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Scooter and the Postmodern Cheese
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| Lira |
Wow, it's been a while since I last posted a thread here...
This might be a bit of a controversy (or not), but here's something I was thinking about the other day: What's wrong with Scooter? Some people seem to hate it with passion and, personally, I believe Scooter is probably one of the most misunderstood acts in the Electronic Dance Music scene. The reasons behind such misinterpretation are numerous, but I hope I can, with this post, cast some light on this problem.
The fact that they hail from the same country as Friedrich Nietzsche is no coincidence. As Gary Aylesworth points out in his article about postmodernism, Nietzsche was an important precursor for the movement. Through his life-worshipping philosophy, he was able to (accidentally, perhaps) lay the theoretical foundations for Scooter's catchy multi-layered mockery.
| quote: | | Music makes its appearance as the last plant among all the arts which grow on the soil of a particular culture—perhaps because it is the most inward and hence arrives last, in the fall, when the culture which belongs to it is fading. (source) |
These quasi-prophetical words by Nietzsche are also interesting in this case because Scooter is a product of the 90s, the decade in which postmodernism seems to have lost its spot in the limelight (refer to the Sokal affair for more on this). It's important to notice that there was far more to postmodern music (as I see it) than Scooter, as it had also spawned a rather organised movement in Tokyo, Japan, known as Shibuya-kei. But, no matter how fun Cibo Matto and Pizzicato Five are, I don't intend to explain their music here, for it doesn't seem to be the object of any prejudice.
Nietzsche's "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life" argues that the ability repeat an unhistorical moment is fundamental to a culture's life (and Charles Baudelaire later draws on that). That's one of the main idea behind Scooter's dialogue with mainstream EDM (what most of us would consider to be rip-offs). I lost count of how many times I listened to a tune of theirs and recognised a melody. It's there, revamped, with some hyperactive MC babbling about ice cream in a van, and how much the fish might cost on any given day. They're capable of turning any masterpiece into some kind of frivolous parody. Just like media in general manages to turn everything - even tragedies - into tasteless commodities. Discourse analysts would have lots to say about it. But, what matter is that, in Scooter's case, it's fun. Dance music needn't be anything other than that. It doesn't have to change your life, nor save the whales (although this would be kind of cool). As long as you're bobbing your head to the beat, music is doing its job.
And, that's it. Thanks to Eurodance, Eurobeat and most things Euro- back in the 90s, cheese was ubiquitous, and Scooter simply took it to the next level. It was able to rely just on that (which is the biggest difference between them and what was going on in Japan and their zany shibuya-kei movement). It's a tribute to eurodance ephemera, in a decade that saw the death of way too many genres (such as happy hardcore, which ended up being marginalised after the advent of jungle music).
What many producers seem not to have understood is that, if they're "ripped off" by Scooter, the best thing to do is ripping them off back. That's how their social criticism works. Besides, this would end up being a very interesting dialogue after a while. I'd approve of that.
That's the final argument, I reckon: the reason why most people still seem to be annoyed by Scooter is because they insist on taking it seriously. That's absurd, Scooter is just a playful parody on what people think its serious... in that sense, Scooter is not unlike this post :D |
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| Internet TufGai |
I'm listening Scooter - the logical song/ramp as I type this.
I guess you can say it's a social criticism song in some ways. I don't know why the hell he was shouting out siberia, seemed like a non sequitur. |
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| Redd |
| Dislike because of blatant ripoffs that don't credit the original producer. Dislike because most of their newer stuff gets radiotime and thereby giving "my" music a bad name. Like because it can be lots of fun when not taken seriously. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Internet TufGai
I'm listening Scooter - the logical song/ramp as I type this.
I guess you can say it's a social criticism song in some ways. I don't know why the hell he was shouting out siberia, seemed like a non sequitur. |
Exactly! And these non sequiturs are simply awesome :D |
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| Beat Blog |
| I'm sorry, but what the hell does a nineteenth century philosopher have to do with a cheesy euro-dance group who make music a living? |
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| idoru |
| quote: | Originally posted by Redd
Dislike because most of their newer stuff gets radiotime and thereby giving "my" music a bad name. |
What does it matter what other people think about what you listen to? |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beat Blog
I'm sorry, but what the hell does a nineteenth century philosopher have to do with a cheesy euro-dance group who make music a living? |
It's all right but, haven't you read the first post? Music is part of culture, and I'm just pointing out how Scooter is related to postmodern culture (which had Nietzsche as one of its precursors). |
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| HaeD |
Is this a smart analysis of Scooter?
I say Bring back the fish. |
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| Laeke |
I think we somewhat started to speak of that there (see link )
I took a look at the link, it is nice yet a little obscure (it is philosophy after all) so I am curious to see how exactly you would make Scooter fit into all those notions, unless the idea is that they are meta-art: taking on music that already exists and turning it into a parody, as you said.
That is maybe making them too much honour to tie them to Nietschze. Yeah sure, Scooter is probably meta-art (let's be mundane: parody), and they are having fun in the extra-cheesiness. As a matter of fact I like how they strive in to reach new pinnacles in bad taste. For 30 seconds.
That's the real problem there: yeah sure you can probably look at that in a very toughtful way, but in the end, Scooter produces insipid, monotonous stuff. Listening to one song in a while can give you a good laugh, indulging the complete album must be horrible.
Parody (or meta art, or post modernism) is nice, but it also requires talent. Scooter's no Aqua... and obviously they are no KLF (which already had a very ironic look at their own production). Euro[dance/etc...] has been for a very long time aware of its own cheesiness, and we are well into "post-modernism era" for the last decade -in all fields of art-. So Scooter is hardly the first or best exemple of this.
So no matter how I look at it, Scooter is either a running gag that lost interest long ago, or a cynical attempt to cash in on formulaic tripe.
EDIT: Though you could give them that they can really turn gold into mud, but it is also true of a lot of untalented artists. |
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| paulandrews |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
What many producers seem not to have understood is that, if they're "ripped off" by Scooter, the best thing to do is ripping them off back. |
On this year's Modeselektor's album there is a track called 'Hyper Hyper' and it's a parody of that Scooter song. You should check it out :)
Sample |
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| Beat Blog |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
It's all right but, haven't you read the first post? Music is part of culture, and I'm just pointing out how Scooter is related to postmodern culture (which had Nietzsche as one of its precursors). |
Yes, I read the post; I just think you're drawing an incredibly long bow.
It would be like if I stated that Jose Nunez has some sort of connection with Sigmund Freud due to the sexual nature of his track Bilingual. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| Perhaps you have a point, because calling Scooter's music a parody of Euro-trite would explain some of their more ridiculous moments. They also have an obvious love of The KLF, who were themselves never afraid to be parodic. However, it just seems tougher to attribute that kind of self-aware intelligence to Scooter than The KLF. |
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