"Androgyny" is a song released by American alternative rock group Garbage as the lead single from their third studio album, Beautiful Garbage. Released worldwide in 2001, "Androgyny" represented a shift in the group's style, overtly embracing current music elements into their repertoire. Drummer/producer Butch Vig explained: "To me, some of the most cutting edge music out there is in the Top 40. Some of the songs on Beautiful Garbage, like "Androgyny" and "Untouchable" are influenced by Timbaland and Dr. Dre."
Promotion for "Androgyny" and its parent album were put on hold in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The mixed reaction from both critics and Garbage's fanbase to "Androgyny" also contributed to its underperformance in Garbage's home markets of the United Kingdom, where "Androgyny" stalled outside the top twenty, and in the United States, where it failed to register on any Billboard charts. Across Europe, however, "Androgyny" gained significant traction at radio and video; "Androgyny" was also a notable success in Australia, where it became their highest-charting single at the time.
In 2016, Garbage performed "Androgyny" for the first time in fifteen years in Charlotte, North Carolina to highlight the controversial Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act that was being deliberated in the state at the time. The band are resolutely pro-trans rights. Later that year, band leader Shirley Manson spoke of "Androgyny": "As it turns out, the song was way ahead of its time. The subject matter is now very pertinent. But back then, it was considered a little strange, I guess".
Song profile Garbage began the process of writing, recording and self-produced their third album in April 2000 at their own Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. The sessions for the record would last well into the following year; "Androgyny" becoming realised sometime in January 2001. Garbage had been making rough mixes of their work, and had moved a chunk from one musical piece into another to create what would end up as "Androgyny". A classical guitar part written for another song on the album, "Untouchable", was matched with a sparse drum machine pattern written for "Androgyny" during tracking stages. Although it sounded a little crude, the band felt that the piece had character; the band edited it with Pro Tools software and matched it with a synth melody."Garbage: Steve Marker & Duke Erikson cut the crap", Guitar Player, January 2002 issue "It's really three songs stuck together," guitarist Duke Erikson later recalled, "The way we do things is almost like Cubism. It's different viewpoints of the same thing, jammed together on the one canvas"."Recording Beautiful Garbage", Sound on Sound, June 2002 issue ""Androgyny" is a schizophrenic song", Steve Marker claimed, describing it as "lots of urban groove... then it's got a bit of that '60s fuzz guitar, loads of strings. There are like three or four different styles of music in it. It's basically just a weird song".
The majority of the recorded work on Beautiful Garbage was to analog tracked through a Trident A Range mixing console; then fed into Pro Tools for recording overdubs, editing and mixing. Originally the band had recorded a keyboard bassline during the verses; Daniel Shulman asked to perform organic bass on those parts instead. The band agreed; Shulman recorded those parts using a Fender Precision Bass Deluxe with the E String tuned down to D."Daniel Shulman on Garbage's Beautiful Garbage", Bass Player, March 2002 issue. While Shirley Manson's main vocals were generally not treated to the extent that they had on Garbage's first two albums, a lot of her backing vocals were; on "Androgyny" each vocal track was EQ'd and treated differently.
Lyrically, "Androgyny" was described by Shirley Manson as a "third-sex manifesto" for gender expression, adding that she thought that the world was fascinated with gender-bending and cross-dressing, and that she felt that people had become sick of being categorised in binary terms: "this overt sexualisation [of society]... has become so un-erotic, so un-mysterious, and so un-sexy". The band felt that "Androgyny" was a good choice as a lead single for Beautiful Garbage, as the song represented how the album veered to pop, more than the first two albums. "Starting off with something as quote unquote "poppy" as "Androgyny" was maybe where we wanted to go with this..." explained Erikson, "it sounds a lot different to what we've done before." Later Erikson told VH1, "["Androgyny"] encapsulates the mood of the record... each part of the song has a very drastic change and the record is full of extremes like that." He pointed out that despite the R&B verse, the song is recognisably Garbage because of the rock chorus; adding that the bridge also has a Philadelphia soul influence. "We combine different genres of music within a song... in that way, it's what we've always done."
Single release "Androgyny" received its world premiere radio broadcast on August 9, 2001, on Steve Lamacq's Evening Session on BBC Radio 1; this was followed up by pre-release broadcasts the next day on Nemone's Radio 1 show, and on Capital and XFM's breakfast shows. "Androgyny" was officially serviced to UK radio on August 13. "Androgyny" was C-listed at BBC Radio 1, Virgin, Red Dragon and Isle of Wight Radio.Mushroom Records UK Beautiful Garbage & "Androgyny" promotion, marketing, tools and schedule campaign itinerary, published Sept 2001 XFM's Arthur Baker premiered the Felix Da Housecat remix of "Androgyny" on his show on August 19, while The Architechs remix premiered on the Dreem Team's Radio 1 show on August 26. Both mixes were issued on 12-inch vinyl on August 20; the Felix Da Housecat mixes to nightclubs, while the Architechs remix was sent to specialist clubs. The "Androgyny" music video premiered on both MTV UK and VH1 on September 10; the following night's broadcast of the Mercury Music Prize event featured two teaser adverts during the commercial breaks to promote both "Androgyny" and Beautiful Garbage. "Androgyny" was B-listed at Radio One. Garbage spent a week in the United Kingdom to promote the single and album from September 17; recording a performance of "Androgyny" for Pepsi Chart Show, Top of The Pops and The Base to be broadcast after the single release. Shirley Manson co-hosted the Steve Lamacq Show on September 19. Garbage made their first live televised performance in nearly two years on September 22; performing "Androgyny" on cd:uk and the following day a live performance on T4 Popworld. Mushroom Records UK issued "Androgyny" on September 24 on three formats; a 2×CD single set and a 12-inch vinyl. Woolworths made "Androgyny" its 'Single of the Week'. "Androgyny" debuted at No. 24 on the UK Singles Chart, which was lower than any of the six singles Garbage released during the Version 2.0 album cycle. "Androgyny" dipped to No. 52 the following week, before leaving the Top 75 altogether.Q, "Garbage: Slipping Away, November 2001 issue
In North America, Interscope scheduled "Androgyny" for impact on hot adult contemporary, triple A, and contemporary hit radio on August 27 and 28, 2001. Interscope announced that "Androgyny" had become the No. 1 'Most Added' track at pop, adult pop, and triple-A, while picking up notable adds at hot AC stations. The music video for "Androgyny" was premiered on both VH1 and MTV on September 10. Interscope partnered with Yahoo! Messenger to promote the release of "Androgyny" around the launch of their new instant messenger initiative termed IMVironments that allowed users to play music and Flash Video clips inside the IM window. Users were able to correspond within a Garbage-themed environment that included the "Androgyny" audio, a Flash montage of the band, a hyperlink to Launch.com to view the "Androgyny" video and a link to Yahoo! Music to purchase the new album. Following September 11, "Androgyny" lost any momentum at US radio; barely hanging on at Triple-A, where it was averaging around 100-150 plays a week. "[In the weeks following 9/11] radio banished all sorts of songs, anything weird at all. "Androgyny" wasn't going to fly for a second", Duke recalled.
To set up the release of both "Androgyny" and Beautiful Garbage, PIAS France serviced the video for "Androgyny" to music stations on September 13;"Artistes & Musiques: L'album: BeautifulGarbage", MusiqueInfo, September issue "Androgyny" was playlisted by radio stations Europe 1, Europe 2, RTL, France Inter, Ouï FM, Sud Radio, FIP, WIT FM, Alouette FM, Le Moev' and Couleur 3, and by music channels MCM and MTV France, with specials broadcast by France 3 and M6 PIAS Germany serviced the music video to stations where it was playlisted by RTL II, VIVA, VIVA2, MTV Central and Onyx.tv; "Androgyny" was also well received by German radio, where it peaked at No. 57 on their airplay chart."Garbage: The New Single Cherry Lips" marketing brochure, published by PIAS Germany/Disconnected, November 2001 On September 24, PIAS released a maxi CD single across Europe. In some countries such as Netherlands and Italy, PIAS also issued a two-track CD single; PIAS France imported the 12-inch single from the UK to distribute to national music stores. After its fifth week at radio, "Androgyny" reached No. 17 on the European airplay chart; the following week the song debuted and peaked at No. 70 on the European Hot 100 Singles chart. In the weeks after the Beautiful Garbage album debuted at No. 2 across Europe, "Androgyny" peaked at No. 11 on the airplay chart. In Russia, "Androgyny" peaked at No. 2 on Music & Media'''s airplay chart.
For the release of "Androgyny" in Australia, FMR set a radio premiere date of August 24 across the two countries, confident from early album previews across airplay formats that the single would potentially receive massive radio support.Beautiful Garbage Point-of-Sale brochure, published by Festival Mushroom "Androgyny" became Garbage's first Top 10 Airplay hit in Australia."Breaking Up The Girl" Point-of-Sale brochure, published by Festival Mushroom, 2002 The physical single was released on September 24 as a maxi single featuring "Begging Bone", and the two Felix da Housecat and The Architechs remixes. "Androgyny" charted at No. 21 on the ARIA Charts and at No. 36 on the RIANZ singles chart. "Androgyny" stayed on the Australian chart for seven weeks, and on the New Zealand chart for thirteen, eventually rising to No. 17 on its eleventh week.
Music video The music video for "Androgyny" was directed by Don Cameron over a three-day London studio shoot commencing August 20, 2001. The video was produced by Tsunami/Method Films and its visual effects overseen by Smoke & Mirrors. Collaborating on the music video were top hair / make-up / stylists, British '60s airbrush artist Peter Barry and digital matte artists.