Question!

"Question!" is a song by American heavy metal band System of a Down, released in July 2005 as the second single from their fourth studio album, Mezmerize (2005).

Release

After the release of "B.Y.O.B.", the band were deciding what song to release as a single. They eventually chose "Question!" after finding out radio stations had already been playing the track.

Music video

Shavo Odadjian produced the video, and co-directed it alongside Howard Greenhalgh, after allegedly having an image of the video in a nightmare, which consisted of a boy offering a girl berries, unaware that they were poisonous. It is claimed that before the dream he did not intend to produce the video and did not want any special treatment over other possible producers for being in the band, thus submitting the idea anonymously.

Filmed mostly in the Los Angeles Theatre, which opened in 1931, the video opens with a gray-haired, gray-clothed, and gray-skinned boy shooting a red bird with a slingshot in an alleyway, after which the song starts. It then switches to the band members in dark suits in the theatre's forestage performing music for a play, similar to an orchestra. Based on a theme of life, death, and reincarnation, the play revolves around two lovers, a man in a dark suit and a woman in a red dress, who are shown both as children and as adults. As the music reaches its climax, the woman collapses after eating a red berry and the man screams in grief. The video closes with an intense scene of a woman giving birth in a hospital room, followed by a shot of a newborn baby wrapped in red cloth. The color red significantly links the bird, the girl, the woman, and the baby in a cycle of rebirth.

Tankian described the theatre, "It's an amazing old theater that is due for renovation. I'm glad they haven't renovated it yet, because it has the right character for what we were looking for. It has a fairy tale vibe."

Track listing

Personnel

System of a Down

• Serj Tankian – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Daron Malakian – guitar, backing vocals
• Shavo Odadjian – bass
• John Dolmayan – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Marc Mann – string arrangements

Production

• Rick Rubin – production
• Andy Wallace – mixing
• David Schiffman – engineering
• Jason Lader – editing
• Dana Neilsen – editing
• Phillip Broussard – engineering assistance
• John O'Mahony – Pro Tools engineering
• Steve Sisco – mixing assistance
• Joe Peluso – mixing assistance
• Vartan Malakian – artwork
• Brandy Flower – graphic design

Charts

Certifications