You Rock My World
You Rock My World
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You Rock My World

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You Rock My World

"You Rock My World" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson from his tenth and final studio album, Invincible (2001). It was released as the lead single from the album on August 22, 2001, by Epic Records.

"You Rock My World" peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was Jackson's last top-10 song in the United States in his lifetime; the posthumously released "Love Never Felt So Good" peaked at number nine in 2014. The chart position of "You Rock My World"' was attained solely on airplay alone, as no commercial single was initially issued in the United States. The track reached number one in France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, and Spain. It also peaked within the top 10 in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 44th Grammy Awards.

As part of promotion for "You Rock My World", a music video was released. The video, which is thirteen-and-a-half minutes long, was directed by Paul Hunter and features Chris Tucker, Marlon Brando, and Michael Madsen. In the video, Jackson and Tucker portray men who are trying to gain a woman's affection. The video has been compared to Jackson's previous videos "Smooth Criminal" and "The Way You Make Me Feel".

"You Rock My World" was performed only twice by Jackson: at Madison Square Garden in New York City at concerts on September 7 and 10, 2001, to celebrate Jackson's career as a solo artist. Footage of the performance was shown in the two-hour CBS television special titled Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration.

"You Rock My World" was recorded by Michael Jackson for his studio album, Invincible (2001). The song was co-written and composed by Michael Jackson with Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and produced by Jackson and Jerkins. "You Rock My World" was officially released as the lead single from the album in mid-August 2001, by Epic Records. Prior to the single's official release it had been leaked to two New York radio stations on Friday, August 17. Immediately after the song's radio airplay the radio stations had received "a herd of [radio] callers asking for more." "You Rock My World" was first played on WTJM at 6 p.m., with WKTU airing the song 45 minutes later. Both stations had played the single every two hours until around 6 p.m. The following Saturday, Jackson's record label, Epic Records, called the program director for both stations, Frankie Blue, who was also a friend of Jackson, and asked him to stop. Blue later recalled, "They informed me of the dangers of playing a song too early." He refused to say how the song came into his possession.

"You Rock My World" is credited as being an uptempo post-disco and R&B song with vocal harmonies. The song is played in the time signature of common time in the key E minor, with Jackson's vocal range spanning from the tonal nodes of D3 to G5. "You Rock My World" has a moderate tempo of 95 beats per minute. The chord progression in the song is Em7–Am7–D–Em7. The song's composition has been compared to Jackson's previous material with Quincy Jones from the late 1970s and 1980s as well as the disco-theme from Jackson's 1979 single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". Chris Tucker voices the vocal introduction of the song, while all the instruments heard on the track were played by Jackson and Rodney Jerkins. Lyrically, the song's lyrics are about being in love, as well as the effect that it can have, as evident in the opening line: "My life will never be the same, 'cause, girl, you came and changed the way I walk, the way I talk; I cannot explain".

Praise was mainly directed at the song's composition, while dissatisfaction towards the song was expressed by critics because they felt that the track was not Jackson's best material. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic listed "You Rock My World" as being a highlight for the Invincible album. Reviewer Andrew Hamilton, also of AllMusic, stated that, "If anybody other than Michael Jackson had released 'You Rock My World' with the tons of publicity and promotion it was accorded, it would have slam dunked the charts and been a multiple award winner. It sold well and got play everywhere, but too many critics panned the song and the album it came from as not being good enough for an artist on Jackson's level." Hamilton commented that people should "give Michael credit" because he was able to maintain a respectable career as a recording artist over the years of his later career.

James Hunter of Rolling Stone praised the song's vocal rhythms as being "finely sculpted" and "exquisite". He noted that the song shows similarities to Jackson's previous material with Quincy Jones. Mark Beaumont, a writer for NME, described the song as being a "disco classic". Catherine Halaby of Yale Daily News stated that the song "showcases the best of 'classic Michael'", and described the song as being "funky, catchy, upbeat, not too creepy". "You Rock My World" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 44th Grammy Awards, but it lost the award to James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight". It was Jackson's first Grammy nomination since 1997, for his single "Earth Song", and his first nomination in that category since 1995.

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