Rock DJ (song)

"Rock DJ" is a song by British pop singer Robbie Williams's fourth album, Sing When You're Winning released in summer 2000. The song samples heavily from Barry White's 1977 song "It's Ecstacy When You Lay Down Next To Me".

Music Video

The music video, directed by Vaughan Arnell, was surrounded by controversy because of its explicit content. The video begins with Williams dancing on a roller disco with girls skating around him. He wants to get the attention of the female DJ standing above the stage, so he begins stripping off his clothes. After this does not get her attention, he starts stripping his flesh, muscles and organs, too, until the only thing that is left from him are his bones. In the end, he achieves the DJ's attention and dances with her as a skeleton. The video ends with titles, reading "No Robbies were Harmed During the Making of this Video".

The video's ending (beginning with Williams taking off his skin) was cut by most music channels around Europe, including VIVA, MCM, MTV and The Box. VH1 Europe decided to use its own video for the song, created from recording studio footage. Examples of TV stations that still play the full video are Bulgarian channel MM (often in daytime) and Canadian channel MusiquePlus, some channels ran the edited video during the day and the unedited one overnight, while The Hits played a version which cut from Williams dancing in his underwear to dancing as a skeleton, filling the gap by repeating previous footage. In 2001, "Rock DJ" won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. In 2006 it was voted by viewers as the seventh Most Groundbreaking Video Ever on MTV and in 2007 it was ranked at forty-eight on MuchMusic's 50 Most Controversial Videos.

The video has been shown numerous times on Fuse's Pants-Off Dance-Off, despite its gory content. Toward the end of the pancer's dancing/stripping to it when the video is shown in the background like any other, they only show Williams, briefly, ripping and throwing his skin, and dancing in muscle form before cutting to the hostess of the show. During most of the episodes of the first season(and some of second season), it was featured with the same 'pancer' dancing to it. It quickly became popular among viewers, like some of the other most shown videos to 'pance' to, as the show went on. It won the weekly contests countless times. On one episode, viewers voted it and the pancer as one of the best videos and pancings on the show.

U.S. Reaction

Though the song "Rock DJ" appeared in Sing When You're Winning, it was never released in the U.S. and neither was the single. Although, it did manage to reach twenty-four on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart "Rock DJ" got some attention in America due to the music video's shock value. Because of the controversial video "Rock DJ" won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects and was featured on Fuse network's Pants-Off Dance-Off. In the U.K. it was first played on Top of The Pops at 2:00am, then it was never shown in the U.K. again

On MTV2, the music video was played in its entirety on a special countdown highlighting the most controversial music videos in MTV's history.

Success

The song became Williams' third number-one solo single in the United Kingdom, going on to sell over 600,000 copies being certified Platinum by the BPI. The song also became a smash hit around Europe, charting inside the top ten in most countries and it became his first number-one single in New Zealand, Argentina and Mexico. The song also became a top five hit in Australia, where it went on to sell over 70,000 copies being certified Platinum by the ARIA. However, success in the United States was limited, reaching number twenty-four on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play but failing to chart inside the Hot 100. "Rock DJ" went on to sell almost four million copies worldwide.

The song was named the "Best Song" of 2000 at the MTV Europe Music Awards and "Best Single" at the Brits 2001.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Rock DJ".

UK CD
(Released July 31, 2000)

1. "Rock DJ" - 4:17
2. "Talk To Me" - 3:30
3. "Rock DJ" [Player one Remix] - 5:37

UK DVD
(Released July 31, 2000)

1. "Rock DJ" Music Video
2. "Making Of Rock DJ" Short Documentary

International CD Maxi
(Released August 14, 2000)

1. "Rock DJ" - 4:17
2. "Talk To Me" - 3:30
3. "Rock DJ" [Player one Remix] - 5:37
4. "Rock DJ" Enhanced Video

Certifications & Sales

Country	Certification (If Any)	Sales/shipments
Australia	Platinum	70,000+
New Zealand	Gold	7,500+
United Kingdom	Platinum	600,000+

Charts

Chart (2000)	Peak Position
UK Singles Chart	1
Argentine Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	1
Mexican Singles Chart	1
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
Lativan Singles Chart	2
United World Chart	3
Australian Singles Chart	4
Austrian Singles Chart	7
Norwegian Singles Chart	8
German Singles Chart	9
Swiss Singles Chart	9
Dutch Singles Chart	11
Finnish Singles Chart	15
Swedish Singles Chart	18
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	24
French Singles Chart	40

External links

• Official site of Robbie Williams - the full version of the Rock DJ video is available here.

References