ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the signification of production and technology within the song 'Music', from the album Music released in September 2000. It argues that the relationship between musical production and Madonna's personal expression not only inscribes interesting advances in the mechanics of sound reproduction, but also shapes the nuances of performance via the performer as a fascinating constructed event. Editing processes make their major impact on the shaping of Madonna's voice in 'Music'. Production techniques in 'Music' communicate an attitude of playfulness through Madonna's performativity. Enacting the cyborg who is 'resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity', Madonna's morphing of vocal embodiment through computerized manipulation seems the ultimate cybernetic delection of the female flesh. The chapter argues that Madonna's performativity in 'Music' could be understood as a project of active communication, which is linked to the narcissistic, desiring subject.
