kascedm.blogg.se

• Da da dum dum song series#

But I do believe there’s a kind of emotional purity to the song, one even translatable to other genres outside the dance realm, as evidence by Weezer’s demo cover of the song (meant as a joke no doubt, but actually pretty fucking cool). It’s kind of hard to describe, since there’s really not too much to describe in this song–it’s not much more than a synth hook, a one-line chorus and the aforementioned techno flourishes. Really, I think there’s something sort of magical about this song–a songcraft that transcends the cheesy connotations of its easily pop-trance formula and goofy, time-stamped sound effects (though sorry, I’ll always love those synth squelches at the end of each phrase). This said, I don’t mean to suggest that the only worth of “Better Off Alone” is its cultural relic status. Hip-hop isn’t the only kind of dance music in existence, y’know?

Which naturally is pretty much all true, but I feel like if we knew how little time we’d have left with this style of music, we might not have been so quick to dismiss. Of course at the time, these songs were largely drubbed, roundly derided for being derivative, crass and infuriatingly insiduous. I mean, sure, we get flukes like Cascade’s “Everytime We Touch” about once a year now, but this was a time when songs like ATC’s “Around the World,” Darude’s “Sandstorm” and DJ Sammy’s “(We’re In) Heaven” were just part of the pop music landscape, without seeming particularly anomolous. This is one of the things I miss most about popular music from earlier this decade–hi-NRG pop-trance hits like this were still possible. The car trip never regained the momentum lost. What really annoyed me about getting the ticket, though–arguably even more the financial loss and the indignity suffered–was that it interrupted our listening to “Better Off Alone,” just when we had a real groove going. I got a ticket last night, driving back from Maryland with some friends, listening to Alice DeeJay’s “Better Off Alone.” I kinda hoped that the guy would let me off for being a first timer (although the fact that it took me this long to ever get pulled over is sort of a miracle) but it was a legit ticket–I was going something like 30 MPH over the speed limit, aggressively passing cars, the whole bit.

I also added a link to an mp3 of that Weezer cover, for whatever that’s worth) It’s actually an article I’m fairly proud of, minus perhaps the bit about the ticket, so if you haven’t read it before, please do. (I already wrote about this song at length, and I don’t have much to add, so unfortunately I’m just going to be re-running this one from an article I wrote in December of 2007.

If you want to argue about the order, you can’t, because we’re not totally sure what the qualifications are either.

Da da dum dum song series#

Over the final months of our fine decade, Intensities in Ten Suburbs will be sending the Naughty Oughties out in style with a series of essays devoted to the top 100 songs of the decade–the ones we will most remember as we look back fondly on this period of pop music years down the road.