include: On America’s famed Billboard Hot 100, it managed to make it Perhaps in retrospect, 1999 was the year where the Britpop/Spice Girls/boyband era broke down – Britpop mired in melancholy, the Spices split and gearing up for solo careers of varying quality, the boyband mantle largely passed to Westlife’s “pan-generation romantic coalition.”. I think #29 nails it on the head by pointing out the air of melancholy in the verses that totally set it apart from most Europop songs. The ten number 1s up to the Vengaboys had an average score of 4.0, the lowest since the dark times of Jive Bunny. I still don’t really know what to say about it. 1. It was naturally at the end of the show, where he could do an extended spoken word bit, and make love to the audience. It could well be a song about depression and #1 raises an interesting point about which side the narrator is on, something I’d never considered before. Popular Lucky Dip (a random post), Tom invented Freaky Trigger on a bus journey in the mid-90s. He states that all the people around him are same. When he says his corvette is blue he is referring to having nice things in life but they do not make him happy. The millennium year would bring new-millennium US music – too often with old-millennium attitudes to gender relations, though one of the first examples of the sound we’ll see on Popular is arguably the defining counterexample – but for now, it’s mostly bubbling under, its big chart leap still to come. The Europop isn’t a problem, any more than the occasional intrusions of bizarro novelties were in the 70s – it’s just the background against which the Europop is meant to sit as contrast was full of holes: Britpop long since run aground into Travis-ness, the post-Spice crew between albums (all back next year, for better or worse), effing Westlife, R&B and hip-hop on creative highs but not yet commercial ones. And while the relativists amongst us might say that all pop is of equal value, and that pop music is just a manifestation of what the kids want, I have to say to anyone older than 35 right now: would you really have been happy this bolllocks soundtracking your life as a young adult? There’s other perspectives worth looking into as well. @16: YES, Midnite Vultures!! Browned-up…, What they had going for them, at the start, was instinct. TLC’s younger main competition, then a four piece who would reach bunnyable status as a trio, had just released their second album, very much with the new skittering beats and multiple tempos of the moment – it would spawn four UK top ten hits. #47 Yes, Bills, Bills, Bills was my epiphany about all this nu-R&B that I never knew was happening too. In case you haven’t seen it, Beck doing ‘Debra’ live at the VH-1 Fashion Awards (early 2000 I’d say): http://youtu.be/auJZvKYh2rA. It was more the other stuff that John mentions: a pincer attack of dreary ballading from Westlife and Ronan on the pop flank, Travis, Embrace et al on the indie side, dance was doing interesting things but, quite moody, abstract things, certainly not ‘fun’. Sleep disturbance, such as sleeping significantly more or less than usual, insomnia, or hypersomnia (John used to go to sleep at 10:30, but now he lays in bed, unable to fall asleep, until well past midnight) If your safety is in danger, one of the options is hospitalizations. Call 911 or a local hotline. This had been attempted a couple of times, oops I just remembered I can’t continue this one. This record got an extremely hostile reception from some quarters at the time; largely due to the `da ba dee` lyric which, while hardly Like A Rolling Stone, was considerably less inane than `Boom boom boom boom, I want you in my room`. To me at the time, it seemed like a ‘oh hi Europe, how you doin? Who’d host an evening of programmes on BBC 4 celebrating late 90’s pop? We are in a bit of a doldrum score-wise. Oh, and with hindsight I’d have given my right arm for a well-stocked Kindle. It was Eiffel 65’s first single from their maiden album entitled “Europop”. 5,” this song cut through with a combination of: a) just such a chorus, b) sounding not quite like anything else. Story by Katherine Gillespie / Photography by Dana Trippe / Styling by Rebecca Grice, Story by Mikelle Street / Photography by Renell Medrano / Styling by Anatolli Smith / Hair by Evanie Frausto / Makeup by Marcelo Gutierrez, PROMIS3 Covers Eiffel 65's 'Blue (Da Ba Dee)', The Deeper Meaning Behind This Clermont Twins Illustration, Mugler Staged a Hyperfantasy Film With CGI Models and Paris Landscapes, Shygirl Facetimes Arca, SOPHIE and Mowalola in 'Slime', New Label Grønkjær Is Not Your Typical Scandinavian Fashion Brand, Jari Jones Believes in a Brand New America, Poster Man Travels Through Space and Time in 'No Options', Watch the Trailer for the American Apparel Documentary, Jaclyn Hill Responds to Critics of Her New Lipstick Scandal Post. Lack of concentration; indecisiveness (John cannot finish his tests in school because he cannot focus) Different colors have represented different emotions over time but the color blue has been attributed to the feeling of sadness which makes this song possibly about depression. What intrigues me is how this song just ends. Re 2: “Iron Bru. Treatment, whether inpatient or out, often includes medication. Meanwhile, the Popular representation of the 1999 dance bubble is a bunch of novelties that cut through, and I think this is my least favourite of them. My brother once did something similar to his bedroom by asking Mum to make him red curtains – it was like walking into an oven. The other question – which I think was discussed when we were talking about Usher – is to what extent this clearly felt like a new era. Abnormal weight loss/gain and/or abnormal changes in appetite, not associated with dieting (John used to eat a large snack after school, but now he skips his snack and also isn't hungry for dinner) If you suffer from depression, there are many options. Unfortunately the verses proper (“I have a blue house…” etc) are shockingly poor – not so much because of the lyrics (“I have a girlfriend… AND SHE IS SO BLUE!”) but because the music in the background basically gives up for them; the second rap break, because it’s no longer an intro, is also a bit disappointing and this could have been so much better. Our reaction was “Is this supposed to be a joke?” – especially to the “rap” intro, and we wrote it off as the sort of crap that for some reason gets play on MTV Europe, but which wouldn’t have a hope of passing the (admittedly minimal) quality barrier to the UK market. Tina Cousins? I still don’t hear “oddly touching” though I do hear a preset keyboard setting for “mawk” partially-buried under the crap beats and stupid autotuned vocals. “Blue” feels like a novelty hit, for sure – but it reached massive success at a time when there was an awful lot of Eurodance about. Good things that are nearly bad, but while “Blue” fits the description of bracket 4 I feel a bit more inclined towards kindness, because it is a pretty rad melody and there is some inspiration there; let’s say 4/5, leaning towards a 5 because I feel like I never give things 5. We were wrong. Bad things that are nearly good It premieres today on PAPER, alongside a mesmerizing 3D visual by Carl Herner showing a morphing, prismatic human face. But I was spinning that album nonstop at the time, so there ya go. I mean, there had been good R&B stuff throughout the ’90s. Including – most startling of all – the US, where it picked up a Grammy, made the Billboard Top 10, and sent the Eiffel 65 album double platinum. And, at least in Seattle and Portland, alt-country/bluegrass was big with the cool kids, and, e.g., Freakwater’s album End Time w/ killer single Good For Nothing was also essential listening. The label – and manager – wanted a more street-smart first single: the group insisted otherwise. The song “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 was written to depict how a person picked their lifestyles and their overall outlook of life on a daily basis. I disagree that it’s a ‘nadir’, it’s just a very particular phase of pop when the charts were very much geared to a specific age group as, at this point, we were the ones buying the CDs. I think some are frustrated that the marketing techniques employed by the major labels of the time have drowned out the natural dialogue of the charts. Bad things Abnormally depressed mood (John has become more withdrawn, quiet, and sad) 5. and hooked up to the portable CD player that seemed such a good idea at the time, with old, comforting stuff that I quickly tired of. Eiffel 65 were also one of the earlier groups to sing about the Internet in the somewhat twee “Hyperlink (Deep Down)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAu_PkcUNM – “a newsgroup one on one”. Bipolar II (Manic-Depressive) Disorder is indicated by alternating periods of lows (in which many of the above symptoms are present) and highs (characterized by extreme hyperactivity, excitement, "happiness" etc. To be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, a person must exhibit the specified number of symptoms for at least two weeks (most of the day, and almost every day), and these symptoms must significantly interfere with that person's day-to-day life. I was 16/17 at the time. It is quite frankly complete shit. As a ten year old, the charts felt like something for children. With 15 years additional wisdom I find this is one track where my irritation is not re-awakened – It’s absurd but also quite sparky and unabashed. Basically that means I've only had one (single) episode of depression. Take in Dielen's spoken-word solo toward the end for further proof: "And now every 'I love you' will be part of a backseat conversation, and you'll be buried in the trunk of my car," it states in part.