The story of Virtual Insanity is weirder than you thought

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Virtual Insanity is perhaps Jamiroquai's best known song, but the story behind it and the insight into it's origin is more interesting than it seems.

[@davidhartley94]

Thanks for watching, please subscribe if you enjoyed the video! 🙂

[@Bloodywasher]

Classic

[@ettore_music]

Hi! May I ask: have you had an issue with copyright claims? Btw, Great video! One of the few times I really do press that subscribe button 😊

[@user-hw4zf1zc9z]

I wanted to disagree that VIRTUAL INSANITY does not sound, and video does not look like the 90s. It's the mid-90s, and if you listened to the young artists of that time like him, that is exactly how new music sounds like in the 90s. It's an era where the 20th century is about to end, and the 21st century is about to come. There were a lot of really cool music and videos from that time if you dig into it deeply. So nope, it isn't ahead of It's time.... it's the music of its time. As an older millennial, I've witnessed how music got stuck and sounded like the music from 20 to 30 years ago. And there are a lot of blues and funk in this music, something that's common from the 50s to 70s. It is the music of its time. It's just hard to tell music apart these days - nothing novel is coming out. I was 10 when this came out and loved it as I still do. Jamiroquai was on my playlist in my college days. I love him!

[@Lee.Willcox]

The Alien computer boot up sound, with Frank Herbert's Dune, travelling without moving. Brilliant

[@DrNothing23]

Why were the people all under the city??

[@ewed418]

one thing is true, this song aged well and it DOES NOT look like it's from the 90s.

[@songfulmusicofsongs]

Why? To me it doesn't look like it's from the 80's either...

[@wisdommakubile2127]

@@songfulmusicofsongs It's not suppose to, its timeless.

[@1998flint]

When my friend showed me this I thought it was was from like 20 years ago like 2003 or 2004

[@tolstoy21]

I remember when this song came out. There was no one that sounded like them. My band’s guitarist and I were trying to wrap our minds around what it even compared to and could only come up with Stevie Wonder. I think the fact that this song feels timeless is that it really didn’t fit into the era it was written, so it’s hard to listen to it now and really hear it as fitting into the mid 90s.

[@Ryuko15]

yeah i thought its atleast 2008 - 2012

[@-LivingProof]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this song is nearly 30 yrs old! 😢 It doesn't seem like the 90's were that long ago... great times.

[@legoqueen2445]

Yea, that hit me like a truck! Can't be 30 years! I'm pretty sure it was only a few months ago.

[@ThePandoraGuy]

THE MILLENNIUM BUG STRIKES AGAIN. It always will be ten years since 1990.....unless you're born after 2000. Then your brain got the patch.

[@darianstarfrog]

The best times

[@masterofwit339]

Truly the best 9️⃣0️⃣’s 🎵

[@ThePandoraGuy]

@@darianstarfrog Maybe. But thou shalt not give in to Nostalgia, for she is a backstabbing mistress. BE WARNED STRANGER.

[@RunDub]

I’ve always loved the irony of the video being achieved with a simple illusion, rather than CGI or high tech trickery, given the track name. Virtual Insanity, practical effects.

[@sleepingkirby]

My first job was actually working as PA for a CGI department. Everyone in the department was very pro practical effects. The great thing about working in animation was that nothing mattered expect how good it looked. It doesn't matter if you've spent 30k on modeling and animating a prop or spending 15 dollars on painting a prop and tossing it in the air. If it look good, it works. With that said, while Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was praised for its CG, a lot/most of the far away backgrounds were actually paintings. Like, someone hand painted it on a giant canvas. It looked so good, most people don't realize it wasn't CG. Again, nothing mattered except how good it looked.

[@Kashkha7]

​​@@sleepingkirby Matte painting is well known & used on both CGI & non CGI efx. Any digital efx studio would have digital matte painters working all the time esp. in smaller studios where they often also have to be texture artists at the same time. So yes FF used matte paintings as background, its not all high res 3d models - that wold be too taxing for the render farms & budget$, yet theyre all digitally painted using digital painting/photo editor + 3d softwares done usually on a Cintiq. So still CGI.

[@sleepingkirby]

@@Kashkha7 These weren't digital matte paintings. They painted on actual physical canvas, photographed it, then put it in as the background.

[@Parker--]

Exactly why it holds up.

[@whannabi]

Yup​@@Parker--

[@theplothickens]

Not only is the illusion amazing, but Jay's movements are vital to the overall performance. He is *selling* the trick.

[@IKFKSwitch]

The most impressive thing to me about the music video is, even when you figure out how the illusion was created, it's still mind blowing.

[@greyswandir2807]

Wait, I'm still on "band's didgeridoo player".

[@Meyer-gp7nq]

Same

[@isuriadireja91]

Jamiroquai's, hands down, the best ACID JAZZ act ever. Virtual Insanity is like the Bohemian Rhapsody...Stairway to Heaven type of masterpiece of this genre.

[@Turtlpwr]

Agreed, one of my favorite pop-ish songs of all time

[@fearofjazz7369]

Hardly a compliment though is it - Acid Jazz...lol

[@dizmop]

@@fearofjazz7369 what do you mean?

[@pepesilvia429]

​@@fearofjazz7369Just because a genre was popularized in the 80s doesn't mean it's played out

[@isuriadireja91]

@@fearofjazz7369 what's wrong with acid jazz...? lol back. and what do you FEAR jazz...?? oh wait, never mind....I don't give a f**k.

[@canaanval]

I wish I still had my big fuzzy hat and didgeridoo from the 90's

[@Turtlpwr]

Bring back the big fuzzy hat

[@75willo]

Still got my didge...😁

[@JohnWilliams-vy2gw]

Oof, i dont

[@Turtlpwr]

@@JohnWilliams-vy2gw well you’re no fun.

[@JayBigDadyCy]

This band was life changing for my friends and I. Most of us musicians. The insane basslines, the crazy funk variations, JayKay's spaced out kyrics and incredible jazzy delivery. My friend and I would go to Borders Books and Music and listen to all of the "This is Acid Jazz" compilations because of Jamiroquai. Found a lot of incredible stuff because of them. Still one of my favorites today.

[@genevievebe303]

Insane to think Jonathan Glazer started doing music videos and later won an Oscar for The Zone Of Interest

[@louisrios5546]

Yes, I'm surprised that this wasn't mentioned.

[@chrislawuk]

Perhaps the fact that many Oscar winning directors get their start in music videos and commercials meant it wasn’t so interesting?@@louisrios5546

[@whyisntitpossible404]

You're not at all wrong when you say he "later won an oscar" but it sounds really strange considering he won it just the other week haha

[@moorederodeo]

He has an insane filmography tbh

[@genevievebe303]

@@moorederodeo indeed

[@lmclm1755]

It's a shopping centre underground and they are found all over Japan. The largest is the Whity Umeda area in the Umeda area of Ōsaka city. It extends from Dōjima to the area near Nuchayamachi in Umeda in the north and westwards to Nishi-Umeda. Some places in Namba 4.5km south extend down two floors and it's almost as big as Whity Umeda. These areas are cool in the oppressive heat of summer and warm in cooler months.

[@kyhxx]

. ah btfl- was unaware^

[@SmokeyChipOatley]

Man I absolutely adore Virtual Insanity (and Jamiroquai in general for that matter). By far one of my favorite music videos of all time. Instantly transports me back to my childhood in the 90s. They'd often play it during VH1s early morning video block while my sister and I got ready for school.

[@iiiicks]

"Jamiroquai - Automaton" - For those wondering what the last song is @7:34

[@TheEpicImpaler]

I thought it was a cover of the supremes’ “you keep me hanging on” but I guess they just used the same chords

[@sebastianstarr007]

Thank you! Incredibly inappropriate for the Creator to have not given proper credit in his drop down, there is more than just 1 song he's using in this video, B-

[@howamilooking5952]

That final point says it all for an artist today. No matter what technological explosion happens on art, you can always have more rhythm than a machine.

[@wideyxyz2271]

especially if you are a dancer!

[@joeBloggs-yo6jw]

Back in around 1994 I was seeing a girl who was mad about Jay and she had approached him in the street and asked him about what he was listening to on his walkman and he just gave her the tape. I remember listening to that tape and it was a side long loop (I guess he just looped stuff so he could work on lyrics)... Have not heard it since then but I think it was something more disco-ish which might have appeared on an album post Space Cowboy...

[@madMARTYNmarsh1981]

It is interesting to learn that the walls shaking was unintended. I thought that was done on purpose, sort of like a nod to the mental walls Pink builds for himself in Pink Floyds The Wall. I thought the shaking was meant to imply the natural world trying to break through the walls built for us in the Virtual Insanity world.

[@macronencer]

So... what were those Japanese people actually doing underground? Maybe I missed it, but I don't think you told us.

[@bretthunter6253]

They have underground malls and walkways to help not congest the streets above

[@Survival1]

Just standing around.

[@macronencer]

@@bretthunter6253 That's actually a pretty cool idea!

[@frodev728]

they were just going, going, going deeper underground.😊

[@garyruss3529]

@@bretthunter6253 they have the same thing in Montreal.

[@PlanetDeLaTourette]

"They could have used cgi." Have you seen 1996 visual effects?

[@fuqupal]

HAVE YOU SEEN JURASSIC PARK???? THAT FUCKER'S FROM 1993! AND WAS MADE AND PRODUCED IN 1992!!!!!!! GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@StuartWoodwardJP]

I came here to say this. Doing a Google image search for “1996 CGI” makes me shudder.

[@aisthesik]

Jurassic Park started it all in 1992; by 1996 cgi was ok enough with movies like Terminator 2, Jumanji, The Mask, Independence Day. But more expensive than a moving floor. So they made a great job with the walls and stayed on budget.

[@PlanetDeLaTourette]

@@aisthesik Jurassic park has less cgi running time than this video clip. Mostly tricking the eye. This is probably true for all that you mention. These are not full cgi scenes. I think making the videoclip is near impossible in 96.

[@RichardServello]

Yeah, I have, Jurassic Park, Fifth Element, Titanic, Mars Attacks, The Crow, Twister, Dragonheart, Independance Day, Multiplicity, The Frighteners, Mission Impossible. Need I go on?

[@Neozio]

I have been a Jamiroquai listener since I seen the Space Cowboy video in 1990's. I love every album. thanks for playing some Automation!!

[@agraciotti]

Iconic music and video. Not only for the technique used, but specially due to his performance and moves in the video, so original.

[@tearjrker]

Traveling Without Moving is one of my top 5 albums... I bought the CD the week it came out. 100% agree it has a timeless sound.. one of the things in music I love to find. Nothing better than hearing a song that you just can't name the decade..

[@thecasualfly]

Remember seeing this on MTV as a teenager when they first showed it .. I was in love

[@danielduncan6370]

Wait it’s a band? I thought he was just a dude lol

[@PankitoEmiya]

WHAT

[@oharasean]

Same

[@user-mj2sv3vl2u]

Reversed Tame Impala

[@toteknowledge]

Me too

[@user-bb9us6gp8n]

Felt the same way, when I learned that Sade is band

[@RichardServello]

Ha, 30 years later and a 20 year career in VFX and I never knew the set was moving..LMAO! Brilliant.

[@TryinaD]

This is a win for practical effects then!

[@infamousNfamous]

I always assumed the floor was moving, because that seemed like the obvious answer. It's even cooler to know the walls themselves were moving.

[@lis.anwell638]

One of my favorite songs. I remember when the song won video of the year at MTV music awards. I was very happy especially because no one I knew really knew about the song until then.

[@petitpoisparis]

Just saw Jay Kay’s Instagram yesterday and they r back in the studio , but with dad is in the shed with his mates vibe 😂

[@Liquid_Mike]

I like this format, its like VH1 Pop-Up Video and a mini essay rolled into one!! and Pop-Up Video was *AWESOME!!!* ..and also needed a comeback!

[@lambborn5423]

Thank you for saying that, I remember the pop up video for this said everything he said and more , so much went into making this song and video! I learned so much from pop up videos

[@OmarRamzi]

Saw them in concert recently in Dubai.....theyre still rocking it!

[@ProfDrDrN0]

Such a masterpiece! Funky Pop with a prophetic message...Genius at work!!! Got to get that LP

[@trowdytrav]

Love Jamiroquai. I was 16 years old when Virtual Insanity came out and the film clip is just as good now as it was back then. So ahead of it's time.

[@wednesdaytheblackcat7385]

I was at the MTV awards and saw them. My friend, who worked with MTV for a bit, got my friends and I to be part of the audience by the stage. Just lots of cheering and dancing. Fun times 😊

[@slappomatthew]

30 years old. Thanks now I feel old

[@bobzmuda3456]

came here to find out how much of this i learned in vh1's pop up video. learned a lot, great vid

[@isuriadireja91]

Well, the director just won an Oscar for best Int'l Film.

[@kms2174]

Omgggg pop up video!!!! Just sang it Loved that showwww!! Now days it would be SO LAME

[@echopathy]

love your breakdowns, man. thanks for sharing your investigation!

[@looneytoastywolf]

Gosh I love this song, the music video and JK himself ♡♡♡ I still play the song alot :]! And still in awe of the musoc video Great video man!! So cool

[@theAlphatron]

Great video! This is one of my favorite songs and music videos of all time.

[@spiderliliez]

The album was amazing you know. I love this song so much!

[@satevo462]

As a teenager in the 90's, this video was ALWAYS on MTV. So we didn't need KZbin.

[@euansmith3699]

The "moving floor" effect was startling enough when viewing the video. Finding out it is a cunning illusion really adds to visual confusion. 😎🤯

[@wayneG68]

My all time favourite band and only now do I find out how that video is made.

[@SeraphimKnight]

I absolutely love Jamiroquai and this song & video clip are definitely in the top 3 for me along with Canned Heat and You Give Me Something.

[@RayfieldA]

Tell the guy who said that None of Jamiroquai's songs were fit for Singles, that I said he didn't know what the Fuq he was talkin about. 😏

[@JanaeSmith]

Dude is probably dead

[@Daniel-le3gl]

Man I really love this song so much. This video was extremely well done, thank you for making it! I foresee your channel exploding very soon!😊

[@Daytona2]

That was fascinating, thank you, David. I guess my brain likes complex sounds as I've always enjoyed Virtual Insanity, without knowing why - I'm an engineer type, who doesn't read anything into songs. Funkin says that they played Sendai on 28 Feb 1995 and it was released 18 months later. Thinking back, I was on the internet at work in 1993 (Compuserve) and at home in 1995 (Demon Internet)

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

it's so creepy that the lyrics basically talks about modern day, its like the simpson of music

[@aguanteflema]

i remember first hating jamiroquai and this video (the first video i saw of him), mostly because it sounded different to anything i'd ever listened to (rock music). but once i manage to pay attention to the video and the song.. i could not fell anything else but awe and love

[@michaelcarey]

I can remember the first time I saw the Virtual Insanity Video. I waked into a local HiFi store where their wall of TVs on display was hooked up to the new Australian Pay TV system, Austar. Virtual Insanity just started showing as I waked in and I was mesmerized, transfixed by what I was watching.

[@TIRABATERA]

One of my favorite songs of all time!!❤

[@lahaza6515]

That first line up (not that they aren't great now) is SO unspeakably tight, talented and in the groove at ALL times.

[@djtomt]

One of my favorite videos of all time!

[@psychedelikchameleon]

I remember seeing Jamiroquai in Lakota in Bristol about 30 years ago! Also remembered seeing Jay on "You Bet", identifying super cars/sports cars just from their rear lights or rear indicator lights or something? Very specialist and he nailed it of course Now I've tried to look it up I can't find it so maybe I was dreaming! Or it was a different show or celebrity

[@owlyus]

I was so god damn lucky to hear this album as a snotty 13 year old

[@charlibiris]

Snotty boy with lipstick on

[@bennyv2861]

It’s such a stand alone piece of music. It’s kind of an if you weren’t there at the time and experienced in the time it won’t hit the same. This was the best part of music videos in the 90’s. No speciAL FX. Just creative ingenuity and passion for the music.

[@Voidroamer]

what a rabbit hole, mind blown! thank you sir

[@Dreamz369]

This song predicted a future where we would be more in Virtual Reality instead of where we started when we were born. We would fall into endless loop of being dependent on technology and out and back in again. at most, it's truly a Virtual Insanity that we have grown this dependent on technology. But to be fair, we're doing out best and haven't completely fallen. The moment the power goes out, we go outside. The moment our internet goes off, we go outside. or take a nap or sleep cuz we've been lacking it. It just somehow worked. Regardless the song was a prediction in and of itself and either way, it's alright now.

[@dragonsouleater1119]

i remember watching this video on vh1 before school, in the morning. always tripped me out LUL love this jam!!!

[@faith2691]

My God! Have I had that album for that long??? Awesome song, film clip and video. Thank you

[@K3NnY_G]

6:13 - Also in the video around the 1:17 mark the chair on the right attached to the wall shifts a bit from making contact with the floor I assume; I always wondered about this but knowing how the effect was achieved it's so obvious.

[@user-wi5xi1un1h]

I think about this song every other day as AI gets more and more advanced.

[@ct5625]

It is kind of funny that they originally considered the ridiculous engineering of a moving floor when the obvious answer is a static camera on moving walls to achieve the same effect.

[@XGRIMYONEX]

I grew up with this song

[@liveliestawfulness]

Well, Young Lion, I would call it "acid skiffle"

[@JanHell666]

Also i have always wondered about the specific meaing behind the pics of animals (and blood) besides the obvious one.(the contrast between the living world and the tech one)

[@mattmatthews5414]

7:55 Jay Kay is still alive. He’s 54.

[@helgenx]

It's weird to know my potential grand children will be like "my grandfather was born in the 1900's."

[@ishitvvats2044]

i never knew Jonathan Glazer directed the music videoo❤❤❤❤

[@zandy7425]

I listen to Jamiroquai almost every day. Of course I knew about them in the past but now I'm down with all their albums. They were so ahead of their time, all of their albums are great classics to me. I can listen to them all straight. Two of my favorites songs are Carla and Tallulah. I liked the song Carla even more realizing it's about a baby girl. I think the song is so sweet.

[@HaroldoCurti]

Have you ever heard about SAMURAI, from Brazilian legend Djavan? I'm sure they were into it... check the harmony.

[@kensurrency2564]

That video is truly mind-altering! It is timeless.

[@loserplanet]

Introduced my nephews to this song and video a few months back. They loved it!

[@truckerdave8465]

My teenager found this song on their own so I still holds up. I was the same age they are now when it came out. That’s so wild.

[@the1only467]

I love this song, such an original track with a unique video. The 90s were such a special time, never to be duplicated again unfortunately.

[@alancarnell2747]

I knew the trick already but it still impresses me for creativity and coordination of all the moving parts amd people.

[@mrKozmoz]

I remember being a young teen when that song came out originally, it was fantastic then, and still great today. The video though, I feel stands the test of time in terms of artistic music videos that have aged pretty well.

[@ModularMemories]

I got into this band much later, but still listen to the albums I have and always enjoy them.

[@ttrinh0313]

They were so ahead of their time! Loved this video and song so much when it came out when I was a teen! Wish they were still making music! 🎵

[@Jasonmakesvideo]

I fkin love this band! So far ahead of their time whilst also feeling funky in a nostalgic way too. They virtuosos too

[@tngrrl73]

Very cool! I lived north of Sendai (in Misawa) from '96 - '00 & rocked this album there. I had no idea Sendai inspired it.

[@maxkopfraumpoops]

and I still do NOT get how the moving walls thing works exactly???

[@vinylarchaeologist]

All of the walls are suspended 1 cm above the floor, and are all held together as one piece. Take a water glass, turn it upside down and slide it across the table. Same principle. The crucial bit however: the camera is also moving along with the walls. Illusion complete.

[@Mayhem_Inc]

I was literally just thinking about this video the other day I could hear the melody in my head, but I couldn’t remember any of the words so I couldn’t figure out how to find it. What a trip that this popped up in my feed.

[@flyfishizationjones4940]

I was about your age in 1996. CGI was in its infancy back then. It definitely would have been fake and would have made this a forgettable video. I’m very glad they did what they did too. Cool story. Keep up the good work!

[@peterinbrat]

Apparently the cost of the song in the finale of Napoleon Dynamite was half the movie's budget~and completely worth it.

[@room5245]

great vid mate, first I saw of yours! subbed and liked

[@Sandman.68.]

Shame the future of Sendai wasnt so rosey . If there was anyone underground when the earth quake and tsunami hit ... Virtual insanity indeed 😢

[@Picasso_Picante92]

Sendai didn't suffer much from the 2011 quake. In fact, underground arcades here in Japan are built to withstand strong quakes.

[@frida507]

@@Picasso_Picante92 What were they doing underground? This video never explained. Workplaces, parties subway...?

[@Picasso_Picante92]

@@frida507 Here in Japan most cities like Sendai have large underground shopping malls and arcades. Tokyo Station has a very nice one with restaurants, bars and boutiques. Nagoya Station has one that is almost like a mini city. So most likely Jamirquia was speaking about one of these.

[@frida507]

@@Picasso_Picante92 Thanks for explaining!

[@Picasso_Picante92]

@@frida507 You're very welcome! By the way, As a volunteer, I drove emergency supplies up to Tohoku shortly after the 2011 quake. The destruction I saw haunts me till this day.

[@SilverXTikal]

The instrumental makes me feel a nostalgia I’ve lost as a child. I’m a 94 baby and this songs instrumental just mashes everything I loves from the years up to TLC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees

[@DiogeneDeSin0pe]

Awesome, thank you, now off to watch the video another time!

[@iMadrid11]

The internet already exists in the 90’s when Virtual Insanity was released in 1996. The World Wide Web was still in its infancy. So multimedia content on desktop computers and the web wasn’t very immersive yet. Internet was mostly dialup. Videos on browsers were compressed at a size of a postage stamp.

[@mastertimb]

Thanks David!

[@classic.calypso]

HUH????? WAIT?!!! Virtual Insanity was MADE IN 1996?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?! Dude, I thought it was at least 2005 (when Napoleon Dynamite came out) My god, when you say he was ahead of his time, you're so right... We put on this music video when we host karaoke!! Timeless!!!!!!!

[@desperatedave3573]

YOU BROUGHT Jamiroquai back to me! IVe wondered what happened to him! Im 45 and he was a breeze of fresh air when he hit hard!

[@monostripezebras]

It was a great song.. and holds ups pretty well.

[@masmo333]

the production was so good, I'll believe if its made in 2024

[@kannaharuka]

also you forgot that the song is just a GODDAMN BANGER

[@stemartin6671]

I remember watching the behind the scenes for this video. Was impressive.

[@brunodomingos9231]

Djavan - "Samurai" is the original inspiration

[@Kenkeikyon78]

I’ve been searching for this song for more than a decade!!

[@bobbytilkov3574]

One of my favourite songs ever

[@FixTheWi-Fi]

what i'm more wondering is how did they move the furniture flush with the wall yet also not, without getting in his way.

[@suggarface1]

Awesome video, thanks for that! ❤