"Turn Up the Music" is a song by American singer Chris Brown. It was written by Alexander "Fuego" Palmer, Brown, Damon Thomas, Harvey Mason Jr., Michael "Mike J" Jimenez, Terence Coles and Agent X, while production was handled by Fuego and The Underdogs. "Turn Up the Music" was sent to contemporary hit radio playlists in the United States on February 7, 2012, as the lead single from Brown's fifth studio album Fortune (2012). It was released for digital download on February 10, 2012 by RCA Records. "Turn Up the Music" is an uptempo song which draws from the genres of electronic dance and house. Instrumentation consists of pulsating beats, synthesizers, a "throbbing bass" and percussion. According to Mason Jr., the song's inspiration came from visualizing Brown as an artist, "how he dances and how he performs, and giving him something to match that energy."
"Turn Up the Music" garnered positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and compared the song to Brown's previous singles "Forever" (2008) and "Yeah 3x" (2010), for its similar musical direction. Critics also noted its similarities to the work of LMFAO and David Guetta. "Turn Up the Music" achieved commercial success worldwide, becoming Brown's first number one single on the UK Singles Chart, and his eleventh top ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song also reached the top ten in Australia and New Zealand, and the top twenty in Canada, Hungary, Ireland and Slovakia. It was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ).
The accompanying music video for "Turn Up the Music" was directed by Godfrey Taberez and Brown, and filmed in Los Angeles, California. It features Brown at a party filled with masked people, where he performs heavily choreographed dance routines. The video garnered positive reception from critics, for its series of dance sequences which were compared to Michael Jackson. It won Best Male Video and Best Choreography at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, and earned Taberez and Brown a nomination for Video Director of the Year at the 2012 BET Awards. Brown promoted the song with live performances on televised shows and awards ceremonies, including Dancing with the Stars, Today, the 2012 NBA All-Star Game halftime show, the 54th Grammy Awards, the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and the 2012 BET Awards. He also included the song in his set list at Supafest Australia. The official remix of "Turn Up the Music" premiered online on February 20, 2012, and features Brown's former girlfriend Rihanna.
Background and release "Turn Up the Music" was written by Alexander "Fuego" Palmer, Chris Brown, Damon Thomas, Harvey Mason Jr., Michael "Mike J" Jimenez, Terence Cole and Agent X. Production for the song was handled by Fuego and The Underdogs. The mixing engineering process was completed by John Hanes with assistance by Phil Seaford, while the audio mixing was completed by Serban Ghenea. "Turn Up the Music" was recorded at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California and Mason Sound in North Hollywood, California by Andrew Hey and Brian Springer with assistance by Iain Findley. In an interview with MTV News, Mason Jr. revealed that inspiration for the song came from visualizing Brown as an artist. He explained, "The inspiration was really him as an artist, visualizing how he dances and how he performs, and giving him something to match that energy."
On January 25, 2012, Brown announced via his official Twitter account that the lead single from his fifth studio album Fortune would be called "Turn Up the Music", tweeting "New FORTUNE single coming 1/26!!! TURN UP THE MUSIC!!!!". It replaced "Biggest Fan" and "One Of Those Nights", which had each previously been announced as the lead single. The following day, both the single and its artwork were posted online, showing Brown wearing an unbuttoned shirt and a fedora, while words in different languages are displayed. "Turn Up the Music" was officially sent to contemporary hit radio playlists in the United States on February 7, 2012. It was released as a one-track digital download in Oceania and most European countries on February 10, 2012. However, in the United Kingdom, "Turn Up the Music" was released as a three-track digital download on March 25, 2012, which contained Brown's previous single "Strip" and the Invaderz remix of "Yeah 3x" (2010). It was also released as a two-track CD single in Germany on April 6, 2012, including "Strip" as a B-side.
An unofficial remix of "Turn Up the Music" made by DJ Pauly D, premiered on Ryan Seacrest's morning radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest on February 14, 2012. The official remix of "Turn Up the Music" premiered online on February 20, 2012, and features Brown's former girlfriend Rihanna. Brown previously hinted via Twitter that Rihanna would be the featured artist on the remix, after rumors that he would feature on the remix of her single "Birthday Cake" (2012) sparked media controversy, due to the fact that Brown physically assaulted Rihanna before a Pre-Grammy Awards party in 2009. The remix marks the first collaboration from the two singers since they last collaborated on "Bad Girl" (2009).
Composition and lyrics
"Turn Up the Music" is an uptempo electronic dance, and house song, which last for a duration of three minutes and forty-nine seconds. Instrumentation is provided by pulsating beats, synthesizers and percussion. Rap-Up described the production as "synth-heavy". The second verse opens with Brown singing "Turn up the music cause the sun just came up / Turn up the music if they try to turn us down / Turn up the music cause I'm trying to hear the speakers blow / Turn up the music, fill your cup and drink it down". It is then followed by repeated chants of "If you're sexy and you know it put your hands up in the air". Jason Lipshutz of Billboard noted that the chanting was a reference to LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" (2011). Andy Kellman of AllMusic likened the song to Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" (1985). The song's hook resembles the hook in Toulouse by Nicky Romero. It is written in a key of C# major and composed with a tempo of 130 beats per minute.
Music video
Background We wanted to make sure that people, when they watch this, they feel like they're in this video ... We wanted to give it personality, we wanted to make it fun, we wanted everybody to see this and wish they were there. —Godfrey Taberez on the video's development. The accompanying music video for "Turn Up the Music" was directed by Godfrey Taberez and Brown, and filmed in Los Angeles, California on February 1–2, 2012. It was produced by Andrew Listermann of Riveting Entertainment. On February 2, 2012, Brown revealed details about the video via his official Twitter account, tweeting "I'll let you guys judge but this Turn Up the music video hands down is probably my best video by far!!!". Several images from the shoot were leaked online the same day, showing Brown in the passenger seat of a classic car, and standing shirtless on top of a vehicle with a group of people. Another image showed one of the dancer's face covered with a "wild mask". A behind-the-scenes video clip was posted online on February 14, 2012. The video showed Brown, dressed in a black suit, performing dance routines with several backup dancers in a club, surrounded by people wearing animal heads. Another scene showed Brown dancing in the rain and in the streets. The music video premiered online on February 17, 2012, and features a cameo appearance by hip hop trio The Rej3ctz.
Synopsis
The video is set at night and opens with Brown, dressed in a black suit, drinking alcohol in the streets, before hailing a futuristic hover-cab. Brown asks the cab driver to take him to the best spot in town. He then asks the driver to turn up the air conditioner because he's hot, but the driver turns up the music instead, while wearing a horse mask on his head. As the song begins, Brown exits the cab and arrives at a street party filled with people wearing animal heads. He then enters a club, where he performs the first dance sequence in the video with his male backup dancers. During the first chorus, Brown arrives inside the main room of the club filled with flashing lights and people dancing while wearing animal heads. After a hat gets tossed to him by one of his dancers in the crowd, Brown and his backup dancers perform another dance sequence as the queen of the party watches them from her perch. These party scenes are intercut with scenes of Brown dancing alone in another room surrounded by flashing lights and speakers in the background.
During the second chorus, Brown enters another room surrounded by people in animal heads, and performs the third dance sequence in the video with his backup dancers. Towards the end of the chorus, Brown and his dancers appear back inside the main room and continue dancing. At one point, the video is slowed down as Brown and his dancers do flips. In other scenes, he is seen dancing alone with a cane in a rain-filled room, wearing white dress pants, a black tank top and a fedora. Brown then splits into three people, comes back together, takes off his shirt and throws it at the camera, causing its lens to crack.
Reception The music video received positive reviews from critics. Rap-Up called the video "electrifying" and complimented the "slickly-choreographed routines" performed by Brown. Andrew Martin of Prefix magazine praised Brown's "killer dance moves". Katie Hasty of HitFix gave the video a positive review, writing "there is a serious series of sweeping dance shots that may impress the hating-est of haters". Jacob Moore of Complex magazine noted that the dance party scenes is what "you'd expect from a Breezy video". Meena Rupani of DesiHits felt that the video took her "into a whole different world" that reminded her of the films Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Men in Black (1997). Rupani also described it as "extremely futuristic and looks like it belongs in the year 2030". Jocelyn Vena of MTV News called it an "eye-popping video" and noted that there were several outfits Brown wore that paid homage to Michael Jackson. A reviewer for Capital FM praised Brown's "impressive dance routines" and noted that it was "similar to that of a Michael Jackson show". This was echoed by Amy Sciarretto of PopCrush who wrote that Brown's dance routines were "quite reminiscent of Michael Jackson and his classic, dance-driven videos". Joey of WXRK found the video to "be a hybrid between Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal', a party that Ke$ha would be at, and that scene from Fame when everyone is dancing in the streets on top of cabs and cars". The video earned Brown and Taberez a nomination for Video Director of the Year at the 2012 BET Awards. It won Best Male Video and Best Choreography at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. On September 19, 2012, the video received a nomination at the 2012 Soul Train Music Awards for Best Dance Performance.
Live performances