Music Monday #3: The Platinum Album by Vengaboys

I did say in my first post that my music collection was varied and encompassed some polar opposites.  If Marilyn Manson and The Church of Satan are a little dark and heavy for you then perhaps this one will lighten things up again for you.  Vengaboys were a Eurodance band that enjoyed success in the late 90s and early 00s.  'The Paltinum Album' was released at the start of the year 2000 when the turn of the millennium left people in a strange state of mind, on the one hand looking forward and feeling optimistic and hopeful for the future and on the other looking back at the past and feeling nostalgic. 

An honourable mention goes to one of their previous albums 'The Party Album' which had a track called 'The Vengabus' aka 'We Like To Party' which is what most people will know them for.  I prefer The Platinum Album however because it is more relaxed even though it's still a dance album it leans more toward pop than anything else.  'Shalala Lala' and 'Kiss' are my favourite tracks on the album, the latter of which I always found amusing because the lyric "I only kiss when the sun don't shine" I misheard as "I only kiss where the sun don't shine" which gave me more amusement than it should.  Years later when I heard the song again I couldn't help but feel the softness of the word "when" was intentional, to the point where I read into the lyrics far too much and convinced myself the song is actually about rimming - and now when you go and listen to it you can keep that in the back of your mind too.

'Uncle John From Jamaica' gets a mention here too because I it's upbeat, pop, and touches on the idea of escape albeit in a much more light hearted way than some of the other artists I will mention.  Vengaboys represent an informal genre that most people in the UK would refer to as "Cheese Music" in reference to the colloquialism "Say cheese" to make people smile in photographs.  Cheese music is meant to be insincere, tongue-in-cheek, relentlessly positive and upbeat, and light-hearted.  The only formal genre that comes close to this is bubblegum pop but there are distinctions, ask most Brits to name cheesy pop songs and they'll give you a list most of which they won't admit to listening to but I can tell you for nothing they'll know the words and with a few drinks in them they'll be singing along too.  Perhaps the most infamous cheesy music track worth mentioning here as it won't fit anywhere else is 'The Fast Food Song' by the Fast Food Rockers, if you're still unsure of the definition of cheese that should make it quite clear.

Vengaboys were one of the first Eurodance groups that I came across, I first discovered them in 1998 like most people who know of them when Vengabus reached #3 in the UK charts; I followed their career until 2002 when they went on hiatus.  In researching this post I discovered that they have been active again so I will be taking the time to explore what they have been doing since.  I had no idea they had reunited but looking at the dates that's not so surprising to me, 2006-2009 were the years I studied at University and for the most part paid very little attention to pop culture other than what I was exposed to organically.  Likewise 2010 onward represented a period in my life that was once more very tumultuous and a lot of things changed in a short space of time.  That really does make me aware of the fact there have been extended periods of time where I have flown under the radar pretty much bowing out of society.  I've mentioned how I can be reclusive and recede into a shell of sorts, this gives you a peek into just how all encompassing that recession can be.