Welcome to the deep dive. We are We're really
thrilled. You're here with us today because we're
doing some time travel. Oh, yeah, we are going
way back Yeah back to late 2009. We're exploring
a very specific Really fascinating moment in
R &B history, right? And we're doing it by untacking
a single comprehensive Wikipedia article about
the song I am Which is a major release from a
defining artist of our era Mary J. Glitch our
goal today is to really look at the anatomy of
a major music release during what was, frankly,
a transitional era in the music industry. Definitely.
Because it's so easy to look back at a song from
over a decade ago and just see the chart numbers
or the runtime. But through this article, we
want to trace how an artist's personal and emotional
evolution gets translated into a commercial product.
Yeah, into a tangible thing you can buy. Exactly.
We are going to examine the grueling machinery
of late 2000s television promotion and we'll
wade into the deeply interesting world of global
chart performance and remix culture. At the end
of this, the architecture that goes into launching
a single track is going to be incredibly apparent
to you. So just to give you a brief overview
before we get into the tall grass here. Please
do. I am him, was released in late 2009. It's
the lead single from her ninth studio album,
which was called Stronger With Each Tear. And
reading through the article, the thing that jumps
off the page immediately is that this track is
defined by its supreme confidence. Unshakeable
confidence. Yeah, it represents this distinct
departure from the artist's past eras. It's really
a statement piece. The way the text lays out
the credits, the critical reception, the billboard
data, and oh my gosh, even the - the bizarrely
specific real estate details of the music video.
Oh, we are definitely getting to the real estate
later. We have to. But it all paints a picture
of an artist stepping into a totally new phase
of power. Which is a really interesting place
to start, actually. Because projecting that kind
of unshakable power usually requires a remarkably
sturdy foundation. Like a strong team behind
you. Right. If we look at the genesis of the
track, the songwriting credits for I Am are extensive.
The song wasn't just penned by the artist alone
in a dark room. Right, it rarely is at that level.
It was written by a collaborative team of six
people. You've got Mary J. Blige, John Taw Austin,
Esther Dean, Magnus Bate, Tor Erik Hermansson,
and Mikkel Erickson. See, six writers for a deeply
personal song feels, I don't know, it feels like
a contradiction to me. How so? Well, how does
a song stay personal, especially one literally
titled I Am, when it goes through a committee?
You'd think that many voices would just dilute
the emotional core. You'd think so, sure. Yeah.
But in modern R &B, it's actually about distillation.
OK. Think of it less like a corporate committee
and more like a team of architects. The production
was helmed by Tor Erik Hermansson and Mikkel
Ericsson, who... You might know them better under
their production moniker, Stargate. Oh, Stargate,
yeah. For those who might not know, Stargate
is this Norwegian production duo that essentially
defined the sound of late 2000s American pop
and R &B. They were everywhere. Everywhere. They
brought a very clean, pristine, melodic sensibility
to the genre. Yeah. Then you have Esther Dean
on this track who in 2009 was rapidly becoming
the industry's premier hook machine. She wrote
everything. She had this unparalleled talent
for crafting melodies that would just lodge in
your brain and refuse to leave. And John Tolstin
is a veteran R &B writer who really understands
the architecture of a classic soul song. So the
artist brings the emotional truth like the raw
material and this massive team acts as the refinery.
Precisely. They are building a sonic architecture
designed to support a very specific emotional
weight. Right. When you have an artist collaborating
across studios with dedicated top -line writers
and powerhouse producers like Stargate, the lyrical
message is debated, it's polished, and it's structured
to hit the listener with maximum impact. It's
engineered precision. Engineered precision. I
like that. And the emotional weight they're trying
to convey here is heavy, but in a totally uplifting
way. Yeah. The article notes the lyrical theme.
centers on a protagonist who confidently tells
her lover that nobody can treat them better than
the person they are with at the present time.
Which is bold. It is. Think about how rare that
is to possess that grounded certainty where you
can honestly say to someone, nobody can treat
you better than me. Right. And not from a place
of arrogance either. Exactly. Not arrogance,
but from a place of just settled self -worth.
Translating that specific quiet confidence into
a mainstream pop anthem is incredibly difficult.
It's a profound statement. Yeah. And conveying
that level of self -assurance in a way that resonates
with millions of people that requires that exact
Stargate polish. Yeah. They have to capture an
emotion that is tensely personal to the artist,
but phrase it. structure the chords around it,
and build the rhythm so it becomes a universal
anthem. When you hear the song, the music actually
acts as a vehicle for transferring that optimism
directly to you, the listener. Which brings us
to a fascinating part of this Wikipedia page.
Because to really grasp the impact of I Am, you
have to look at the critical reception section.
There's a review cited from BET .com that I think
serves as the absolute crux of why this song
matters in the broader context of her career.
I know the exact quote you're talking about.
Yeah. The review states that the song is a perfect
showcase of Mary's brighter outlook in the new
millennium. And the reviewer specifically notes
that, looking back at all the drama and pain
of the 90s. 90s. Both in her music and in her
personal life. It's hard not to smile hearing
her newfound confidence and optimism here. That
beat review is doing some heavy lifting for the
whole narrative. Really is. It explicitly asks
the audience to look backward, to understand
the present. It draws a definitive boundary line
between two distinct eras of an artist's life.
On one side, you have the drama and pain of the
90s, and on the other, you have the brighter
outlook of the 2000s. And that begs the question,
how does an artist successfully navigate that
transition? Because historically, a lot of artists
build their entire brand. their entire fan connection
on their struggles. That is the million dollar
question. It's incredibly rare for a single song
or even a single album cycle to act as a definitive
turning point without alienating the core base.
It's super risky. If you scroll down to the bottom
of this Wikipedia article, there's an index of
her singles organized chronologically by decade.
I love those tables. They're great. And it's
practically a map of her emotional journey. If
you look at the 1990s singles listed, you see
titles that literally spell out the the BET review
references. Yep, you don't have to worry. I'm
going down, missing you, seven days, deep inside.
And going down is the quintessential example
there. Oh, absolutely. These are titles that
suggest conflict, longing, searching, heartbreak.
They are the sonic embodiment of 90s R &B angst.
They are heavy. They're heavy, they're dramatic,
and they are brilliant. And that pain is what
endeared her to millions. Fans connected with
that vulnerability. They saw their own heartbreak
reflected in those tracks. Exactly. So when an
artist transitions from making art out of trauma
to making art out of happiness and stability,
they run an immense risk. The audience might
feel left behind. Or worse, they might find the
new happy material inauthentic. They might say,
you don't sound like you anymore. But she pulls
it off. She really does. If you look at the 2
,000 singles listed in that same index, you can
trace the shift in her mindset through the song
titles alone. Oh, it's fascinating. She starts
the decade with No More Drama, which is a literal
declaration of intent. Yes. It's her putting
a stake in the ground. Then as the decade progresses,
you move into titles like Family Affair, Rainy
Days, Love at First Sight, Just Fine, Work That,
Stay Down, The One. And finally, the song we
are discussing today, I Am. Just fine, work that.
I Am. The evolution is right there in plain text.
It's a highly cohesive narrative arc. She managed
to bring her audience along with her over an
entire decade. She didn't just abandon the 90s
angst overnight, you know. She showed her listeners
the gradual work of healing. Right, the process.
She proved that there is a light at the end of
the tunnel, that a person can realistically go
from, I'm going down to, I am. That is what the
BET .com review is actually celebrating. It's
not just that the Stargate production sounds
pristine, it's that the person singing it has
achieved a level of emotional triumph that feels
earned. Earned. Authenticity is the key word
there. The audience believes the optimism of
I am because they lived through the drama of
the 90s with her. Exactly. The confidence is
hard won. And from an industry perspective, when
you have an earned narrative like that, this
triumphant return of a beloved icon, it becomes
a highly potent marketing tool. Oh, for sure.
Which leads us to the sheer scale of how this
song was presented to the world in late 2009.
The promotional juggernaut. It was massive. Having
a great song with a powerful, earned message
is step one. But getting the entire world to
hear it in 2009 was a completely different beast.
Totally different era. The Wikipedia article
provides a chronological release and performance
history that is, honestly, it's exhausting just
to read. I get tired looking at the dates. Right.
The timeline goes like this. The song was sent
to Urban Radio in the week beginning November
10, 2009. Her first live performance was at the
American Music Awards on November 22, but the
digital download wasn't released until December
8. Okay, let's unpack that timeline because it
reveals a very specific late 2000s industry strategy
that has largely vanished today. Windowing. Exactly.
First, they sent it to Urban Radio. For those
who might not know, In 2009, this was a specific
industry format focusing heavily on R &B and
hip -hop. It was the essential proving ground.
You build a foundation with the core audience
first. Right. Then 12 days later, you execute
a sweeping, prime -time television performance
at the AMAs. But here's the kicker. Even after
seeing that massive prime -time performance,
you still can't buy the song. Which is wild to
think about now. It is. You have to wait another
16 days until December 8 to legally download
it on platforms like iTunes. They were artificially
creating anticipation. They were starving the
market so that when the digital download finally
opened up, there would be this flood of pent
up demand pushing the song up the charts. Today,
with streaming, the performance and the availability
are basically simultaneous. In 2009, windowing
was still a vital tactic. And once that digital
floodgate opened on December 8, the media blitz
that followed was staggering. Unbelievable. The
article details the television circuit she ran,
and it is a perfect snapshot of how record labels
blanketed the cultural consciousness back then.
I charted out her schedule from the text, and
the sheer volume of appearances is wild. Read
it out. Listen to this lineup. She performed
I Am on Lopez tonight. She did So You Think You
Can Dance. She hit the Jay Leno Show and Jimmy
Kimmel Live. Wow. She appeared on A &E's Private
Sessions. She performed on The Today Show, The
View, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Late
Show with David Letterman. Just reading that
list makes my vocal cords hurt. Right. Oh, and
when the song was released in the UK a few months
later, she flew over there and performed it on
Ellen Carr. Chatty man. It's the physical stamina
required to execute that schedule is mind boggling.
It's an athletic feat. It really is. Think about
the logistics. You are waking up at maybe four
in the morning to sound check for The Today Show
in New York. You're singing a high energy R &B
anthem at eight thirty in the morning while people
are drinking their coffee. Right. Then you are
likely flying across the country to Los Angeles
to do a late night comedy show like Kimmel or
Lano. Then you're performing on a highly choreographed
reality competition show. Like so you think you
can dance. Which is a totally different audience.
Exactly. You're constantly shifting gear, shifting
energies, interacting with different hosts to
perform the exact same three and a half minute
song over and over again. And you have to make
it look fresh and effortless every single time.
It's a highly calculated carpet bombing of the
American viewing public. It really was. Because
it wasn't just about hitting the biggest shows,
it was about hitting every specific demographic.
The View and the Ellen DeGeneres Show captured
the daytime, largely female audience. The Today
Show hit the morning commuters and stay -at -home
parents. Leno, Letterman, and Kimmel were fighting
over the late night crowd. Lopez Tonight brought
in a younger, more diverse, late night audience.
So You Think You Can Dance appealed to reality
TV fans, and Private Sessions on A &E captured
an older, more music nerd demographic. Covering
all the bases. Literally nowhere you could turn
your television in late 2009 without seeing a
performance of I Am. which tells us so much about
the state of the media in that specific year.
YouTube was growing, definitely, and digital
downloads were dominating, but the industry still
heavily relied on the monoculture of broadcast
television to break ahead. Yeah, TV was still
king. Social media was around. Twitter was gaining
traction, sure, but it wasn't the sole engine
of discovery like TikTok is today. If you wanted
to guarantee that tens of millions of people
heard your song, you couldn't just post a viral
dance. You had to physically stand on the stages
of daytime talk shows and late night comedy desks.
It was a brute force approach to promotion. She
was projecting this confidence live on television
every single day for months. But, you know, TV
appearances are fleeting. You watch them once,
maybe catch a rerun, and they're gone. True.
The label needed a permanent visual monument
to this new era of optimism. They needed something
that would live on Vivo and MTV forever. Which
brings us to the music video. Ah, yes. The visual
translation of an era. The article notes the
music video was directed by Anthony Mandler.
And it's no coincidence they brought him in.
He had just done the visuals for her other 2009
singles, The One. and stronger. That implies
a really cohesive visual strategy for the entire
stronger with each tier album campaign. Very
deliberate. They trusted one director to set
the aesthetic tone for this entire new era rather
than bouncing between different visionary directors
with conflicting styles. Exactly. Mandler understood
the assignment. The video premiered on Vivo on
December 8, 2009, coordinating perfectly with
that artificial digital download release date
we talked about earlier. This is where the Wikipedia
article gets wonderfully, almost hilariously
specific. Oh, I know what you're going to say.
When detailing the filming locations, the text
notes it was filmed in various locations throughout
Somos, California, the coastline, sure, standard
music video stuff, but then there's this absolute
gem of a detail. Let's hear it. It states the
video was filmed, quote, in particular at the
10 ,000 square foot L shaped sharp residence
that had been completed in 2005. I love the internet.
It is so good. I love that some anonymous Wikipedia
editor cared deeply enough to input the exact
square footage, the architectural footprint,
the name of the owners, and the completion year
of the house used for a one day music video shoot.
It reads like an architectural digest poll, quote,
somehow landed in the middle of an R &B song's
wiki page. It really does. And actually, if you
look at the references cited at the bottom of
the article, one of the citations is literally
an architectural digest piece from April 2008
titled, Open Audition California. selected designs.
Some editor cross -referenced an architecture
magazine to flesh out this music video section.
It's a hilarious quirk of crowd -sourced information.
Yeah. But honestly, even though Mary J. Blige
probably wasn't sitting in a pitch meeting demanding
an L -shaped residence completed in exactly 2005.
Right. The aesthetic of that house does perfectly
serve the message of the song. It really does
fit the vibe, because think about the visual
language of 90s R &B pain we discussed earlier.
When an artist is singing about heartbreak and
drama, you often expect a music video set in
a gritty urban landscape, a cramped apartment,
a rainy street corner, or a dark, moody club.
Dimly lit. Yeah. The visual language of pain
is often constricted and dark. But I Am is about
stepping into your power. So the Location Scout
finds a brand new sprawling 10 ,000 square foot
modern mansion on the coast of California. It
has clean lines, massive windows, wide open spaces.
It's expansive. Expansive. It's the architectural
embodiment of leaving the past behind and building
a new luxurious stable life. The confident visual
aesthetic perfectly matches the song's lyrical
message of supreme self -worth. So we have the
Stargate production, the exhausting TV promo
tour, and the sprawling architectural music video,
all working in tandem to deliver one cohesive
idea. A masterclass in branding. Truly. But as
with all major campaigns, the way the audience
receives it isn't always a monolith. Let's look
at the chart performance, because the data in
the article revealed a pretty interesting split
in how this song was consumed. The chart section
is incredibly revealing. You might assume that
with a sweeping television blitz across every
major network, this song would be an automatic
top 10 mainstream pop hit. You would think so.
But the numbers show something much more nuanced.
The song debuted at number 67 on the U .S. Billboard
Hot 100 in the week ending December 26, 2009.
and it eventually peaked on that 100 at number
55. Number 55 on the Hot 100. For a superstar
of her caliber, and given the massive push we
just detailed, that might seem surprisingly low
for the main pop chart. Why didn't it try higher
there? Well, it really speaks to what mainstream
pop radio was playing in late 2009. Ah, the context.
Right. That was the era of peak Lady Gaga, the
black -eyed peas I got a feel in, and a lot of
heavy auto -tune club tracks. Very synth -heavy.
Exactly. A mid -tempo, mature R &B anthem about
stable relationships was fighting a real uphill
battle against highly synthesized dance pop.
However, the Hot 100 is only one metric. The
text goes on to explain that it was an absolute
smash hit on specific genre charts. Right. It
reached number four on the Hot R &B Hip -Hop
Songs chart. And even more impressively, it went
all the way to number one on the Adult R &B Songs
chart. Adult R &B is a very specific radio format.
It is. It caters to an older, more established
demographic. Billboard even ranked I Am as the
12th biggest song of the entire year on their
2010 year -end adult R &B chart. That tells you
that while the teenage pop audience might have
only given it a passing glance, the core R &B
audience, the people who had been with her through
the 90s, the people who understood the weight
of that BAT review, they completely devoured
the song. It became an anthem for that demographic.
It's a perfect example of targeted cultural impact
versus just a generalized pop hit. But the label
wasn't content to just win the adult R &D demographic.
They wanted the clubs, too. Oh, they always want
the clubs. They do. The article notes that the
song reached number three on the U .S. Dance
Club Songs chart. Which feels wild on the surface.
How does a mature mid -tempo Stargate R &B track
become a top three hit in sweaty nightclubs?
The answer lies in the track listing section
of our document. It highlights the remix ecosystem
of the late 2000s. Let's break that down. The
track lists show two distinct physical and digital
products. First, there's the UK CD single, which
is very traditional. It features the standard
album version of I Am clocking in at three minutes
and 23 seconds alongside an instrumental version.
Standard issue. Right. But then there is the
digital remix single. And this is where the strategy
to conquer the dance floor becomes really obvious.
The digital remix single features four distinct
tracks, all heavily altering the original. You
have two remixes by David Aude, a club remix,
and a radio remix. And you have two remixes by
Boy Baxter. Again, a club remix and a radio remix.
Understand the shift, you just have to look at
the lengths of these tracks. The David Aude club
remix is six minutes and 28 seconds long. The
Boy Baxter club remix is five minutes and 42
seconds long. A six and a half minute track.
That is a completely different listening experience
from the three -minute Stargate pop version.
Entirely different. David Audet is a legendary
remixer. He's huge. What he does is he takes
a tightly constructed R &B vocal, strips away
the original mid -tempo production, and speeds
up the vocal track slightly. Then he builds an
entirely new instrumental underneath it. Right.
He adds what we call four -on -the -floor kick
drums. That steady, heavy, pulsating bass beat
that physically forces you to move on a dance
floor. He has extended instrumental intros and
hypnotic synthesizer breakdowns, so DJs have
time to mix the tracks seamlessly into their
sets. By employing producers like Ade and Baxter,
the label deliberately built a bridge from the
adult R &B radio stations straight to the nightclub
dance floor. Yes. It was a highly conscious strategy.
That number three peak on the dance club songs
chart wasn't an accident or an organic groundswell.
It was engineered by releasing that specific
digital remix package. It demonstrates a very
sophisticated understanding of how different
audiences consume music. The person buying the
CD single in the UK wants the pristine vocals
and the emotional resonance. The DJ in a New
York club needs the six minute a day mix to keep
the energy up at two in the morning. By providing
both, the artist maximizes their footprint across
entirely different subcultures. Speaking of footprints,
the global reach of this song is another really
interesting layer. A message of self -worth isn't
strictly an American concept. No, not at all.
The weekly charts listed show a truly international
presence. In Canada, it hit 96. On the European
Hot 100 Singles chart, it reached 95. In Scotland,
it hit 69. But then you look further east. On
the South Korea international chart, it reached
number 28. And on the Japan Hot 100, it went
all the way up to number 11. That peak in Japan
is fantastic. It's so high. Number 11 on the
Japan Hot 100 demonstrates how a deeply personal
message rooted in the specific context of an
American artist's life journey from the 90s to
the 2000s can completely transcend language and
cultural barriers. The sonic confidence crafted
by Stargate combined with the raw power of the
vocal delivery, it translates universally. You
don't necessarily need to know her entire backstory
to feel the triumph in that track. Now, as we
are looking at these international charts, there
is a fun little contradiction in the Wikipedia
text that I have to point out. It's a great example
of the messy reality of crowdsourced history.
Oh, I noticed this, too. If you read the prose
in the chart performance section, it says, quote,
In the United Kingdom. I am entered and peaked
on the UK singles chart at number 24 on March
7, 2010. OK, number 24, a solid top 40 hit in
the UK. Right. But if you scroll down just a
little bit to the actual data table labeled weekly
chart performance, you'll find a row for the
UK singles chart. And in that table, the peak
position listed is 34. Ah, the classic wiki discrepancy.
So the text claims a peak of 24, but the data
table claims a peak of 34. Exactly. It's right
there in the same document. Was it 24 or 34?
Who knows? It's a playful reminder that behind
every polished article is a crowd of human editors,
sometimes updating different sections at different
times, pulling from different archival sources.
The history of a song is often messy, both in
its creation and in how we record it. Very true.
Whether it was 24 or 34, what we know for sure
is that the song made a dent in the UK market,
especially considering she flew over to perform
it on Ellen Carr, chatty man, right around the
time it was peaking over there. The promo. Never
stop ever the machinery just keeps churning and
that brings us full circle to the broader implications
of what we've been discussing today The story
of I am as laid out in this article is so much
more than a list of chart numbers and producer
credits It's huge. It's a master class in collaboration
It's the story of a diverse team of writers and
producers coming together to distill a deeply
personal emotional shift into a highly structured
pop anthem It's the story of a turning point
in a personal narrative. We explored how an artist
successfully navigated the really dangerous transition
from building a brand on the angst of the 90s
to embracing a brighter outlook in the 2000s.
We saw how this specific song served as the definitive
boundary line between those two eras without
losing the authenticity her fans demanded. We
also examined the song as a case study in exhaustive
late 2000s television promotion. The relentless
schedule across morning shows, daytime talk,
and late night comedy reveals a music industry
that still heavily relied on the monolithic power
of broadcast TV to reach every conceivable demographic.
utilizing windowing strategies to artificially
drive up digital demand. We broke down the multi
-format chart success and the remix ecosystem.
We saw how a song could peak at 55 on the Hot
100, but simultaneously dominate the adult R
&B charts and conquer the dance clubs thanks
to strategic six -minute, four -on -the -floor
digital remixes by producers like David Audet.
And, of course, we can't forget the architectural
aesthetic of filming in a sprawling, modern,
L -shaped mansion to visually cement this new
era of expansive confidence. Completed in 2005,
let's not forget. Never forget. The takeaway
here is that every piece of media you consume,
every three minute song on your playlist, every
music video you stream, every performance you
catch on late night TV, it has a sprawling hidden
architecture behind it. There's so much going
on behind the scenes. There are producers agonizing
over the synthesizer tone. There are publicists
booking grueling cross -country flights. There
are directors scouting specific architectural
footprints to match the lyric. subtext and the
remixers tearing the song apart to rebuild it
for a completely different environment. It's
a highly coordinated effort by dozens of professionals
to make you feel a single pure emotion. In this
case that emotion was absolute unshakable confidence.
And that leads me to a final thought I want to
leave you with today. We've talked about how
this artist had to rebuild her creative machinery
to reflect her newfound optimism. She had to
find new collaborators like Stargate, she had
to pivot her visual style, she had to mission
new dance remixes. It takes deliberate work to
shed your past pain and project a brighter outlook.
It takes intentional construction. You can't
just flip a switch. You have to build the environment
and assemble the team that supports the new version
of you. Exactly. So this on the journey we just
unpacked, ask yourself, if you were to write
an anthem for your current era of life, who would
be on your production team? I like that. Who
are the specific people you would trust to help
you refine your message? And taking a cue from
that incredibly detailed Wikipedia editor, what
kind of 10 ,000 square foot metaphorical house
would you film your video in to show the world
exactly who you are right now? The architecture
of your life is yours to design. We want to thank
you so much for joining us on this deep dive
into the making, the meaning, and the mechanics
of a 2009 R &B classic. It's been an absolute
pleasure unpacking this with you. Until next
time, keep exploring the hidden structures behind
the art you love. And as always, stay curious.