BARBIE GIRL??? THIS WEEKS HITS – WEEK MIDDLING 18TH OF APRIL 2007 - A BASTARD ENTRY pt1

Current mood: FRUITY AND WARM
Category: FRUITY AND WARM Music

OK...It's hits of the week time and this week I don't really have any in the conventional sense, so I'm throwing together a bastard entry or 3 over the next 48 hours, comprising a few hits, a few questions, a couple of proporsitions and one or two observations...

First of all: If you haven't flicked through the last 6 or 8 entries in this blog for a week or two, go take another look. There's some tasty discussive points on the go and they can always use more logs to keep 'em burning a bit longer, so why not get your axe out and throw something on the fire...

Discussions underway include: What is the meaning of cynicism? Is 'Thou shalt Always Kill' a crime or a clever feat? And is 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua one of the finest pop tracks of the last 10 years???

I'll expand a little on the Barbie Girl thing...

My main memory of that track is that everyone worth a musical damn (with the excpetion of Bill Drummond) ridiculed it as being a crime against humnaity and worse. I exagerate not. I have an issue of Musik Magazine from December of that year (97 i think) and as per usual they go around the usual Dance scene faces for thier hits and misses of the year etc...

Well, all of these faces, excepting maybe one or two, MARKER PEN Barbie Girl out as being downright evil and by far and away the worse track of the year..

Now I happen to disagree with this. Not only was Barbie Girl a great pop track, but these are the same people who, with one or two exceptions, played then and still do play, DJ sets of generic and formulaic House, D'N'Bass or techno music week in week out, with all the invention of the shuffle button on a 'Ministry of Sound House/Techno/DnB' mix CD...

Yes boss, many of these 'Heads' think they're being daring or clever if they drop a Madonna track at 5 minutes to 2am, and frankly, I was horrendously disappointed that rather than using their doubtless muscle to draw attention to one of the countless average dance tunes released every week of every year since the late 1980s, they chose to ridicule a pop classic on account of it being a cool and easy target to take a pop at.....

Sure these guys and gals are entitled to their opinion, some are damn good at their DJ/Production jobs and no-one has to like anything at all!! But one has to wonder whether these luminaries of good music would have said the same if that track was made by The KLF as it could very easily have been??

I doubt it..

The whole thing struck me at the time and more so almost 10 years on, as being the perfect illustration of the cattle like nature of the Dance/nightclub crowd. I mean Dance DJs really have got to be the most insecure, trendy and vain music makers of the lot haven't they?

So, let's open this one up good and proper and see if we can work it out.

Was Barbie Girl pure pop genius that could and might well have been written using 'The Manual' by The KLF?? Or was it a wicked crime of calculated, wicked and nasty greed???

I await your responses...

Currently listening : Barbie Girl By Aqua Release date: By 17 November, 1997

18:15 - 9 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

	Vasco	I think it's the latter. You're absolutely right when mentioning the complete lack of innovation that ihas been plaguing dance culture, and it's perfectly true that most DJ's spin absolutey undistiguishable tracks one after the other. However, Barbie Girl is just as generic, it's virtually indistiguishable from any other cheesy dance track from the 90's. The girl on helium vocals you have that on Whigfied as well. I am doomed! Whigfield still haunts my mermory! Damn her! I think Bill Hicks would say that Aqua are the spawn of the devil and they sucked Satan's cock. Bless him... Posted by Vasco on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 19:06 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Giovanni	I wouldn't agree that BG's indistinguishable from the majority of cheesy dance pop tracks. With the excpetion of perhaps Whigfields Saturday Night, it's about the only one i remember from that era... As for the perhaps thoughts of Bill Hicks: Isn't the job of pop music to court Satan and steal his tunes?? By the way, another track I consider to be a masterpiece is 'Millenium Prayer' by Cliff Richard. Surely that was the most Rock N Roll track of it's time..No airplay, shunned by Radio 1, decryed by all, widely touted as being a crime against humanity - Number 1... Posted by Paul Giovanni on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 19:29 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	horton jupiter	i can't believe you could even be debating this one, it's quite clearly a classic. But then this is from someone who thinks that 2 Unlimited's 'No Limits' is only bettered by 'Boom Boom Boom Boom' by them glorious Venga Boys. Pure fucking gold x Posted by horton jupiter on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 20:56 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Giovanni	Oh jesus both of those are goldies - As is Rhythm is a Dancer, not to mention Mr Boombastic Chili Fnatastic... Posted by Paul Giovanni on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 00:13 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Vasco	I think the job of pop in most cases it's to be a bland form of discardable chewing gum. But then again I am not into rules, I am into exceptions... In terms of crimes against humanity there are others which aren't viewed as such. I consider Wonderwall a heinous afront to mankind that would deserve that Nuremberg files would be reopened and a new trial scheduled for Oasis. Posted by Vasco on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 19:56 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Giovanni	Yes, Wonderwall is certainly a very bad and massively overated track as is nearly all of the Oasis oeuvre. I reckon the only reaon Oasis are where they are is because Liam is a bully and people buy his crap because they're scared of him... The whole act harks back to school. Liam is the classic schoolboy yob with the cool trainers and a stupid, no reason iditoitc snarl. I have dreams of someone punching him in the gob and showing him up to be the pussy assed fool that he is... PS: Oasis would make a great comedy duo tho. I'd pay money to see or hear the Gallagher brothers arguing over who's turn it is to get the milk out of the fridge... Posted by Paul Giovanni on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 20:14 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Vasco	I curse the day that Liam walked in front of a mic and some idiot told him that he sounded great and he shouldsing more often. And what's even worse is their overinflated egos. Good grief! Well, probably you would have enjoyed this. But some years ago when Oasis played on a Summer Festival in Portugal, they were actuall bottled off the stage. They didn't even finish their set. Posted by Vasco on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 20:44 [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Bravis	You know I just wrote an excellent and lengthy response to this, then hit the "Cancel" button instead of "Post". Don't you just hate that? I can't be bothered to write it out again so I'll summarise the main points... Barbie Girl was a shit song. That was pretty much it actually... Posted by Bravis on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 01:31 [Remove] [Reply to this]

Paul Giovanni

That's what I like to see: Straight in with a vehement opinion and no qualms about it!!! Three cheers Bravis!! PS: You're wrong by the way.. Posted by Paul Giovanni on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 01:35 [Remove] [Reply to this]