"Zooropa" begins with a two-minute-long introduction. As the song fades in, sustained chords are played, and a noisy collage of mainly indecipherable human voices from radio signals fades in at 0:19. The background voices include a clip of George H. W. Bush saying "Peace talks", and are referenced in the album notes as "courtesy of the advertising world". A quiet piano and bass guitar are heard above the voices, which get louder with each beat. At 1:30, the volume of the voices rises suddenly and the bass part changes. The introduction then begins to fade out fifteen seconds later, while a guitar riff played with a delay and wah-wah effect joins the mix. The riff is briefly played on its own before the bass guitar and drums join in at 2:03. This is followed by background voices saying, "What do you want?" in both English and French ("Qu'est-ce que tu veux?"), and "De quoi as-tu peur?" (""What are you afraid of?""). In response to the questions, the lyrics in the first three verses of the song consist of various advertising slogans. At 3:45, following the first three verses, a break in the song's instrumentation occurs, except for guitar, and the song returns to a state similar to the introduction's end. A rapid rhythmic synthesiser fades in and at 4:03, the drums and bass re-enter and the song assumes an increased tempo. The theme of moral confusion and uncertainty becomes present in the remaining lyrics.