By Scottie Andrew | CNN
“EVERYBODY MOOOOOVEMENT!” Eurodance perhaps wasn’t due for a comeback for a few more decades. However, “Planet of the Bass,” a Eurodance parody track that has become a TikTok hit and a legitimate banger in its own right, presents a compelling case for a return to a more innocent, synth-heavy time. It’s an uplifting song about joyful rhythms and dreams. About a world where bass reigns supreme and its people applaud with their hands. About the mysteries of life — “how does it mean?” — and how to survive when danger and dance rule all. It’s nonsensical. It’s comedy gold. And somehow, unironically, it has become the song of the summer in a season devoid of the usual Top 40 hits that typically dominate. (Billie Eilish’s “Barbie” weepie “What Was I Made For,” anyone?) Oh, and “Planet of the Bass” hasn’t even been officially released on streaming services yet, but its mini music videos have garnered millions of views across TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Instagram. “Planet of the Bass” will be released in full next week, and DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica could earn their very first hit. Here’s how this joyously silly parody song found a hungry audience — and how its viral success could translate to chart success.
@kylegordonisgreat Planet of the Bass (feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica) #djcrazytimes #eurodance #90s #dancemusic #edm #funny #funnyvideos #funnytiktok ♬ Planet of the Bass (feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica) – Kyle Gordon
How ‘Planet of the Bass’ came to be
Comedian Kyle Gordon knew that the people of Earth in 2023 needed some levity and silly delight to break up the summer doldrums. And so, Gordon, as his alter ego DJ Crazy Times, created a backing track straight out of 1997 with the help of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” writer Brooks Allison and producer Jamie Siegel. Chrissi Poland provided the vocals for Ms. Biljana Electronica, the Lene to Gordon’s René, drawing a comparison to Aqua, the Europop sensation behind “Barbie Girl.” A track this electric needed music videos (or three) to match. Gordon cast Audrey Trullinger as the first Ms. Biljana Electronica and filmed at Lower Manhattan’s Oculus, a mall and train hub designed to look like an alien spine — the perfect setting for an equally inexplicable song. Thus, the two of them stomped around the Oculus on a Sunday afternoon (according to Trullinger, “probably the worst time we could’ve picked”), lip-syncing to the song while tourists stared and police asked them to stop. (Gordon, as DJ Crazy Times, said he will no longer film there, though it’s “such a cool mall,” and plans to make videos in the “former Yugoslavia,” where DJ Crazy Times is supposedly from.) Then came more videos — a second, supposedly filmed in Zagreb, Croatia, featuring a mysterious brunette woman singing Biljana’s part. And then a third music video starring TikTok comedian Sabrina Brier as Ms. Electronica. Fans were upset that Gordon recast Trullinger’s part, mainly due to her expressive delivery and lip-syncing skills, but Trullinger expressed no ill will. According to Gordon, Trullinger was simply out of town during other filming sessions, and fans speculated that the rotating cast was another Eurodance homage. CNN reached out to Gordon for comment, but his song’s success has kept him busy — earlier this week, he performed as DJ Crazy Times and debuted the full song to a crowd that already knew half the lyrics.
Why ‘Planet of the Bass’ works
“Planet of the Bass” understands what made songs like “Barbie Girl” and Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” such enduring hits. Although the subjects of those songs are random (dolls as sexual stand-ins; sad aliens), and their singers have a loose grasp of the English language, the genre is all about freedom — freedom to dance, to be silly, to shimmy away worries on the dance floor. It sounds artificial, as if the keyboardists are tinkering away behind a TV screen, but that’s the point — in the world Eurodance imagines, there is no war, only dance. “Planet of the Bass” revels in the silliness of the genre, with soulful lyrics like “Life, it never die/Women are my favorite guy” and a plea to the world to “stop the war.” Gordon’s DJ Crazy Times perfectly embodies the typical Eurodance male lead — a baritone with a firetruck-red pompadour who mostly sticks to spoken-word solos and hype-man interjections. And the genius idea of recasting Biljana repeatedly — a point of contention among the song’s growing fanbase who preferred Trullinger’s performance — speaks to the frivolity and sincere insincerity for which Eurodance groups are known. It also helps that “Planet of the Bass” was released just a week after “Barbie,” the billion-dollar blockbuster, which features a track by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice that samples Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.” “I think maybe it’s just a nostalgia thing,” Gordon told GQ. Its viral success could translate into streams. “Planet of the Bass’s” viral success brings to mind the early days of TikTok’s unofficial grandfather — YouTube. After its debut in 2005, comedic songs were among YouTube’s most popular exports, from intentionally hilarious tracks like “Shoes” and the “Bed Intruder” remix to accidental hits like “Chocolate Rain” or the “Numa Numa” video of a man lip-syncing to the Europop track “Dragostea Din Tei.” These songs often saw millions of views translate into thousands of downloads: “Bed Intruder” charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and was downloaded over 10,000 times on iTunes in its first two days. Whether TikTok fame will have a similar result for “Planet of the Bass” when it’s released in full on music streaming services next week remains to be seen. Hits like Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” and Ice Spice’s “Princess Diana” became wildly popular on TikTok and racked up streams and downloads simultaneously. Gordon isn’t certain what will happen when his opus hits streaming services, but he does seem to believe that “Planet of the Bass” has potential beyond just a few laughs. “If it starts off as ironic but people genuinely love it — and let’s say it does chart — at a certain point, the irony has to wear off,” he told the New York Times. As bizarre as Eurodance may be, and as much as critics lambasted it during its peak as a trashy subgenre, it produced some of the most enduring earworms of its time, which still make regular appearances on wedding playlists, bat mitzvahs, and high school reunions. “Planet of the Bass” could fulfill a similar role, if only for the remaining summer. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.