Why you can’t get ‘Planet of the Bass,’ the playful ’90s Eurodance parody, out of your head

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The yr is 2023, nevertheless it would possibly as properly be 1997.

One of many nice viral hits of the second is DJ Loopy Occasions and Ms. Biljana Electronica’s “Planet of the Bass,” a parody track pulled straight from the absurdity of late ’90s, early ’00s Eurodance music. Suppose Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” or Loopy Frog’s “Axel F.” On the time of writing, the assorted variations of his track have surpassed over 250 million mixed views throughout social platforms.

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Confused? You’re not alone.

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Who’re DJ Loopy Occasions and Ms. Biljana Electronica?

A clip of the viral tune — which options hilarious lyrics like “Life, it by no means die / Girls are my favourite man” — started to flow into in late July after comic Kyle Gordon posted it on social media. The 50-second video, titled “Each European Dance Music within the 1990’s” and set contained in the World Commerce Heart’s Oculus, featured a flame-haired emcee, DJ Loopy Occasions, alongside a girl with crimped blonde hair: Ms. Biljana Electronica, herself.

In actuality, “DJ Loopy Occasions” — wearing his signature black vest and dishevelled pants — was Gordon, who first developed the character in his school a cappella group as a David Guetta-esque DJ. He’s since advanced into “this bizarre, sexy Latvian man rapping,” as Gordon describes it. And whereas “Ms. Biljana Electronica” was performed onscreen by content material creator Audrey Trullinger, she was voiced by singer-songwriter Chrissi Poland.

“It’s the one session I’ve ever executed in my complete profession the place I needed to maintain stopping as I used to be laughing so exhausting on the lyrics,” Poland says.

Poland doesn’t seem in any of the 4 movies for the track, an intentional resolution satirizing Eurodance music movies the place “they might simply have these feminine vocalists sing tracks within the studio after which put fashions in,” she says.

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“It was all the time meant to be a parody of this trope,” Gordon says. “Black Field’s ‘Trip on Time’ is one other instance — the track can be successful, after which they might shamelessly put in fashions or actresses within the video.”

To some followers’ dismay, Trullinger was changed in a second clip _ that includes the identical audio — by influencer Mara Olney, after which in a 3rd clip by comic Sabrina Brier. However she assumed her position as the unique “Ms. Biljana Electronica” within the official music video for the track, launched earlier this month.

Gordon says it has been “superior to see this complete saga play out,” as “folks argue over what the bit is” and root for his or her favourite model of Ms. Biljana Electronica. “To kind of see if slowly unfold and daybreak on folks, I believe, was fairly humorous.”

Why did ‘Planet of the Bass’ blow up?

Gordon chalks up the success of “Planet of the Bass” to a couple totally different causes: there’s nostalgia for this music, in fact, however the timing was fortuitous.

The primary clip hit TikTok across the tail finish of the promotion cycle for the “Barbie” film, which introduced newfound consideration to the 1997 hit “Barbie Woman,” by Danish-Norwegian Europop band Aqua.

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“Eurodance typically is perhaps within the zeitgeist,” Gordon says.

He provides that as a result of his DJ Loopy Occasions character had advanced during the last decade, he didn’t really feel like he was fast to leap on a pattern, moderately, that it was “simply luck, that it timed out with the place this track got here out within the lifetime of the ‘Barbie’ film.”

So, why can we love ‘Planet of the Bass’?

Nate Sloan, a musicologist and assistant professor on the USC Thornton Faculty of Music, mentioned that upon first pay attention, “Planet of the Bass” straddled the road between parody and sincerity. Till DJ Loopy Occasions’ verse.

“As soon as he mentioned, ‘Girls are my favourite man,’ I knew it was a joke,” says Sloan, who additionally co-hosts the “Switched On Pop” podcast.

The rationale for any confusion is as a result of, properly, the track does display a deep understanding of the music it pulls from — supply materials that was already playful and fewer self-serious than different pop music varieties.

“Aqua is maybe the obvious antecedent for the track,” Sloan says. “Musically, it doesn’t sound so much like a track of theirs — say, ‘Barbie Woman.’ But it surely appears to be paying homage.”

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“One factor I like is the interaction between the female and male singer,” he provides. “In a track like ‘Barbie Woman,’ they’re always going forwards and backwards. In ‘Planet of the Bass,’ DJ Loopy Occasions is giving little interjections on the finish of every of Ms. Biljana Electronica’s lyrics.”

He cites a idea first posited by music journalist John Seabrook, which means that European — and specifically, Swedish _ songwriters had been so efficient within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s as a result of they centered on the sounds of phrases versus their specific that means.

“Possibly counterintuitively, it made these songs extra profitable,” Sloan says. “The assonance of it, the rhyme of it feels actually good. So possibly having an emphasis extra on the sound of the phrases than the that means is definitely a part of what makes this style compelling.” (For his half, Gordon acknowledges he pulled from that music, but additionally cites “the butchering of the English language” inherent in ’80s Italo-disco as a formative lyrical affect.)

There’s additionally the music itself of “Planet of the Bass,” which Sloan defines as quick and syncopated, with elongated melodies bordering on operatic — which, contemplating the humor of the track, makes for an amusing pressure.

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Are pop parody songs having a second?

There’s an argument to be made that mimicked music come and go in waves. In 2023, “Planet of the Bass” may not really feel too dissimilar from, say, the parodic Lily-Rose Depp’s “World Class Sinner / I’m A Freak,” from “The Idol” — which makes use of the identical chord development and is recorded in the identical key as The Weeknd ‘s “Can’t Really feel My Face.”

Parody songs, Sloan theorizes, encourage moments of virality not just for their musical qualities, however as a result of they’re tied to a robust visible.

“There’s a continuum from ‘Planet of the Bass,’ to ‘World Class Sinner’ to ‘What Does the Fox Say’ to ‘Gangnam Type,”‘ he says _ and aside from “Gangnam Type,” few linger as hooks within the cultural creativeness.

“I’m skeptical these songs have longevity as musical materials than comedic, audio-visual sketches,” Sloan says.

However maybe longevity is antonymic to virality — these songs are a whole lot of enjoyable even when for a brief period of time.

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Related Press journalist Haleluya Hadero contributed reporting.

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