"Face to Face" is a song by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, released as the fifth single from their 2001 album Discovery. The single was released a few days after the release of the album, on October 10, 2003. The track features a sample from jazz pianist the Ahmad Jamal Trio's "I Love Music", which provides the main instrumental part of the song.
The song features traditional rappers and singers Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, beats and scratches by producer Mix Master Mike, heavily sings the chorus and three raps verses by Daft Punk. A moderate commercial success, the song was notable as well for its video, directed by Spike Jonze and nominated in five categories at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards.
Background[]
The song was first conceived when Bangalter played the signature rap line one day in the studio and it immediately caught the band's attention. Both Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo picked up their respective instruments and started building on it. According to Guy-Manuel in the 2015 Daft Punk Unchained documentary, the lyrics is a fictitious rant about how their producer Master Mike "was the worst person ever and how he was always facing us and holding us back."
Music video[]
The song's music video, directed by Spike Jonze and played extensively on MTV, is a homage to, and parody of, 1980s crime drama shows such as Miami Vice, In the Heat of the Night, Paris, Downtown, and Spenser: For Hire. The video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1980s-style police show called Face to Face, with the band members appearing as the show's protagonists. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given.
The Musique Vol. 1 featured a mock interview of the "cast" of the Face to Face conducted by Jonze's then-wife Sofia Coppola. Additionally, in the DVD commentary for the 2005 film In the Mix, Ron Underwood credits the film's opening credits to those used in "Face to Face."
Actress Amy Poehler reviewed the music video in the 2015's Daft Punk Unchained saying that, "there would be no Anchorman, no Wes Anderson, no Lonely Island, and no channel called Adult Swim if this video did not exist."
Censorship[]
Some scenes had to be removed when the video was shown on MTV, including a knife fight sequence, a scene in which a man is thrown out of a car into a street, and one where another man is thrown off a bridge and is shown violently hitting the ground (although it is clearly visible that the bodies thrown are stunt dummies).
2003 MTV Video Music Awards[]
The video for "Face to Face" was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction in a Video, and Viewer's Choice at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. However, it lost all five categories it was nominated in, losing Video of the Year, Best Group Video and Viewer's Choice to Missy Elliott's "Work It", and Breakthrough Video and Best Direction in a Video to Coldplay's "The Scientist".
During Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin's acceptance speech for the Best Direction award, Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter bum-rushed the stage in his disguise, interrupting Martin to protest the shutout of "Face to Face" from every category it was nominated in.
At the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, the "Face to Face" video won best video in the new category of "Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman)".
Track listing[]
12" single[]
- "Face to Face" (clean) – 3:46
- "Face to Face" (dirty) – 3:46
- "Face to Face" (instrumental) – 3:46
- "Face to Face" (acapella) – 2:49
Samples used[]
- "I Love Music" by the Ahmad Jamal Trio
- "The Funny Sides of Moms Mabley" by Moms Mabley
- "Change the Beat (Female Version)" by Beside
- "Rock the House" by Run-DMC
Sampled in[]
- "The Brainwasher" by Daft Punk
And more
References[]
| This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors). | 
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External links[]
- LW The lyrics of Face to Face at LyricWikia.
Media related to Face to Face at YouTube.
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