Dodgy Sample Friday
August 22, 2008 by Olwyn Fagan
Filed under Anablog
There are certain songs that are just so awful that they remain engrained in one’s mind for eternity. Years have passed since the release of Alice Deejay‘s Better Off Alone but even still I can’t help but shudder when I hear the Eurodance stylings of the group’s hit single.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBu5X3TvNw]
I thought they’d disapppeared. I thought I’d never have to be subjected to that song again. Hell wikipedia even tells me their lead vocalist now makes a living as a freelance make-up artist. Never did I suspect that said song would be sampled, nine years on by some unknown American rapper. No siree. However, while perusing an old issue of mixmag earlier this week, I stumbled across something, something so terrifying I had to share it.
For those of you who are up to it, this dear readers is Wiz Khalifa, Say Yeah
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaHKWxeeLZI]
*shudders*
That video is the perfect mix of cheap greenscreen and utter bombasticity. What a hero.
The vid certainly ticks all of the hip hop video clichés in the book. Have you ever seen the film “Hip Hop, Beats and Rhymes”? You can catch that in full on Google Video. It is well worth watching for insights into the messages and symbolism connected with rap culture. The kids hanging around outside record comapny offices “spitting”, hoping for a record deal, are the highlight of it; they’re very astute, savvy, aware of how they’re being manipulated and they’re determined to fight back. It’s just that many of them don’t know how to do so effectively.
I really like Eurodance, at least if you’re talking about Eurocheese of the Capella, 2 Unlimited, Motiv-8, Jam and Spoon variety. A lot of that music has a melancholy about it which is underappreciated I think. It’s something in the sad chords. It’s that gay pop aesthetic: uplifting, defiant lyrics married to plangeant chords. The throbbing electro pulse that makes the best synthpop so irresistible. 2 Unlimited’s “No One” was their first attempt at a mid tempo pop song, a sort of gentle cod-reggae thing, but it only got to number 17 in late 1994. I thought it was really good, but hey-ho. Corona’s “The Rhythm Of The Night”, Culture Beat’s “Mr Vain”, Motiv 8′s “Rockin’ For Myself”, even Toni Di Bart’s “The Real Thing” – I love it all, it feels like a bit of a golden age to me now. At it’s worst the scene gave us the novelty likes of Whigfield’s “Saturday Night” or Scatman John’s “Scatman”. But big deal, I’d take that over The Verve any day.
“Utter bombasticity” should be the criterion on which we choose review scores.
That’s two mentions for Corona in the space of a fortnight!
I for one don’t think there’s enough “utter bombasticity” in the world today.