"Rock DJ" reached number one in Costa Rica, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom whilst reaching the top 10 in 16 other countries. It was the fourth-best-selling song of 2000 in the UK. In the United States, it peaked at number 24 on theBillboardDance Club Play chart. The music video features Williams trying to impress a female DJ by stripping naked and eventually resorting to removing his skin and muscles, ending up as a skeleton. The song wonBritish Single of the Year, and the video wonBritish Video of the Year at the2001 Brit Awards.
The song becameRobbie Williams' third number-one solo single in the United Kingdom, going on to sell over 1.2 million copies and being certified 2× platinum by theBritish Phonographic Industry (BPI).[2] The song also became a hit around Europe, charting inside the top 10 in several countries and becoming his first number-one single in New Zealand. The song also became a top-five hit in Australia, where it went on to sell over 70,000 copies, being certified platinum by theAustralian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).[3] In the United States, the track reached number 24 on theBillboardDance Club Play chart. "Rock DJ" was named the Best Song of 2000 at theMTV Europe Music Awards and Best Single and Best Video at theBrit Awards 2001.
The accompanyingmusic video for "Rock DJ" was directed byVaughan Arnell. It was released on 6 July 2000. It begins with Williams dancing on aroller disco with women skating around him. He wants to get the attention of the femaleDJ (played byLauren Gold) standing above the stage, so he begins taking off his clothes. She ignores him at first, but after she finally notices he is completely naked, he proceeds with stripping off his skin, muscles and organs, until the only thing left of him are his bones, which is performed by special effects. In the end, the DJ dances with his skeleton. The video ends with the note, "No Robbies were Harmed During the Making of this Video", a jocular take on the "No animals were harmed" note. The skinless Robbie also appears on the single's cover art, as well as on the cover of the DVD release ofIn and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010 in 2010.
The video's ending (beginning with Williams taking off his skin) was cut by most music channels around Europe, includingVIVA,MCM,The Box andVH1 Europe. However, in the recent years, some of the music channels in Europe (includingMTV Classic andVH1 Europe) airs the "studio recording" version of the music video, even on late night, which made the edited version of the music video fall into obscurity. Examples of TV stations that still play the full video are Bulgarian channel MM, former German located channel B.TV (often in daytime) and Canadian channelMusiquePlus, some channels ran the edited video during the day and the unedited one overnight, whileThe Hits played a version which cut from Williams dancing in his underwear to dancing as a skeleton, filling the gap by repeating previous footage. This is the version that is currently played on channels owned byThe Box Plus Network. In 2001, "Rock DJ" won theMTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. In 2006, it was voted by viewers as the seventh Most Groundbreaking Video Ever on MTV and in 2007 it was ranked at number 48 onMuchMusic's 50 Most Controversial Videos. The video was banned inDominican Republic due to allegations ofSatanism.[4]
The video has been shown numerous times onFuse'sPants-Off Dance-Off, despite its gory content. Toward the end of the dancer's dancing/stripping to it when the video is shown in the background like any other, they only show Williams, briefly, ripping and throwing his skin, and dancing in muscle form before cutting to the hostess of the show. The video appears as an instance of the re-use of the motif of "dancing with the dead" in a book about medieval images of death and dying in art and literature.[5]
A 'video single' "Rock DJ", containing the music video and a making-of documentary, was released on VHS on 11 September 2000 and DVD on 16 September. The DVD was intended to be released concurrently with the VHS, but was pulled because copies lacked the '15' certification from theBritish Board of Film Classification due to a printing error, and needed replacing with the new 15-rated copies.[6] The music video also carried a 15 certificate warning when uploaded to Williams' official website.[7] As of March 2001, "Rock DJ" was the biggest-selling music DVD in the United Kingdom to date, selling over 64,000 copies on what was then still a nascent format.[8]
A second video shows Williams in a studio while recording the song.[9]
^Brindley, Paul (3 March 2001). "Music Rides the DVD Wave with Those Little Extras".Music Week:27–30.
^"ROCK DJ: MUSIC VIDEO". RobbieWilliams.com. Retrieved4 June 2015.The video's ending was cut by most music channels around Europe, including VIVA, MCM and MTV with VH1 Europe decided to use its own video for the song, created from studio footage.
^Rock DJ (UK & Australian CD single liner notes).Chrysalis Records. 2000. CDCHS5118, 7243 889136 2 1.
^Rock DJ (UK cassette single sleeve). Chrysalis Records. 2000. TCCHS5118, 7243 889120 4 4.
^Rock DJ (UK DVD single liner notes). Chrysalis Records. 2000. 7243 4 92427 9 1.
^Rock DJ (European CD single liner notes). Chrysalis Records. 2000. 7243 8 89233 2 3.
^Rock DJ (European maxi-CD single liner notes). Chrysalis Records. 2000. 7243 8 89232 0 0.
