sadmanbarty
Well-known member
Narcisist Barty’s Brexit Party
Eurodance was staple birthday party, school disco and all-inclusive hotel children’s party music around the turn of the millennium. To me it evokes blissful childhood memories of dry ice, doing the macerena and feeling sick from eating too many pink wafers.
Around the same time we’d go to Wales on holiday with my mum’s university friend and her family. Me, my sister and the two sons of the other family spent those holidays engrossed in a VHS version of Abba Gold.
Dancing Queen in particular is associated with my mum. She put on these phenomenal house parties when I was little, with lots of drinking and dancing and these phenomenal pop playlists. Dancing Queen was (and still is) her signature tune. My mum loves it. She wants us to play it at her funeral.
Much, much later on- just a few years ago- Super Trouper earned a bittersweet connotation for me. It was my Nan’s 80th birthday party and my aunt was there. Her husband had beaten her up a some months before, my cousin had called me to tell me this was happening and I’d called the police on him and he ended up doing jail time. After he got out there was a restraining order where he couldn’t contact my aunt or her youngest daughter. Nan’s birthday party was during this period where he had the restraining order and though she was in contact with him, she was having doubts about him. I spent the whole party with her, talking stuff through and trying to make her see that her and her daughters were better off without him. There was this sense of real hope that she’d leave him and transform her family’s lives. As more alcohol was consumed however, the topics of conversation got lighter and she ended up just squawking “put on Super Trouper” every 5 minutes (even though we’d played it a million times that night).
Sadly she’s stayed with him, her two eldest daughters refuse to speak to her and she's now living in one of those caravans that Eastern European seasonal farm workers live in. Her husband knows I called the police on him and has said he’d kill me if he sees me again, so I haven’t seen her in years now.
As I got older European music played less overt roles in my listening habits, but its always there in its way.
Its there in pretentious 13 year old Barty reading (mainly European) philosophy books, pretending to like free improvisation and making routine trips to Café Oto.
It’s there in the tonal innovations of Debussy.
Its there in the French musicians who played on Miles Davis’ pioneering modal jazz album.
It’s there in the omnipresent influence of Kraftwerk on all music after 1980.
It’s there in the ethereal synthscapes popularised by Vangelis that are a crucial part of the jungle soundworld.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTvTX0Es24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlbAXRUFs-0
It’s there in the violently austere expressionism of Schoenberg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2OH13Og-H4
https://youtu.be/v_KjBgqijCw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JISpdw5Pw8
Its there in transcendental cheese of Italo-pianos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCJ2F8LUAQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odAqNXLipNA
And it’s there the abject, rush-your-fucking-bollocks-off-ness of our Belgian neighbours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y12ft6SM8w
When my grandfather was 19 he flew to Germany to drop bombs on civilian areas of Hamburg. After one mission he was flying over a French village and used the gun on the aircraft to shoot “V for Victory” in Morse code, only for the villagers to flee in fear, believing he was shooting at them. He was eventually shot down in Germany and spent 4 years in a prisoner of war camp. His injuries from the crash ended up leading to him losing his leg decades later. He spent many years of his life as an alcoholic.
I’m glad that my generation got to have tacky, silly, playful relationship with Europe that this list is about, rather than the one he had to endure.
Eurodance was staple birthday party, school disco and all-inclusive hotel children’s party music around the turn of the millennium. To me it evokes blissful childhood memories of dry ice, doing the macerena and feeling sick from eating too many pink wafers.
Around the same time we’d go to Wales on holiday with my mum’s university friend and her family. Me, my sister and the two sons of the other family spent those holidays engrossed in a VHS version of Abba Gold.
Dancing Queen in particular is associated with my mum. She put on these phenomenal house parties when I was little, with lots of drinking and dancing and these phenomenal pop playlists. Dancing Queen was (and still is) her signature tune. My mum loves it. She wants us to play it at her funeral.
Much, much later on- just a few years ago- Super Trouper earned a bittersweet connotation for me. It was my Nan’s 80th birthday party and my aunt was there. Her husband had beaten her up a some months before, my cousin had called me to tell me this was happening and I’d called the police on him and he ended up doing jail time. After he got out there was a restraining order where he couldn’t contact my aunt or her youngest daughter. Nan’s birthday party was during this period where he had the restraining order and though she was in contact with him, she was having doubts about him. I spent the whole party with her, talking stuff through and trying to make her see that her and her daughters were better off without him. There was this sense of real hope that she’d leave him and transform her family’s lives. As more alcohol was consumed however, the topics of conversation got lighter and she ended up just squawking “put on Super Trouper” every 5 minutes (even though we’d played it a million times that night).
Sadly she’s stayed with him, her two eldest daughters refuse to speak to her and she's now living in one of those caravans that Eastern European seasonal farm workers live in. Her husband knows I called the police on him and has said he’d kill me if he sees me again, so I haven’t seen her in years now.
As I got older European music played less overt roles in my listening habits, but its always there in its way.
Its there in pretentious 13 year old Barty reading (mainly European) philosophy books, pretending to like free improvisation and making routine trips to Café Oto.
It’s there in the tonal innovations of Debussy.
Its there in the French musicians who played on Miles Davis’ pioneering modal jazz album.
It’s there in the omnipresent influence of Kraftwerk on all music after 1980.
It’s there in the ethereal synthscapes popularised by Vangelis that are a crucial part of the jungle soundworld.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTvTX0Es24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlbAXRUFs-0
It’s there in the violently austere expressionism of Schoenberg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2OH13Og-H4
https://youtu.be/v_KjBgqijCw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JISpdw5Pw8
Its there in transcendental cheese of Italo-pianos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCJ2F8LUAQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odAqNXLipNA
And it’s there the abject, rush-your-fucking-bollocks-off-ness of our Belgian neighbours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y12ft6SM8w
When my grandfather was 19 he flew to Germany to drop bombs on civilian areas of Hamburg. After one mission he was flying over a French village and used the gun on the aircraft to shoot “V for Victory” in Morse code, only for the villagers to flee in fear, believing he was shooting at them. He was eventually shot down in Germany and spent 4 years in a prisoner of war camp. His injuries from the crash ended up leading to him losing his leg decades later. He spent many years of his life as an alcoholic.
I’m glad that my generation got to have tacky, silly, playful relationship with Europe that this list is about, rather than the one he had to endure.
