Citizen Erased
Encyclopedia
"Citizen Erased" is a song by English alternative rock
band Muse
from their second studio album
Origin of Symmetry
. The track is 7 minutes and 19 seconds long, making it the longest single track in Muse's discography, and second longest piece. The song has a synthetic ending that leads straight into the next track on the album, Micro Cuts. The song has long been a fan favourite, and in July 2007, a Muse fan site, Muselive.com, launched a campaign to get it into the singles charts through various download
sources. The track managed to get to number 1 on the British download company 7digital
's charts, but failed to make it into the official UK Top 40
. It did however, chart at #122.
Matthew Bellamy
has described the song thus: "It's an expression of what it feels like to be questioned. I spend more time than most people being asked about purpose, and it's a strange feeling. I don't really have the answers and I have to respond on the knowledge I have obtained so far, but the problem is that it gets printed, and something else has come along that's made you completely disagree with what you said".
The guitar parts were recorded with a six-string guitar with the sixth string tuned down to A (AADGBE). Live, the guitar part is played on a seven-string
, with the tuning, low to high, AADDGBE, the A strings an octave apart and the D strings at the same pitch.
This song regularly appeared at the top of the "choose the setlist" polls Muse ran for their 2010 European summer tour, along with fellow fan-favourite song "Bliss", also from the band's second album. Bellamy noted the song as a fan favourite during the 4 September concert at the LCCC in Manchester and joked the band's official website will be changed to citizenerased.com
On the 9 December 2010 in Sydney
, Australia
, Bellamy temporarily changed Citizen Erased to Citizen Arrested as a response to the Australian founder of WikiLeaks
, Julian Assange
's, arrest in Sweden regarding alleged sexual offences.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
from their second studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
Origin of Symmetry
Origin of Symmetry
Origin of Symmetry is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Muse, released on 17 July 2001 by Taste Records. In the UK it reached #3 and was certified platinum. The title for the album comes from a concept put forward by Michio Kaku in his book Hyperspace.On Origin of Symmetry,...
. The track is 7 minutes and 19 seconds long, making it the longest single track in Muse's discography, and second longest piece. The song has a synthetic ending that leads straight into the next track on the album, Micro Cuts. The song has long been a fan favourite, and in July 2007, a Muse fan site, Muselive.com, launched a campaign to get it into the singles charts through various download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
sources. The track managed to get to number 1 on the British download company 7digital
7digital
7digital is a privately held digital media delivery company based in the United Kingdom, offering downloadable music, video and movies to customers primarily within major European markets...
's charts, but failed to make it into the official UK Top 40
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. It did however, chart at #122.
Matthew Bellamy
Matthew Bellamy
Matthew James Bellamy is an English musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, pianist, and main songwriter of the alternative rock band Muse.-Early life:...
has described the song thus: "It's an expression of what it feels like to be questioned. I spend more time than most people being asked about purpose, and it's a strange feeling. I don't really have the answers and I have to respond on the knowledge I have obtained so far, but the problem is that it gets printed, and something else has come along that's made you completely disagree with what you said".
The guitar parts were recorded with a six-string guitar with the sixth string tuned down to A (AADGBE). Live, the guitar part is played on a seven-string
Seven-string guitar
A seven-string guitar is a guitar with seven strings instead of the usual six. Some types of seven-string guitars are specific to certain cultures . The standard 7-string guitar tuning is BEADGbe...
, with the tuning, low to high, AADDGBE, the A strings an octave apart and the D strings at the same pitch.
This song regularly appeared at the top of the "choose the setlist" polls Muse ran for their 2010 European summer tour, along with fellow fan-favourite song "Bliss", also from the band's second album. Bellamy noted the song as a fan favourite during the 4 September concert at the LCCC in Manchester and joked the band's official website will be changed to citizenerased.com
On the 9 December 2010 in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Bellamy temporarily changed Citizen Erased to Citizen Arrested as a response to the Australian founder of WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, Julian Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
's, arrest in Sweden regarding alleged sexual offences.