"Yang Yang" is a song by

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, originally released in 1973 on the album ''

Approximately Infinite Universe ''Approximately Infinite Universe'' is a double album by Yoko Ono, released in early 1973 on Apple Records. It represents a departure from the experimental avant garde rock of her first two albums towards a more conventional pop/rock sound, wh ...

'', and on the B-side to "

Death of Samantha Death of Samantha is an American underground post-punk band from Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1983, the quartet debuted at a Ground Round family restaurant in Parma Heights. Death of Samantha played a farewell show on December 15, ...

". The song was later included on Ono's compilation albums ''

Walking on Thin Ice "Walking on Thin Ice" is a song by Yoko Ono, released in 1981. She and John Lennon concluded the recording of the song on December 8, 1980. It was upon their return from the recording studio to The Dakota (their home in New York City) that Lenn ...

'' and ''

Onobox ''Onobox'' is a 1992 comprehensive 6-disc collection of Yoko Ono's work from 1968 to 1985. The discs are grouped by era and theme. Disc one centers around the albums '' Fly'' and ''Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band'', while Disc two features nearly the e ...

''. In 2002, as part of the ONO remix project, the track was re-released and reached #17 on the US dance charts, nearly 30 years after original release.

Themes explored

The song's titular character, a powerful man who talks to "his world" and to himself by telephone, abuses both the women (whom he "owns") and the men (sending them "pebbles and stones") in his charge. The lyrics deal with

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, the emotional distance and cruelty sometimes shown by men, and the dehumanizing of both sexes.

Later critical reception

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Jess Harvell stated, "On Orange Factory's 'Down and Dirty' remix of 'Yang Yang', Ono is

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

ed into a Troutman-esque gremlin and blurred into an anonymous orgasmic sigh over a brutally functional garage bounce." Dan Rapper, in his review of ''

Open Your Box "Open Your Box" is a The Plastic Ono Band song by Yoko Ono, released on 12 March 1971 as the B-side of John Lennon's single " Power to the People". Lennon played guitar and produced the song. In 1971, Ono's risqué lyrics were received in con ...

'' for

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

, opined that the Orange Factory remix "is turned into a straight vocoder-style

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio. James ...

track, its squelching electro already somehow tired-sounding."

Track listing

*Digital download # "Yang Yang" (

Peter Rauhofer Peter Rauhofer (29 April 1965 – 7 May 2013) was an Austrian-American disc jockey (DJ), remixer and producer who formerly worked under the moniker Club 69 as well as Size Queen. A native of Vienna, Austria, he was famous for a variety of his re ...

Ying Mix) – 7:36 # "Yang Yang" ( Orange Factory Down & Dirty Mix) – 8:05 # "Yang Yang" (Peter Rauhofer Yang Mix) – 9:05 # "Yang Yang" (Orange Factory Pump Mix) – 10:28 # "Yang Yang" (Peter Rauhofer Yang Dub) – 6:35 # "Yang Yang" (Orange Factory Down & Dirty Dub) – 6:29

Charts

Anika cover

"Yang Yang" was covered by

Anika Anika (Devanagari: ) is a female given name of Sanskrit, German, Arabic, Swedish, Dutch, Hebrew, and Māori origin and is also an alternative spelling of the name Annika or Anikha Meanings The meaning of the name "Anika" is different in several ...

and released as the lead single from her debut album ''

'' in September 2010. The song was offered as the "Free MP3 of the Day" on

Spinner Technology *Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller * Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells * Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in a GUI * Spinner (MIT Med ...

. On her choice to cover the song for her album, Anika explained, "I loved the way the words sounded and as an ex-politics student and political journalist, I thought the song would make a great cover.

is renowned for her political views but I think there was a dark side to the lyrics that the original version had not fully explored."

Critical reception

Heather Phares from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described the song as a "fantastic anti-pop single, with

klaxon A horn is a sound-making device that can be equipped to motor vehicles, buses, bicycles, trains, trams (otherwise known as streetcars in North America), and other types of vehicles. The sound made usually resembles a "honk" (older vehicles) or a ...

-like synths providing the hook and a bassline so strutting it could have been stolen from a

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

soundtrack." John Doran, in his review for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', commented, "Just when you thought the post-punk genre had been strip-mined for all potential inspiration, along comes Anika."

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

included Anika's cover of "Yang Yang" on its list ''Singles of the Year 2010''.

Music video

The music video for Yang Yang was directed by John Minton, who had previously directed music videos for Portishead,

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

, and

Amusement Parks on Fire Amusement Parks on Fire are a British rock band from Nottingham. The band was established by Michael Feerick in 2004, who wrote and performed all the instruments for the self-titled debut album. History The band began as the solo project of M ...

. Shots of cartoon UFOs, Wall Street trading floors,

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...

, the film ''

Monty Python's Life of Brian ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (also known as ''Life of Brian'') is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin). It wa ...

'', the animated short ''

The Skeleton Dance ''The Skeleton Dance'' is a 1929 ''Silly Symphony'' animated short subject produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks. In the film, four human skeletons dance and make music around a spooky graveyard—a modern film example o ...

'', and the Earth as seen from outer space are shown throughout the video.

Track listing

*Digital download # "Yang Yang" – 2:55 # " End of the World" – 2:58

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang Yang (Song) Yoko Ono songs Songs with feminist themes 1972 songs 2002 singles 2010 debut singles Song recordings produced by Yoko Ono Song recordings produced by John Lennon Songs written by Yoko Ono Apple Records singles Plastic Ono Band songs