Ghosttown (Madonna song)
"Ghosttown" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her thirteenth studio album, Rebel Heart (2015). It was released to radio stations on March 13, 2015, as the album's second single. It was written by Madonna, Jason Evigan, Evan Bogart, and Sean Douglas, and produced by Madonna, Billboard and Evigan. Having listened to Douglas' previous works, Madonna requested studio time with him. Together with the other songwriters, they wrote "Ghosttown" in three days. The song was inspired by the imagery of a destroyed city after armageddon, and how the survivors carry on with their lives with love being the only thing they can hold onto. Musically, "Ghosttown" is an uplifting pop, electropop and electro ballad, featuring an organ and drums in its instrumentation.
"Ghosttown"
March 13, 2015
2014
4:09
- Madonna
- Billboard
- Jason Evigan
"Ghosttown" was released to iTunes Store as part of the album's pre-order in December 2014, in response to hackers leaking songs from Rebel Heart. The song received positive response from music critics, who commended Madonna's vocal delivery, the lyrics, and the production; they also compared it to Madonna's earlier ballads. In the United States, the song became her 36th entry on the Adult Contemporary chart, as well as her 45th song to top the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, surpassing country singer George Strait as the artist with the most number ones on a single Billboard chart. Internationally, "Ghosttown" reached the top 20 in Hungary and Italy, and the digital charts of Finland and Sweden, and was certified platinum by the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI).
An accompanying music video for "Ghosttown" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, and starred actor Terrence Howard. The main theme behind the video was "an apocalyptic situation mimicking the end of the world", showing the singer and Howard as sole survivors in a destroyed city. Madonna performed the song during her promotional schedules across Europe—Le Grand Journal in France, Che tempo che fa in Italy and The Jonathan Ross Show in the United Kingdom. She also performed it at the 2nd iHeartRadio Music Awards, where she was joined by Taylor Swift on guitar, and on some dates of her 2015–2016 Rebel Heart Tour.
Composition and remixes[edit]
Thematically, introspection was also listed as one of the foundational themes prevalent in Rebel Heart, with genuine statements of careerist and personal reflections of Madonna and her "obsessive self-regard".[12] "Ghosttown" was one of the songs carrying on the subtle messages while talking about unity and religious consciousness. Madonna reverses the concept of "loss of love" with her romantic idealization, according to Matthew Harden from Samesame.com.au, as the lyrics go "When it all falls down, when it all falls down. We'll be two souls in a 'Ghosttown'."[13] Jim Farber from New York Daily News said that the song brings out "the warmest elements of [Madonna's] voice" and "at times, her alto [range] sounds like Karen Carpenter's, while the melody has the enveloping calm of hits like 'Live to Tell'".[14]
The song's composition is "uplifting" and "euphoric"[15] pop,[16][17] electropop[18][19] and electro,[20][21] far-reaching with a number of melodic effects generated by electronic music. A cinematic visualization with the track is accomplished by different chord progressions, making the whole song sound compact.[22] "Ghosttown" begins with sounds of single organ chords and a dusty drum beat.[23] Instead of being a straight-up pop ballad, the composition sounds a little "edgy", due to the usage of synth percussion and vocoder effects.[24] Chris Rosa from VH1 stated that the song "features tight production and an ear-crashing chorus that is pure pop bliss", while Elysa Gardner from USA Today described the song as a mixture of "disarmingly earnest sweetness with a stark, chilly arrangement".[25][26] The chorus appears after 40 seconds in the song, with a distortion filled pause, a thumping beat and a repetitive chord progression.[23] "Ghosttown" is set in the time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 79 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of D minor, with Madonna's vocals spanning from F3 to B♭4. The song has a basic sequence of Dm–F–C–Gm during the verses and B♭–F–C–Dm during the chorus as its chord progression.[27] Demacio "Demo" Castellon engineered and mixed the track, while Ron Taylor did additional Pro Tools editing of Madonna's vocals and Evignan provided background vocals on the song.[28]
On March 31, 2015, Billboard premiered a remix of the song by Dutch DJ Don Diablo, who changed the ballad into an EDM track.[29] Another set of remixes were released later as a Remix EP. Two of the remixes were released on Madonna's Tidal streaming account, including one by DJ RedTop as well as Armand Van Helden, Offer Nissim and Roger Sanchez. According to Idolator, "RedTop completely deconstructs 'Ghosttown' and turns it into something you might hear in a post-apocalyptic piano bar. It's sad and depressing yet defiantly groovy."[30] Another remix, by Paul Andrews, gave emphasis on Madonna's vocals while adding piano and orchestra in the production. Andrews explained that the music video of "Ghosttown" was how he had imagined it, "two people in a dark place with destruction all around them, but they have each other". Hence he wanted the verse to represent the reality of the situation and the chorus would represent their view of the world because of their love. The non-dance remix was approved by Madonna and was another exclusive release to her Tidal account.[31]