Virtual Insanity

Album: Travelling Without Moving (1997)
Charted: 3 39
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Written by Jamiroquai frontman Jason Kay and keyboardist Toby Smith, "Virtual Insanity" warns against the threat of insidious technology and its increasing control over humanity. Kay sings:

    Futures made of virtual insanity
    Now always seem to be governed by this love we have
    For useless, twisting, all our new technology


    "But I'll never get the credit for it," Kay tells Esquire, calling to mind his prescient concerns over third world debt and environmental issues from the group's debut album, Emergency on Planet Earth. "Just like I'll never be credited for releasing a song called 'Virtual Insanity' about genetic engineering the day before Dolly the sheep is on the front of every newspaper."
  • This song is known for its innovative music video, directed by Jonathan Glazer with creative assistance from Smoke & Mirrors founder, Sean Broughton. It shows Jay Kay dancing across what appears to be a shifting grey floor while furniture around him stays still, unless he bids it to move. While Kay looks like he's gliding along a giant conveyor belt, the trick didn't lie in the floor at all, but in the walls, which were built to move around the stationary floor.
  • The video won four (out of ten nominations) MTV Video Music Awards in 1997: Breakthrough Video, Video of the Year, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Best Cinematography in a Video.

    For his MTV performance, Jay Kay actually did dance on moving floors. Two moving walkways, going in different directions, were set up on stage to recreate the video's illusion.
  • Pop singer Austin Mahone took notes from the "Virtual Insanity" video and borrowed the moving floor concept for "Mmm Yeah" in 2014.
  • Pomplamoose, the YouTube-centric duo fronted by Nataly Dawn, combined "Virtual Insanity" with the Bee Gees disco classic "Stayin' Alive" in 2018 with a mashup that earned over 15 million views. Beyond the musical similarities, Pomplamoose felt the songs carried a similar message. "They're both about modern society's downward spiral," they posted. "Everything's accelerating at this unhealthy and unstoppable pace."

Comments: 1

  • Fartha Mucker from London It’s more than a song it’s a piece of virtue which is never going to vanish
see more comments

Editor's Picks

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman Jack

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman JackSong Writing

The story of the legendary lupine DJ through the songs he inspired.

Mike Scott of The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The WaterboysSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Whole Of The Moon" and "Red Army Blues," and why rock music has "outlived its era of innovation."

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Justin Timberlake

Justin TimberlakeFact or Fiction

Was Justin the first to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher? Did Britney really blame him for her meltdown? Did his bandmates think he was gay?

Women Who Rock

Women Who RockSong Writing

Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.