We are the people of our time – Guilty Pleasures File #2: Eurodance

“O, Goddess of Transitory…” – Raul Julia, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

The second installment of our sporadic Guilty Pleasures feature spotlights a handful of Eurodance tracks I’m moderately fond of. I first became interested in the genre back in the late 1990’s. At the time I was into collecting videogame music soundtracks, and would visit various sites that hosted sample tracks (the great-grandparents of today’s music blogs) to help me decide whether or not a given OST was worth plunking down the fifty-odd dollars to import.

This was the time when the Bemani craze was starting to take off big-time, and its related music tracks began creeping into the mix of what had mostly been fighting game and RPG musical offerings. Acting on whim, I decided to download a few songs to see what the excitement was about, and to my surprise, I liked what I heard. Gravitas and relevance is dandy, but there are some musical cravings that can only be sated by effervescent fluff sung in oddly accented English. I blame my Scandinavian ancestry.

E-Rotic – Oh Nick Please Not So Quick (from Mambo No. Sex, 1999) – Subtlety is overrated. Think of it as a companion piece to “Come Again”, the Au Pairs’ ode to dysfunctional sex.

Smile.dk – Butterfly (from Smile, 1998) – Familiar to anyone who has ever flailed around like a spastic chimpanzee on a DDR machine, this track upholds the proud tradition of misguided dance pop Orientalism pioneered by such classics as Aneka’s 1981 hit, “Japanese Boy”. Because nothing says “Japanese” like nasally white girl voices.

Rebecca – Young Forever (from In My Dreams, 2000) – From an online review of In My Dreams: “Her style lends itself to a brilliant cross between Britney Spears (with more finesse) and Debbie Gibson.” Wow. And it was meant as sincere praise, raising the concept of the backhanded compliment to a whole new level, intentionally or not. “His people skills are a brilliant cross between Idi Amin’s (with less cannibalism) and Pol Pot’s.” It’s a pretty good song, nonetheless.

Rollergirl – Superstar (from the Superstar CD single, 2000) – Yes, she based her stage persona on Heather Graham’s character from Boogie Nights. She also did excellent covers of the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” and Madonna’s “Dear Jessie” that completely outshine the originals.

Me & My – Baby Boy (from Me & My, 1995) – Sweet as cotton candy, and about as substantial. Diabetics, you have been warned.