4 Minutes
"4 Minutes" is a song by American singer Madonna from her eleventh studio album Hard Candy, featuring vocals by American musicians Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. It was released as the lead single from the album on March 17, 2008, by Warner Bros. Records. It marked the first time in Madonna's 25-year career that another artist was featured in a single. According to Madonna, the song is about saving the environment and "having a good time while we are doing it". She also cited the song as the inspiration for the documentary I Am Because We Are.
The song was recorded at Sarm West Studios, in London, while the mixing of the track was finished at The Hit Factory studio in New York City. Sound engineer Demo Castellon first worked on the vocals and then on the beats, while the synths were composed by Timbaland and Danja. An uptempo dance-pop song with an urban and hip hop style, "4 Minutes" incorporates Timbaland's characteristic bhangra beats and the instrumentation used in the song includes brass, foghorns and cowbells. The lyrics carry a message of social awareness, inspired by Madonna's visit to Africa and the human suffering she witnessed.
"4 Minutes" received positive reviews from music critics, who called it a busy dance track and complimented its music, which was compared to that of a marching band. Some reviewers, however, felt that Madonna sounded like a featured artist on her own song. The song peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, giving Madonna her 37th top-ten single, breaking the record previously held by Elvis Presley, as the artist with most top-ten hits. Internationally, "4 Minutes" topped the charts in 21 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. "4 Minutes" has sold over three million copies in the United States and a total of five million copies worldwide.
The music video shows Madonna and Timberlake singing and running away from a giant black screen that devours everything in its path. "4 Minutes" was performed by Madonna on the promotional tour for Hard Candy and during the rave segment of the 2008–2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour. The song received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 2009 ceremony.
Writing and inspiration
Following the release of her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna wanted to record more dance music. When asked by producer Stuart Price what kind of music appealed to her, Madonna replied that she loved the records of singer Justin Timberlake and producer Timbaland, so she collaborated with them. "4 Minutes" was written by all three artists, along with Nate "Danja" Hills, and produced by Timbaland, Timberlake and Danja. The song, initially named "4 Minutes to Save the World", was one of the last to be produced for Madonna's album Hard Candy. In an interview with MTV News, Madonna said that the concept of the song was developed through discussions with Timberlake. She further explained the meaning of the song:
I don't think it's important to take it too literally. I think the song, more than anything, is about having a sense of urgency; about how we are you know, living on borrowed time essentially and people are becoming much more aware of the environment and how we're destroying the planet. We can't just keep distracting ourselves we do have to educate ourselves and wake up and do something about it. You know at the same time we don't want to be boring and serious and not have fun so it's kind of like well if we're going to save the planet can we have a good time while we are doing it?
Madonna clarified that her age did not have anything to do with the sense of urgency reflected in the track; instead, it was just something that she had in mind for a long time and with "4 Minutes", the sense seeped into her music. Ingrid Sischy from Interview magazine said that the song felt like a ballad for the world, containing "the sounds of a great big marching band. It's a giant dance song". Madonna agreed with Sischy and responded that the song was "a funny paradox" and was one of the inspirations behind her documentary I Am Because We Are. The documentary dealt with the acute suffering and food shortage afflicting the African nation of Malawi.
Recording and mixing
The recording sessions for "4 Minutes" took place at Sarm West Studios in West London, on a 72-channel SSL 9080 console. Paul Tingen from Sound on Sound magazine interviewed mixing and recording engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellon, who recalled that he did not attend the first recording sessions because he was working on another project. Over half of the song was already done by the time Castellon arrived, leaving him to do the programming in the intro and the end. At Sarm, Timbaland and Danja used Akai MPC3000 and Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling drum machines, Yamaha Motif workstation and synths to build the backing track for "4 Minutes". Castellon explained that the recording session took longer than expected. In total 46 tracks were used for drums and percussion and 16 stereo tracks for the bass. The whole session included 100 tracks, and further mixing was done on Pro Tools.
In the case of '4 Minutes', Tim had a vision from the beginning of how things should go, especially sonically... When I opened up the session of '4 Minutes', there was so much going on that I knew right away that the hard part would be to make sure that the vocals would cut through and were right in the pocket. Beginning with working on the vocals was the only way to achieve this. After that I formed all the other parts around the vocals. The other challenge was to make sure that everything in the track sounded clear and that you could hear every instrument, every syllable, every breath. Also, I do almost always work linear in time on a track. It's easier, because when you're done, you're done. So I keep working on section after section, until I get to the end of the track and then I know the whole mix is pretty close.
Castellon said that he did not want the SSL's internal automation to interfere with his blending of the music, instead used Pro Tools, with automatic levels. According to him, he "then ran everything through the SSL, on which did EQ, compression and panning." The mixing of the track was made at The Hit Factory studio, in Miami on a 96-channel SSL J-series desk. Considering the quantity of recorded backing tracks, Castellon's challenge was to make sure that the music did not overpower the vocals. He accomplished this by first mixing the vocals, then adding the music and the drums, which was an unusual method for him. Minimal digital plug-ins were employed for the mix as Castellon preferred the sound of outboard gear.
After the mixes were done, Castellon began working on Timbaland's introduction, and continued with Madonna and Timberlake's vocals. On Timbaland's vocals, he utilized the SSL's EQ to reduce "some bottom end", and he set input levels to avoid clipping. For Madonna and Timberlake he used SSL's dynamic range compression, and on Madonna's voice he applied "an eighth-note delay from a Lexicon PCM42", a reverb from Eventide H3500 for the verse, and TC Electronic TC3000 for the hook." These digital signal processors were employed to give Madonna's vocals a sense of stereophonic space. Castellon applied Waves Audio "Renaissance Compressor" plug-in to control the level of kick drum. He recalled that "there was one particular kick sound there that clashed with the other tracks, so Tim replaced it with another kick that had a very different note and sound." Using a Focusrite D2 equalizer let him "match the sound of that new kick drum to the other kick drum sounds". Once the drums and percussion were added, the recording and mixing of "4 Minutes" was finished.
Composition
"4 Minutes" is an uptempo dance-pop song, composed in an urban, hip hop style. It incorporates the effect of a marching band, a clanging beat and instrumentation from a brass that is played in a "scale-like riff", as described by Caryn Ganz from Rolling Stone. Other musical instruments used are foghorns and cow bells. In "4 Minutes", Madonna and Timberlake sing and trade verses, the rhythm moves towards a hard clanging beat as Madonna sings the lines that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions." Madonna and Timberlake start singing the chorus with Timberlake singing the line of "We've only got four minutes to save the world". The track continues in the same momentum in the second verse and second chorus whence the track ends where every beat ceases except for Timbaland's characteristic bhangra beats, the brass riffs and Madonna singing the words "tick-tock" repeatedly, after which it ends.According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, the song is written in the key of G minor and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 115 beats per minute. Timbaland's bhangra beats are featured at the start and the end of the song. Madonna and Timberlake's vocal range spans two octaves, from F3 to B5. The song has a sequence of D–G–C–F–B–D in the verses and E5–D5–C5–D5 in the chorus, as its chord progression. The lyrics of "4 Minutes" carry a message of social awareness, inspired by Madonna's visit to Africa and the human suffering she witnessed. Jon Pareles of The New York Times stated that "owever, the song sounds as if four minutes is the time taken for a song to be a guaranteed pop hit or the time required for a quickie; in reality it is the only song from Hard Candy album which contains a message of social awareness in it." The sound of a clock ticking away emphasizes this message further. Madonna explained in New York magazine that the line "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" did not relate to her charity work. Instead it was her question to herself: "Do I understand this opinion that I've adopted or this Zeitgeist that I've allowed myself to be swept up in? Because you could have the best intentions but not have enough information and make huge mistakes." Regarding the line "Sometimes I feel what I need is a you intervention", Madonna explained, "eah, meaning, sometimes I think you need to save me."