page_title: Ghosttown (Madonna song)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Ghosttown (Madonna song) / Music video / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Terrence Howard at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.
context_page_description: "Ghosttown" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her thirteenth studio album, Rebel Heart. It was released to radio stations on March 13, 2015, as the album's second single. It was written by Madonna, Jason Evigan, Evan Bogart, and Sean Douglas, and produced by Madonna, Billboard and Evigan. Having listened to Douglas' previous works, Madonna requested studio time with him. Together with the other songwriters, they wrote "Ghosttown" in three days. The song was inspired by the imagery of a destroyed city after armageddon, and how the survivors carry on with their lives, with love being the only thing they can hold onto. Musically, "Ghosttown" is an uplifting pop, electropop and electro ballad, featuring an organ and drums in its instrumentation.
  "Ghosttown" was released to iTunes Store as part of the album's pre-order in December 2014, in response to hackers leaking songs from Rebel Heart. The song received positive response from music critics, who commended Madonna's vocal delivery, the lyrics, and the production; they also compared it to Madonna's earlier ballads.
context_section_description: Madonna confirmed on The Howard Stern Show that she would be filming a music video for the song in Los Angeles. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who had previously helmed Madonna's music videos for "Ray of Light", "Music", "American Life", "Jump" and "Celebration", the music video also starred actor Terrence Howard. The main theme behind the video was "an apocalyptic situation mimicking the end of the world", as described by Kim Peiffer from InStyle. The director came up with the concept of a dystopian future and shot it at an old steel mill. Madonna's look in the video was styled by B. Åkerlund, wife of Jonas, who blended contemporary fashion trends like military-bandleader-Victorian and gave it her signature characteristics. She created a leather greatcoat with a billowing cape, from designer label Chrome Hearts, considering the rock-n-roll silhouette of the video.
  Laurie Lynn Stark, co-owner of Chrome Hearts spoke about working with Madonna on the video, with whom they had previously collaborated on photoshoots. Chrome Hearts were given a week's notice to work with Åkerlund and after a few telephone exchanges, the group met Åkerlund at their factory. The latter told them about her inspiration and concepts for the designs, and Stark's team put together the leather pieces and jacket structures, and finalized on buttons and cross patches. The task was easy for them, since both Åkerlund and Chrome Hearts had the same vision of the design in their mind, "so the challenge was how to bring it to life in the most dramatic and beautiful way." The whole costume took about a week and a total of 30 people to finish it, to achieve the "Apocalyptic meets Rock & Roll with a bit of a ship wrecked mood" vibe that Åkerlund had wanted.
  Rest of the ensemble included leather, metallic combinations, green silk vest from A.F. Vandevorst, and cotton clothing from Greg Lauren. The lace shorts Madonna wore was vintage, and Åkerlund burnt up the singer's Agent Provocateur bra and applied dirt on it for giving special effects. The whole inspiration for Åkerlund behind the look was Jonas, as well as the couple's interest in rock-n-roll. Madonna approved the design, saying that "It was magical... It perfectly represented the vibe that we wanted to bring to the video." She also asked for a golf club and pocket knife to make the look more edgy. With Swedish broadcasting channel Sveriges Television, Åkerlund explained that for the opening shot, where Madonna is shown laying on the bed, she wanted boots which looked like leg braces. She contacted a designer in New York who said that he developed such pieces for fetish fashion. Åkerlund wanted him to provide the designs for arms also.
caption: Actor Terrence Howard starred in the music video
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