Question!

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“Question!”
“Question!” cover
Single by System of a Down
from the album Mezmerize
Released 2005
Format Vinyl, CD, Airplay
Recorded The Mansion
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Akademie Mathematique of Philisophical Sound Research
Los Angeles, California
Genre Alternative metal
Length 3:20
Label American/Columbia
Writer(s) Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian
Producer Rick Rubin, Daron Malakian
System of a Down singles chronology
"B.Y.O.B."
(2005)		 "Question!"
(2005)		 "Violent Pornography"
(2005)
UK Enhanced Single cover
Cover of the UK Enhanced Single of "Question!".
Cover of the UK Enhanced Single of "Question!".
DVD Single cover
Cover of the DVD Single of "Question!".
Cover of the DVD Single of "Question!".

"Question!" is a song by the band System of a Down. It is the second single of their fourth album Mezmerize, which focuses on life after death. The song was first premiered by the famous Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ on May 23, 2005 and was released to alternative and rock radio stations on July 12 of the same year.

"Question!" is written in the key of E minor - a somewhat unusual key for System of a Down, which normally relies heavily on Cm, C#m, and F#m. The song uses five different time signatures (5/4, 9/8, 6/4, 3/4, and 4/4). The acoustic guitar intro and part of the verse is in 9/8 (3+2+2+2, essentially 4/4 with an extra eighth note on beat 1). The verse briefly switches to 3/4 (when Serj sings "Are you dreaming?"). The guitar motif after the acoustic intro is in 5/4. This same section appears throughout the song as well. The chorus is in 6/4. The heavy tremolo-picked section towards the end underneath the vocals is in 4/4. Serj Tankian plays acoustic guitar in the intro and deeper in the background behind lead guitarist Daron Malakian.

The song is sometimes compared to one of System of a Down's other songs "Aerials," which also deals with the nature of life in the lyrics. Both are primarily sung by Serj but seem to have Daron as back-up in the chorus. Music similarities are not as easy to spot. Aerials does not have the wide variety of time signatures that Question has (a problem that allegedly makes the song difficult for even the band to play) and the bass is used more for atmosphere in Aerials, whereas in Question it only shows up separate to the guitar for a repeated riff.

Contents

[edit] Music video

The video was released on August 5, 2005 on MTV and the band's website. The opening scene is of a boy with gray hair, clothes, and skin shooting a red bird with a slingshot, which coincides with the start of the song. At this point the video switches to a scene of the band members on a theater stage, performing music for a play. The play is based on a theme of life, death, and reincarnation, revolving around two lovers, a man in a dark suit and a woman in a red dress, who are shown both as children and adults. As the music reaches its climax, the woman collapses after eating a red berry and the man screams in grief. The video closes with an intense scene of a woman being euthanized followed by a shot of a newborn baby wrapped in red cloth. The color red is central to the video, tying together the bird, the girl, the woman, and the baby in a cycle of rebirth.

Shavo Odadjian produced the video (and co-directed it alongside Howard Greenhalgh) after allegedly having an image of the video in a nightmare. It is claimed that before the dream he had no intentions of producing the video. In fact he didn’t want any special treatment over other possible producers for being in the band so he submitted his idea anonymously. Shavo also in his dream originally saw duplicates of him and the bandmates as all of the audience during the opera scene, but decided not to do that in the music video because it reminded him of the hip-hop group Outkast's music video for their song "Hey Ya", and didn't want to make it seem anything related to that.[citation needed]. The UK Single edition of "Question!" was released in the United States as Hypnotize Value Added available only at Best Buy stores.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Question! (Promo Single)

  1. "Question!"

[edit] Question! (Single)

  1. "Question!"
  2. "Sugar" (Live) (Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: S. Odadjian/D. Malakian)

[edit] Question! (UK Enhanced Single)

  1. "Forest" (Live at the Big Day Out 2005) (Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: D. Malakian)
  2. "Prison Song" (Live at the Big Day Out 2005) (Lyrics: S. Tankian/D. Malakian, Music: D. Malakian)
  3. "Question!" (Video, Live at the Hurricane Festival 2005)

[edit] Hypnotize Value Added (Best Buy Exclusive-U.S.)

  1. "Forest" (Live)(Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: D. Malakian)
  2. "Prison Song" (Live) (Lyrics: S. Tankian/D. Malakian, Music: D. Malakian)
  3. "Question!" (Video, Live)

[edit] Question! (DVD Single)

  1. "Question!" (Music Video)
  2. "B.Y.O.B." (Music Video, Clean Version) (Lyrics: D. Malakian/S. Tankian, Music: D. Malakian)
  3. "Sugar" (Live at the Big Day Out 2005, Clean Version) (Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: S. Odadjian/D. Malakian)
  4. "B.Y.O.B." (Live at the London Astoria 2005, Clean Version) (Lyrics: D. Malakian/S. Tankian, Music: D. Malakian)

[edit] External links

v • d • e
System of a Down
John Dolmayan · Daron Malakian · Shavo Odadjian · Serj Tankian
Andy Khachaturian
Albums
EPs
Singles
"Sugar" · "Spiders" · "Johnny" · "Chop Suey!" · "Toxicity" · "Aerials" · "Innervision" · "B.Y.O.B." · "Question!" · "Violent Pornography" · "Hypnotize" · "Lonely Day" · "Kill Rock 'n Roll"
Videos
"War?" (Demo) · "Sugar" · "Spiders" · "The Metro" · "Chop Suey!" · "Toxicity" · "Aerials" · "Boom!" · "B.Y.O.B." · "Question!" · "Hypnotize" · "Lonely Day
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