Get Together (Madonna song)

Background

"Get Together" is written by Madonna, Anders Bagge, Peer Åström and Stuart Price with production credits from Madonna and Price. It was inspired by the 1998 dance hit "Music Sounds Better with You" by Stardust. Initially the song "Jump" was to be released as the third single from the album. However, "Get Together" was chosen as the third single to coincide with the start of Madonna's 2006 Confessions Tour. The decision was also spurred by the fact that "Get Together" was the third best-selling digital single from the Confessions on a Dance Floor album. Its digital sales stood at 20,000 at that time, whereas digital sales for "Jump" were only 9,000. Hence, "Get Together" was finally chosen as the third single. The cover artwork for the single features Madonna and her Confessions Tour crew members, including the song's producer Stuart Price. The photo alternatively can also be found on the inlay cover of the I'm Going to Tell You a Secret DVD.

Composition

"Get Together" incorporates elements from Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" which also contain samples of Chaka Khan's song "Fate". It also refers to Madonna's own songs like "Holiday" (1983) and "Secret" (1994). The song is set in common time with moderately fast dance groove tempo and a metronome of 126 beats per minute. It is set in the key of A minor. Madonna's voice spans from A₃ to A₄. It follows in the chord progression of Em–F–G-Am throughout. The song's lyrics portray an anthem-like picture about the different possibilities of finding love on the dance floor. It includes an allusion to The SOS Band's 1980 single "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" in the line "Baby we can do it, we can do it all right." The lyrics comes off as a conversation or an internal dialogue taking place between the listener and the singer.

Critical reception

Keith Caulfield from Billboard complimented the song's "enlightment" theme. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine commented that the song turned cliché comments like "Love at first sight" into a pop slogan. David Browne from Entertainment Weekly said that it was fluid in nature and called Madonna as a "restless soul aching to connect" in the song. Jason Shawhan from About.com also complimented the song by describing it as a "weird and wonderful number." Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media wrote: "On 'Get Together', as Price's synths ebb and flow moodily, Madonna asks the eternal question, 'Do you believe in love at first sight?', over a tripping vocal melody." Joan Morgan of The Village Voice wrote: "The momentum builds rapidly with a seamless transition into the wicked alchemy of 'Get Together', where Madge and Price offer up an irresistible manipulation of rather sweet vocals laced over thumping percussion, seductive synthesizers, and a few subtle soul-claps thrown in for good measure."

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian admitted that the chorus of the song is triumphant. Chris Norris of Blender wrote that the song "evokes both early-'80s dance giants the S.O.S. Band and early-'80s dance giant Madonna." Matt Zabosek of The Chicago Maroon wrote: "...'Get Together' is probably the best, but it's hard not to feel that Madonna's computerized voice is a cheat (perhaps to cover for the high notes she can no longer reach?)" Diego Costa of The UWM Post in review of the song, wrote: "In this one-step-up-from-lounge-track, Madonna is a teen again, wondering if there is such a thing as love at first sight. But in the end, as a wise woman, she realizes that whether it exists or not, she doesn't care, since 'all is just an illusion.' Yeah, we heard it all before, she will even admit it in the following track, but it doesn't mean we don't want to hear it again." In 2007, the song was nominated in the category of Best Dance Recording at the 49th Grammy Awards but lost to Justin Timberlake's 2006 single "SexyBack".

Chart performance

In the United States, the song failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, but reached number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. Its low chart performance in America was attributed to limited radio airplay. A petition was signed by about 3,300 fans at petitiononline.com. Known as the "End the Madonna U.S. Radio Boycott", it was addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. Message boards at Entertainment Weekly and VH1 were filled with everything from support for Madonna to conspiracy theories about why she was not played on radio. It also reached a peak of number 84 on the Pop 100 chart. The song was a success on Billboard's dance charts, topping the Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts. It reached a peak of 19 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart.

In Canada, the song debuted and peaked at four on the Canadian Singles Chart. In Spain, the song debuted at the top of the chart in the issue dated June 25, 2006 and was on the top for one week. In Australia, "Get Together" debuted at number 13 which became its final peak. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at seven in the issue dated July 23, 2006. In mainland Europe, the song reached the top ten of the Finnish and Italian charts and the top 40 in countries like Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

Music video

The music video featured Madonna's live performance at the Koko Club in London on November 15, 2005 during her promotional tour for the album. It was directed by Logan and his production team. The animations and designs were done by artist Nathaniel Howe. Howe was contacted by Logan Studios executive producer Kevin Shapiro and booked as a 3D/2D animator. The conceptualization and work on the video began on May 1, 2006. It was inspired by the work of Italian comic-book artist Milo Manara and retro science fiction. Different software like Maya, After Effects and RealFlow were used to bring out the different environments in the video. Howe explained further about the creative process in an interview with the Madonna fansite "Drowned Madonna". He said,

"During the initial phases of the video we focused on testing different looks in 3D to see how the color, environment and cinematography complemented the song. While this was happening the edit of the raw footage was being assembled. As the edit evolved we narrowed down the techniques and look of the worlds. Before we even had picture lock we were dropping in rendered 3D shots; this really allowed us to fine tune both the edit and the effects to work together with the song. As this progressed we regularly sent tests to Warner Bros. and the Madonna camp."

Madonna was involved with watching the previews of the work done and passed her comments through Shapiro to the development team. After the fluid effects in the video were completed, Logan and Howe fine-tuned and revisited the shots and eliminated any discrepancies while incorporating Madonna's comments.

The video starts with showing the world evolving from its genesis. Images of volcanoes erupting, dinosaurs and tidal waves flash by to show Madonna and her two backup dancers singing the song while standing on a hill. It continues in this fluid motion up to the intermediate verse when Madonna is shown crawling under the waves and spirals. As the song moves towards the bridge again, the scene changes from the mountains to a cityscape. Madonna and her dancers are shown dancing and singing the song on a skyscraper. The video ends with Madonna standing on the building and the camera autofocusing out of the panel.

Live performances

In November 2005, Madonna first performed "Get Together" on TV shows such as Parkinson in England and Star Academy in France, as well as during the Children in Need 2005 telethon in London. Another performances came during concerts at Koko and G-A-Y nightclub in London, respectively on November 15 and 18, and Studio Coast in Tokyo, Japan on December 7. During the performances, Madonna emerged from a glitter ball while wearing a purple jacket, velvet pedal pushers and knee-high boots.

In the Confessions Tour, the song was the second performance of the evening and was part of the equine segment of the show. Madonna wore a skin-tight, full body black leotard. She opened her hat from the previous performance of "Future Lovers", as the background changed from the video of the horses to a red, geometric patterned kaleidoscope shot by Steven Klein. Madonna started singing the song. Two male backup dancers appeared behind her wearing horse reins around their heads to convey the feeling of oppression. The song continued in their choreographed performance, with Madonna sometimes pulling the harness around her dancers as if they were horses. During the intermediate musical interlude, Madonna moved to the front of the stage and lay down on the screen attached to it. As she continued singing the music increased and she started to twirl in the center of the stage. The performance continued with Madonna and her dancers moving to the back of the stage singing the words "get together" repeatedly. It ended with the music of the next song "Like a Virgin" starting.

Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine, while reviewing The Confessions Tour video album, commented that, "A great song like 'Get Together' is splendidly sung (whoever tweaks the levels on her mic is a genius), but its celebratory, keep-it-together message is compromised by the contradictory feelings of bondage (oppression) conveyed by having two backup dancers equipped with reins around their heads." In the live video album release, "Get Together" was excluded from the CD package but was included in the track listing of the DVD.

Credits and personnel