's Emotive 1971 Masterpiece, 'Blue'

Young King's stunning list of achievements would have been more than enough for an already-astounding career. Besides, songwriters at the time—faceless names behind the scenes—rarely, if ever, made the transition to the stage as they were neither accepted nor welcome; the idea of a singer/songwriter was a foreign concept. However, once Goffin's and King's marriage dissolved, Carole packed her bags and moved from the East Coast to the Los Angeles enclave of Laurel Canyon, with two kids in tow. As fate would have it, she'd soon fall in with the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and a scene that was about to explode. 

Still, King had both a disinterest and aversion to being in front of the mic. "There's always the concern they won't like you," she said in a 2006 interview of her original hesitancy. "You can write the song, but (at least) you're always at a safe distance from the artist." However, it was Taylor, then a new star, who King credits with her success as a performing artist. "I have James Taylor to thank for sort of nudging me out in front and teaching me by example that all you have to do is go out there to be yourself, sing the songs and everything will be fine," King once explained. 

As a member of Taylor's backing band, she has a distinct memory of the night she performed a lone song at one of his shows when her view on performing was forever altered. 

Carole King: Success Of Tapestry

Around the same time of her change of heart, she was also suffering from the commercial failure of her first artist project as part of a band called the City, no doubt stymied in 1968 by King's reluctance to perform live. And while some may confuse Tapestry for her debut album, she officially debuted as a solo artist in 1970 with the aptly titled Writer, which featured covers of previously recorded Goffin-King tracks and boasted an otherwise muted cover with the sole dash of color from a rainbow. 

The album, which peaked at No. 84 on the Billboard charts, came and went without much fanfare. Perhaps that's why when King set out to work on her follow-up, she felt free of pressure. She already stepped in front of a mic and survived. At worst, listeners were indifferent. What more was there to fear?

Inspired by the success of Taylor's much more successful 1970 album, Sweet Baby James, King began work on Tapestry, enlisting Lou Adler, a songwriter (Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World"), producer (the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'") and founder of King's record label, Ode Records, to produce the album.

"The first thing I envisioned with Carole is that she was a solo artist," Adler once said during an episode of the PBS series "American Masters" devoted to King. "You always felt she was sitting at the piano and singing to you." As a result, in the aforementioned dim of Studio B at A&M on La Brea just off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, the atmosphere was meant to mimic the inviting aura of a living room.

The album's subsequent production was purposely sparse, which suited King, who was previously accustomed to recording demos anyway. "Records like Tapestry can be overproduced in a minute," Hank Cicalo, the album's engineer, explained. "'Oh, let's add more guitar,' or this and that. Lou and Carole wanted that simplicity. They wanted it to be nice and warm, and a very comfortable record for people to enjoy." 

Read More: Linda Ronstadt's 'Canciones De Mi Padre' | For The Record

With that in mind, it's not hard to envision King in your living room, a piano in front of her, tapping away at the opening piano hook—not chords, but the single keys—of "I Feel the Earth Move," which appropriately heralded not only the beginning of a powerhouse album, but announced a new era. (It was inspired by a line in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls that likened lovemaking to the Earth moving). The album's second track, "So Far Away," introduces itself similarly: a piano riff consisting of lone keys, only to be accented by an acoustic guitar, played by Taylor, and a bass. Later, drums and a fittingly distant flute appear. 

By the time the album's third track kicks in, the aching, GRAMMY-winning "It's Too Late," which she wrote with Toni Stern, the listener is gifted with three astounding original songs in a row. It's a feat fitting for a greatest hits collection. 

But therein lies the magic, and gravity, of Tapestry. "Home Again" and "Beautiful" both fit into that warm feeling Adler tried to concoct in the studio, the former an obvious allusion to that living room feel and the latter the namesake of the Tony-winning Broadway musical in which King's pop hits were transposed to wild success on the Great White Way.

"You've Got a Friend," the first track on the album's B-side, which Carole wrote in response to Taylor's "Fire and Rain" in which he sang, "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend," is an emotional epicenter for King. She initially employs the might of those single piano notes she favors with melancholy vocals when she mournfully sings, "When you're down," later crescendoing into the resounding proclamation of "I'll be there." King later said writing the song was so easy, it was one of the most incredible songwriting experiences of her life.

As for the rest of Tapestry, King takes a page from Writer and returns to her favorite songs written for other artists: Her first hit, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?," now infused with sweet emotion, featured backing vocals from Mitchell and Taylor, while her version of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," remade all her own, serves as an understated companion piece to Aretha Franklin's beloved rendition.  

"Tapestry changed my life," King said of its personal impact upon its release on Feb. 10, 1971, after taking three weeks to record the album with a $22,000 production budget. "In an immediate way, it gave me financial independence, which was really wonderful. Less immediate and in an ongoing way, it opened doors." She also separated its success from her life at the time: caring for two kids and expecting a third. "I buried myself in (motherhood) and kept fame and the whole thing around success at bay. And I think I did that successfully." 

On a larger scale, Tapestry solidified the singer/songwriter genre and was a brick in the road to a decade, and soon generations, of artists both writing and performing personal songs, sounding like they were made by hand with lyrics so freshly handwritten you could still smell the pencil. A disparate list of cultural icons and works could have King and Tapestry to thank for paving the way, among them the career of the songwriter-turned-artist Barry Manilow to Taylor Swift albums like Folklore and Evermore.

Did Carole King know she had lightning in a bottle? Does she even know when she's writing a good song? "You like to think we do know, but you don't always," she explained in a 2012 interview. "We never know. It's a big, old, crazy thing."

Joni Mitchell's 'Mingus' At 40: A Look Back At A Seminal Jazz Collab

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For The Record: A Tribe Called Quest 'The Low End Theory'

A Tribe Called Quest

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A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low End Theory' At 30 tribe-called-quest-low-end-theory-album-anniversary

For The Record: A Tribe Called Quest's Groundbreaking 'The Low End Theory' At 30

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A 2021 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inductee, 'The Low End Theory,' released in 1991, saw A Tribe Called Quest reinvent the wheel yet again, marrying the sounds of jazz and hip-hop and solidifying the group's artistic legacy
Kathy Iandoli
GRAMMYs
Feb 15, 2021 - 8:59 am

In 1991, hip-hop was in a state of flux, and A Tribe Called Quest were searching for balance. Their 1990 debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, propelled the Queens, New York, group to new heights. Tribe tempered the growing gangster rap movement with their own breed of hip-hop, one full of humor, life, positivity and a more lighthearted approach to making music. Their style positioned them more as a group who loved being musicians over utilizing their rhymes to vent about the doom and gloom enveloping their environment.

Tribe, along with groups like De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and Leaders of the New School, were a part of the DAISY ("Da Inner Sound, Y'all") age of hip-hop. (De La Soul coined the term on their 1989 debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, in which they chanted the phrase several times throughout the project.) DAISY artists donned brighter clothing, used literal daisy imagery in their artwork, music videos and album covers, and punctuated their positive messages with poignancies on Afrocentricity. Even de facto A Tribe Called Quest leader Kamaal Fareed went by MC Love Child before he was given the name Q-Tip.

Intertwined with this bohemian take on hip-hop music, several DAISY artists, including Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, were also part of the Native Tongues collective, a loose network of East Coast hip-hop artists. But even if you weren't down with Native Tongues, if your music was the antithesis of the exploding gangster rap style of the time, you tangentially became a part of the DAISY Age.

A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low End Theory' At 30

DAISY artists diverged from what most considered then to be the sonic norm for rap music, which was a rugged exterior revealing street hymns and conspiracy theories, along with stories of police brutality and gang wars. N.W.A's 1988 debut album Straight Outta Compton was mostly to thank, along with Public Enemy's 1988 album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, a clarion call for the mobilization of Black people against the powers that be. It was raging against the machine at its best.

While artists of the DAISY Age discussed ways for Black people to find their own grooves and means to mobilize, albeit in a different way, Tribe and groups of their ilk were categorized under the "alternative hip-hop" subgenre, an industry move suggesting that discussions of anything other than gun talk were the exception, not the rule. They were all deemed "safe," nonviolent "alternatives," while also commanding a sound both parents and kids could mutually enjoy. It was a gift and a curse at the same time.

Read More: Busta Rhymes On Being In A "Beautiful Space" & Bringing Together Generations Of Hip-Hop Artists On 'Extinction Level Event 2'

It was a frustrating position for any critically acclaimed group paving their own path. Still, by the time A Tribe Called Quest got to work on The Low End Theory, they were more than ready to reinvent the wheel yet again. This would be the project that served as a reference point for A Tribe Called Quest as bastions of versatility. In order to prove that, they had to rework their whole style, right down to their image. There was also the added pressure of the sophomore slump. But that didn't faze lead producer Q-Tip in the least. Tribe weren't cocky—they were confident.

Tribe had a lot to prove on The Low End Theory while not coming off as tryhards. In 14 tracks, they had to somehow remove the stigmas attached to so many hip-hop artists at the time: You were either too street, too soft or too artsy, or you didn't understand a single instrument. Tribe aimed to strike that balance artfully.

Inspired by the hard thuds checkered throughout Straight Outta Compton, Q-Tip opted for bass-heavy beats on Low End.  Album opener "Excursions" oozes with those steady basslines, as does "Buggin' Out," "Check The Rhime" and closer "Scenario."

Q-Tip made it a point to masterfully bring the sounds of jazz and bebop to boom bap, where, for the first time ever, the instruments were front and center. You could listen to any song on Low End and hear every layer as it's being played, a rarity in the sample-heavy world of hip-hop. With Tribe, you experienced the masterpiece in full totality, while also seeing every stroke of the paintbrush. And despite their claims of having the jazz on "Jazz (We've Got)," Tribe didn't sound like some jazz ensemble in hard-bottom shoes anywhere on Low End. This was pure hip-hop in a new iteration by a group determined to make a mark on their own terms.

But like Q-Tip says on "Rap Promoter ("Not too modest and not a lot of pride"), Tribe had to be bolder with their messaging this time around, while still maintaining their stance on peace and positivity. On "Excursions," an idyllic intro to that creative approach, Q-Tip makes it clear that Tribe is playing the long game in rap, in the right way, while still switching the sound up. He does the same on "Verses From The Abstract," in which he takes the reins on the group's collective messaging.

This was also the moment, however, where Phife Dawg would step forward and do just enough posturing and bragging on the group's behalf. His presence was barely felt on Tribe's debut album since Phife's head wasn't all the way in the game until Q-Tip centered him. The yin to Q-Tip's yang, Phife was a 5-foot-3-inch sh*t-talker and bona fide comedian who helped the former not take the game too seriously. On "Buggin' Out," Phife is in the spotlight, and he keeps it going on "Butter" where he talks about pulling girls like "Flo" while simultaneously shining on his own for once.

Read More: 'Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty' At 10: The Story Behind The Missing Tracks From Big Boi's Solo Debut Album

Low End is also full of music industry cautionary tales. On "Rap Promoter," Q-Tip waxes philosophically and questions why rap promoters will invite hip-hop heads to a wack show. Tribe then expose the ills of the biz on "Show Business," with the help of Brand Nubian and Diamond D, and continue that sentiment on "Check The Rhime" where Q-Tip births the now-infamous line, "Industry rule number four-thousand-and-eighty / Record company people are shady."

Tribe's storytelling is in clear view on "The Infamous Date Rape" and "Everything Is Fair," with the former carrying a real sentiment of exposing criminal acts. It's heavy without being too dark, while tracks like "What?" are light without being too whimsy. "Skypager" sees Tribe dissecting their many reasons for carrying a beeper. At face value, the concept would seem like a whole lot of nonsense about an inanimate piece of technology. But the song ultimately places the group alongside the same beeper-carrying drug dealers from whom the industry and the media attempted to forcibly disassociate them. While Tribe aim to show they are different and unfazed by fancy gadgets, "Skypager" still echoes their main message: We are all in this together.

Then, of course, there's "Scenario." With the help of Leaders of the New School and the soon-to-be legend Busta Rhymes, the track is heavy on basslines, trash talk, braggadocio and bars. The perfect closer to the album, "Scenario" is so bullish and so energetic, it almost serves as a celebration of Tribe's accomplishment: the martini after a cinematic piece has wrapped.

The Low End Theory was somewhat of a swan song for A Tribe Called Quest in more ways than one. It was their diversion from the Native Tongues and the DAISY Age scenes, especially after the group signed to Russell Simmons' Rush Artist Management, under manager Chris Lighty, a move that would take their message to a bigger, more mainstream hip-hop audience. However, the album was also a farewell to the pigeonholed style and sound they were wedged into the first time around. After The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest could fly, and the sky was the limit.

"Loops Of Funk Over Hardcore Beats": 30 Years Of A Tribe Called Quest's Debut, 'People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm'

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For The Record: Adele '21'

Adele

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For The Record: Adele's '21' Turns 10 adele-21-10-year-anniversary

For The Record: Adele's Icon-Making '21' At 10

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Released in January 2011, '21' expanded Adele's sound across timeless heartbreak songs, including "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You," and crowned the English singer/songwriter a star
Gabriel Aikins
GRAMMYs
Jan 24, 2021 - 1:54 pm

As dawn was still rising on the New Year in 2011, the music industry was already humming with anticipation. A fast-emerging English songstress named Adele was about to release her sophomore album, 21, and there were signs it could be big. Three years earlier, in 2008, she released her debut album, 19, which earned praise and awards and also gave audiences and the industry just a glimpse of her immense talent and star potential. 19 hinted at a wide sound, a voice unleashed. All of the signs were right.

Taking the promise she showed on her debut album, expanding her influences and showcasing more of her incredible vocal talent, Adele dropped 21 and forever left her mark on music.

Adele's Icon-Making '21' At 10 | For The Record

21, released Jan. 24, 2011, and Adele didn't come out of nowhere. 19 released to good reviews and solid chart performances for single "Chasing Pavements." Sporting a singer/songwriter, guitar-driven sound, the album made a strong first impression: At the 51st GRAMMY Awards, held in 2009, "Chasing Pavements" was nominated for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year; it went on to win for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, with Adele taking home the coveted Best New Artist award that night.

While 19 hinted at what was to come from Adele, 21 was an entirely different sound. She opened the album with lead single "Rolling In The Deep," a shrewd move that clearly indicated just how disparate this project would be. The low thrum of the repeated acoustic guitar in the intro that might signify a sense of familiarity quickly gives way to a wider, more intense sound. A steady, sharp drum beat builds tension, and the big, flourishing production on the chorus definitively moved Adele past her days as a no-frills songwriter. 

What sticks out years later, though, are the emotions and the colossal talent on display across 21, even just on this opening track. It's no secret that 21 is an album of pain, born from a relationship with intense highs and a devastating ending. "It was horrible. I was miserable, I was lonely, I was sad, I was angry, I was bitter," Adele told The New York Times in 2015 about writing the album. 

"Rolling In The Deep" oozes with that venom, the pleasure of bringing her ex to his knees, evident in the darker sound and pointed lyrics, which Adele belts with all of the considerable power behind her voice. "Rumour Has It" also features a similar sense of satisfaction: The track basks in the gossip that comes from the fallout of a relationship.  The song reflected a continued growth in Adele's sound, too, this time in the form of modern vocal loops and decidedly retro swing. 

Even as the rollout of 21 was happening, the universality of the album became undeniable. Entire features and large chunks of interviews from the time are dedicated to the idea of Adele as an avatar for everyone, from her starstruck nature around other celebrities to her penchant for swearing to the ease of which she captures the truths of heartbreak. 

Listening now, it's still remarkable how there's a song or two on 21 to match any which emotional stage of a breakup. Ready to burn it all down? "Rolling In The Deep" is there for you. Longing for a new love? The funky "He Won't Go" or "I'll Be Waiting" deliver. And for those who just need to scream and cry, powerful ballads like "Set Fire To The Rain" and "Someone Like You" are Adele's emotional gifts to you. 

The methods and avenues of relationships change as society and technology change with them, but the emotions are always the same. In her deepest moments of heartache, Adele understood this and put all of it into 21, ensuring a lasting impact on people's hearts and minds.

Plenty of albums have tapped into emotional truths; few have endured like 21. The timelessness of the music and the hugely broad appeal of its influences round out the album. Producer Jim Abbiss, who worked on 19, maintained some of the more soul-based and acoustic sounds from Adele's debut, while new faces to Adele's process, like Paul Epworth and the prolific Rick Rubin, added wrinkles that appealed to a much wider audience. 

The prominent use of minor keys in the Rubin-produced "Lovesong" stands out, as do the jazz-based horns and rhythm of the Adele-Epworth collaboration "I'll Be Waiting." At the same time, the whole album is accessible to all through its backbone of piano-based arrangements, with a sound still relevant today and into the future.

Read: Revisiting Adele's Breakthrough: '19' Turns 10

As streaming rose to prominence in the 2010s, and as it continues to dominate in 2021, it is staggering to look back at the mammoth sales numbers of 21: 5.82 million units in 2011 and 4.41 million the next year, with the album topping the U.S. sales charts in both years. The only other artist to even crack 4 million in a year in the U.S. in the 2010s? Also Adele: Her follow-up album, 25, sold 7.44 million copies in 2015. 

As of late 2019, 21 had sold 31 million copies worldwide in its lifespan. These are sales numbers that rarely happen in the 21st century—largely due to the large-scale shift to streaming—yet here is Adele putting up massive figures, regardless. The continued commercial success of 21, even within the last several years, is yet another testament to just how deeply Adele connected with audiences, cutting across all generations and musical tastes. 

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By any metric, 21 accomplished what few albums could in the 2010s. Aside from its mind-boggling sales, the album swept the 54th GRAMMY Awards in 2012: "Rolling In The Deep" won for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Short Form Music Video; "Someone Like You" won for Best Pop Solo Performance; and 21 won for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album Of The Year.

Still, 21 continues to resonate with audiences in 2021 as much as it did in 2011. Boasting a wide array of musical elements, the album pushed Adele's considerable talents to even newer heights. And for millions of people worldwide, it will forever embody the exact feeling of heartbreak in all its complicated messiness. 

Adele Turns '25': For The Record

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Ryland James

Ryland James

 
 
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Press Play At Home: Ryland James press-play-home-ryland-james-stretches-beyond-his-years-soulful-performance-%E2%80%9Cwater%E2%80%9D

Press Play At Home: Ryland James Stretches Beyond His Years With Soulful Performance Of “Water”

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For the latest episode of Press Play At Home, mop-haired Canadian singer Ryland James belts out a soul-fried version of his track “Water”
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Feb 5, 2021 - 3:07 pm

For the latest episode of GRAMMY.com's Press Play At Home series, the Ontario-born singer/songwriter Ryland James belts out a soul-fried version of his track “Water,” from his 2020 self-titled debut EP. Written by Lauren Christy, Jon Levine and James himself, the soul-baring track reflects the classic soul, gospel and R&B his grandmother impressed upon him.

Press Play At Home: Ryland James

Press Play At Home: Omar Apollo Lays Down Emotional Version Of "Useless"

Madonna

Madonna in 2000

Photo: George Pimentel/WireImage

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Madonna's 'Music' At 20 madonna-music-20-anniversary-2000

Music Makes The People Come Together: 20 Years Of Madonna's 'Music'

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Released in 2000, the Queen of Pop's five-time GRAMMY-nominated album is the work of an artist who has plenty to say, but nothing to prove—a reminder of a less complicated time and a blueprint for our future
Zel McCarthy
GRAMMYs
Sep 19, 2020 - 7:55 am

In the year 2000, America was sharply divided. A new generation of singers had lip-synced and danced its way to the top of the charts and the front of the pop culture proscenium with material Auto-Tuned to Pro Tools perfection. The (mostly rock) music establishment loudly decried the new pop as artifice and asserted the integrity of music made with analog instruments.

At the time, assessing the validity of popular music loomed larger than the growing threat of MP3 downloads that would eventually upend the entire record industry. Madonna had been through these kinds of polemics before, herself a frequent subject of musical legitimacy debates. But nearly two decades into her career, she had seemed to quiet her most ardent critics. 

Her seventh studio album, 1998's Ray of Light, had been the best-reviewed record of her career thus far, earning five GRAMMY nominations and winning three, including Best Pop Album, in 1999. Along with a pair of soundtrack singles, the album had maintained Madonna's presence on radio into the summer of 2000. On MTV's "Total Request Live," her videos played between those from upstart stars half her age, many of whom would cite her as an inspiration. In a contentious cultural landscape, Madonna occupied the highly coveted overlapping space of critical credibility and popular viability. 

Ray of Light struck gold by embracing Björk- and Massive Attack-esque electronica, thanks largely to the work of the album's primary producer, William Orbit. However, as a genre, electronica had yet to live up to predictions that it would dominate the U.S. as it had Europe. In combination with Madonna's reputation for reinvention, this only drove expectations higher for how she would follow her latest career highpoint. 

"Music," the lead single and title track of her eighth studio album, struck the airwaves like an intergalactic robot in August 2000, heralding a new sound for Madonna and the arrival of 21st-century pop music. With its digitally modified instruments, arpeggiated synths and a chorus Madonna says was inspired by the crowd at a Sting concert, "Music" combined elements of electronic and analog to create an anthem of unity on the dance floor. The Jonas Åkerlund-directed music video—featuring a pre-Borat Sacha Baron Cohen as his character, Ali G—seemed to skewer the decadence of late-'90s hip-hop bling while also revelling in it. We see a pimp-suited Madonna getting into the groove, relishing a night at the strip club with her girls and fending off creeps like a boss, all filmed while she was five and a half months pregnant.

On the strength of its lead single, Music released in the U.S. on September 19, 2000, via Madonna's Maverick imprint under Warner Bros. and opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album in over a decade. Although critics didn't gush over Music with quite the same enthusiasm as they had its predecessor, the album moved millions of physical copies in its first few weeks, eventually going on to garner triple-platinum certification in the U.S. It ultimately earned five total GRAMMY nominations, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Record Of The Year for "Music" in 2001 and Best Short Form Music Video for "Don't Tell Me" in 2002. (Former Maverick Records art director and designer Kevin Reagan, who designed the album, won for Best Recording Package in 2001.)

In an effort to introduce the Queen of Pop to a new generation of fans, the album's promo campaign combined the traditional (a terrestrial radio premiere, a Rolling Stone cover story) with the new (an AOL listening party/live chat, a livestreamed club performance) over a timeline that seems enviably long by today's standards. Comparisons to more junior pop artists on the charts and airwaves swirled around her, but Madonna avoided miring herself in the muck. 

Instead, for an exclusive performance at New York City's 3000-capacity Roseland Ballroom that November, Madonna took the stage wearing a Dolce & Gabbana-designed T-shirt emblazoned with the name Britney Spears. For her performance at MTV's European Music Awards later that month, she wore a similar shirt that said Kylie Minogue. "It's my celebration of other girls in pop music," she said backstage at the EMAs, praising the younger women before adding, somewhat cheekily, "I think they're the cutest."

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Such spontaneous statements of support and admiration are almost boringly common now, but in an era when pop music had been denied entry into the credibility club, the moment held more weight. Though the press loved to pit female pop stars against each other at the turn of the century as much as it does now, musically, there wasn't much rivalry between them. With Spears still steeped in the sounds of Swedish pop on Oops!… I Did It Again and Minogue diving into disco on Light Years, Madonna had crafted a sound of her own on Music. 

While Orbit returned for several tracks on the album, the majority of Music was co-helmed by the relatively unknown French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï. Like his contemporaries in the French touch electronic scene (Daft Punk, Air, Rinôçérôse), Mirwais was unabashed in his affection for American music of the '70s, including the funk and R&B influences of house. Those influences, paired with his proficiency in production, worked well with Madonna's penchant for pop hooks, resulting in an LP whose sonic textures included space-age fills, guitar-washed in computerizing effects, and vocals that alternate between alien and intimate. 

Music's second track, the distorted and ravey fan favorite "Impressive Instant," is a high-BPM ode to a trippy first encounter that sounded then like nothing anyone had heard before—20 years later, it still does. On the opposite end of the spectrum, closing track "Gone" is a stark and straightforward crooner made glorious by the fortitude of Madonna's vocals, selectively layered with exacting control. 

As an album, Music is a masterclass in juxtaposition that disguises some of its strangest elements in familiarity. Where futuristic production might distract, it's moderated by traditional instrumentation. This plays out most noticeably on second single, "Don't Tell Me." It's hard to hear the track's opening guitar riff without thinking of the album's disco cowboy visual aesthetic come to life in the Jean-Baptiste Mondino-directed video. The record soundtracking the sparkly western shirts and synchronized line dancing is downright audacious in how it interweaves acoustic guitar—played by Madonna herself—with midtempo dance beats, cushioned by country strings, all building to a crescendo in the final chorus. "Don't Tell Me" so effortlessly realizes the misbegotten '90s vision of folktronica that it sounds just as fresh today as it did in 2000. 

As a mainstay of '90s soft rock radio, Madonna was no stranger to love songs. Given the magnitude of her celebrity, the details of her personal life were bound to color how listeners heard Music's more personal lyrics. Two decades later, the declarations of love on "I Deserve It," presumably intended for then-boyfriend, husband-to-be Guy Ritchie, feel just as authentic now, long after their relationship ended. In contrast to the frequent unironic materialism expressed by today's celebrity pop stars, Music excelled at showing the former "Material Girl" in self-reflection. Its genius is how that introspection comes across as relatable and real, even when sung to highly synthesized beats by one of the biggest stars in the world.

For all its ebullience, at only 10 tracks and clocking in just under 45 minutes, Music is a model of restraint. It's the work of an artist who has plenty to say, but nothing to prove. And while her status as an innovator is deserved, Music shows how Madonna is an even better interpreter, fluent in musical languages across genres and capable of hewing them to her vision. 

Although Music faces forward to the new century, its unencumbered joyfulness is a bittersweet vestige of the uncomplicated '90s. When she wielded her axe on stage for the kickoff of the Drowned World Tour in June 2001, it was a subtle statement of sorts, expressing Madonna's own defiance of music rules: She could be both rock and pop, analog and digital, acoustic and electronic. But by the time that tour wrapped in Los Angeles on September 15, 2001, nobody cared about that debate anymore.

While she had deftly eschewed the petty cultural battles between genres and generations, the world had changed dramatically in the first year since the release of Music. The message would be muddled in years to come, but in that moment, Madonna was uniquely prepared to be a voice for unity with one simple yet inarguable statement: Music makes the people come together.

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