Nadia Oh – Taking Over the Dancefloor (Kate Middleton)
Bloody commoners, always taking your money…
[Video][Website]
[5.92]
Ian Mathers: So this is one of those newfangled Japanese virtual pop stars, only they fed a bunch of M.I.A. into the hopper, right? There’s a glitch, though: I don’t think a human would tell us to “throw your wallets in the sky,” and these things are supposed to be good at verisimilitude.
[4]
Michelle Myers: This is the sound of 2011: moombahton, Kate Middleton, swag, simple chord progressions, bored female robot vocals, and throwing your wallet in the sky.
[10]
Edward Okulicz: For four minutes, I’m in the same hell spawned by every other blog-sanctioned evanescent micro-genre, but the last two minutes’ spazz-out transcends the usual Moombahton slowed-down-house fare by being brighter and funkier. If you watch the YouTube teaser video you’ll identify it immediately as having vague aspirations towards being a Macarena for boring hipsters, a fairly worthy aim the song itself isn’t good enough to fulfil. The album’s called Colours but Nadia Oh doesn’t have a single one in her voice here.
[3]
Hazel Robinson: The robots have come to party. And with such warmth! We weren’t sure about inviting them but now we must have them round again.
[8]
Chuck Eddy: I’m not sure whether adding the robotic syllable “ton” to every other word is supposed to be clever, or an alternative to adding “izzle,” or some new species of Pig Latin or Double Dutch. All I know is, on paper, it should be totally annoying; same with assuming I know or care who this “Kate Middleton” person is — in your actual lyrics no less. (Oh wait, just saw her name atop Yahoo’s “Trending Now” list, clicked, and remembered she had that famous wedding, duh. As with all right-thinking Americans, royalty means nothing to me.) Anyway, somehow, in practice, it adds up to a trancey repetition that lures me in.
[7]
Sally O’Rourke: “Taking Over the Dancefloor” is all about shine, from the prismatic synths and the metallic sheen of Nadia Oh’s robo-voice, to the references to top shelf tequila and the newly-minted Duchess of Cambridge. Slicing through this glossy exterior are Nadia’s taunting threats to “take your money,” suggesting that the dancefloor’s not the only thing in her sights. If Kate Middleton’s ascendance into the royal family struck one small blow against the ossified gentility, then Nadia is declaring full-on class warfare, armed with a smirk and a broken bottle of Patrón.
[9]
Jer Fairall: If this is what Kate Middleton is jamming to, I have serious concerns about the future of the royal bloodline.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: As necessary as a Google Reader pic-spam of Pippa Middleton’s new sandals, as SEO-sad as a post full of repeated KATE MIDDLETON SWAG KATE MIDDLETON SWAG, as inept as a Kreayshawn song performed by actual six-year-olds on their old toddler keytars, and more inexplicably liked than anything atop the Hype Machine this decade. Who comes up with this shit? Why do we humor them?
[1]
Zach Lyon: The first fifteen-or-so times I listened to this, I didn’t know why. One of those things where you really, really don’t like, or at least don’t “get,” something, but you can’t keep yourself from going back. I’m saying that as a plea to those who don’t yet love this: listen to it sixteen times. The six minute cut has become six of my favorite minutes of 2011; it’s stuffed with sonic discovery in a year that’s been wholly lacking in new sounds. It’s really the stretch from 0:37 to 0:55 that sells it to me every time — the song might start playing in the background of things, and when that squeal starts, I have to stop what I’m doing and raise the volume… and raise it again… and again… and again until it hurts… and is that really as high as it goes?… and then BLAAAAHD;JGBSAD;KJGSAD;KJG NAKED DANCING FOR FIVE MINUTES. It never lets down from that moment, a bright swirl of intrusive squeals and snares, Nadia’s robot impressions that don’t sound the least bit threatening, and only the massivest synths, all at a slow enough tempo to massage/pound your earballs with sparkling noise. And of course, the key word isn’t “MIDDLE-TON,” but “MOOMBAH-TON,” a trend I still haven’t immersed myself in beyond this track, perhaps because so much of it still only exists in remix form, while “Taking Over the Dancefloor” was actually written and created as a song within the microgenre. And tremendous respect for Nadia Oh for giving me the only delivery of the word “swag” thus far that hasn’t made me groan.
[10]
Jonathan Bradley: There’s nothing swag about Kate Middleton, a willing participant in a grossly archaic system of privilege and oppression, but I’m willing to read the “We gon’ take your money” chant as ironic republican protest. In reality, it’s best understood as nonsensical riffing on the latest hot dance genre-du-jour, mad-libbing up a slew of imagined styles for fictional trend pieces. “Kate Middletón is a genre derived from swaggingtón and born at a house party in a Berkshire basement…” Whatever you classify it as, the slow skank of “Taking Over the Dancefloor” fits well with pinging synths, stadium riffs, and the occasional whistle — for two-and-a-half minutes. At six, it is a chore. As a transition in a DJ set, it could be marvellous.
[5]
Iain Mew: The video version of this is 1:28 and actually the perfect length for it. It allows its very few ideas enough room to breathe, gives a chance to appreciate its novel approach to the concepts of language and rhyme and doesn’t outstay its welcome. The full 6:10 with barely an extra bit of synth mashing to show for it is a chore.
[3]
Michaela Drapes: Please, please, please do not disabuse me of the notion that this song was penned specifically to be my personal summer jam. It’s rare I miss having a car, but; I dream of subjecting acres of gridlock to this track’s shattering wonderfulness, on repeat.
[8]
Jonathan Bogart: Leave it to British dance geeks to take all the fun out of reggaetón.
[6]
But see, listening to this sixteen more times would involve my hearing this sixteen more times. This must be what people are hearing in Cher Lloyd or EMA.
Dave?
I have to agree, the more you listen to it, the better it gets. Especially the extended version!
Like “Swagger Jagger”, this is nothing but hook. Only this hook is less annoying. (To me anyway — but just as earwormy.) And like “California” (and “Milkman”), there are some incredible things going on in the production that are (unexpected) almost unnameable in nature, but Zach did a good job of pointing them out here. But those are really the only commonalities I can squeeze out of the three.
Oh, I just meant in terms of “this is seriously the worst, most useless thing I have ever heard, that only skirts a [0] because it does not actively make the world worse yet.” Not in terms of similarities.
Oh, might have helped if I hadn’t tried to comment before coffee. I thought you question seemed weird.
*your
Sorry I didn’t log in to give this a [10] – it’s my favourite record of the year, probably. I don’t especially have reasons other than it features pretty much everything I enjoy in a Eurodance track, done with gleeful obviousness.
Jonathan B: It’s Dutch I think not British! It’s a cash-in remix of an existing Nadia Oh track (which I haven’t heard).
It reminds me a bit of Like A G6, Dev, etc etc. except I like it more because it’s house-ier.
Interesting to think of this as a kind of 2011 iteration of Mu’s “Paris Hilton,” with a very different (more 2011-y?) way of engaging its celeb subject. I like it!
And yes, extended version is better.
Third-most controversial track of the year, too, after EMA and Jessie J (hey, that would make a good song in this vein — “EMA and Jessie J / Some like more or lessy J / I have to confessy J / I think they’re both kinda meh-sie J”)
Actually it reminds me a lot of The Timelords (musically! Though you could totally imagine this being done following The Manual) The slowed-down reggaeton thing has a kind of bootboy glam rock aggro to it which is what makes me go harder for this than most current dancepop.
(It might actually only be my 2nd favourite single of the year tho – the moombahtonish remix of Toddla T’s “Take It Back”, which I got off the same ILX thread, is even better.)
It’s terribly Timelords-y.
It’s a remix? The youtube 6-minute version, the version on Colours, and the version on soundcloud are all identical and none are marked remix. I’m pretty sure SpaceCowboy produced this, and he’s English.
Leave it to British dance geeks to make messy Dutch club music into a shiny pop track.
also Colours is really great pop album
OK my mistake! I thought Space Cowboy was Dutch for some reason. (Also re. the remix)
There’s one track on Colours that I do love love love – “Jump (Out the Window)”.
Yeah, the original “Moombah” track is Dutch, the slowed-down ravey version of it called Moombahton is American, and this specific iteration of it is British! I knew all this, but I still went for the easy punchline.
EMA does not deserve to occupy a list with this and Jessie J.
I couldn’t describe why I simultaneously loved this song and felt it was incurably dumb, so I left it to better folks than me. But yeah, 8 or 9.
Even though I know that “California” and “Milkman” are technically singles, as they have actual videos, I’m definitely not judging them with the same yardstick I would judge something like this or Jessie J. Or, for instance Patrick Wolf. Or Britney. Obvi!
“Milkman” got a high score from me because there’s a LOT of people trying to do something roughly similar (i.e. be the next Xiu Xiu?), and she’s the best of that lot. Plus, that track has … what, atmosphere? Storytelling? That kind of thing.
This, however, gets a high rating because it’s catchy and annoying and danceable and fun. Because, you know, I loooove annoying things (Jessie J!). Cher Lloyd, however, is unconscionably annoying in a one-dimensional way without being fun or exciting. For all that “Swagger Jagger” got stuck in my head, I wept in agony every time it did so. Hence, a big fat zero.
Is there any track featuring the 0:35-0:57 squeal that isn’t awesome?
This one?
Seriously, this is the point where I’m starting to question my judgment. How am I the only person who absolutely despises this, in theory and in practice?
I despised it too! Come to the dark side, etc
Surprised people stuck so much to the lyrics, which I see as very secondary to the aesthetics. They’re just sort of cheeky and eye-rolling and a little bit interesting, but mostly jokey nonsense. “Kate Middleton” is a part of that, as a cute-in-its-topicality thing to rhyme with “moombahton,” and I’m guessing stuck in as an alternate title after wedding mania started to take off, or something.
I think “Kate Middleton” was the original title of the song, and it is listed just as “Taking Over The Dancefloor” for release so people didn’t think it was by Kate. Maybe? Anyway this is still rub, she needs to make Jump (Out The Window) her next single, because it has these lyrics:
“I am so cold, I make these boys froze
They wanna know my digits, But they are fucking midgets”
Literally amazing.
I still don’t understand how anyone could believe Kate Middleton would be on a song like this chanting “Weegon tekyur muuuny.” Or how, even if that were to happen, it would be a bad thing.
Or, y’know, the royals “had words” with her label. Or, most likely, the label pre-emptively wimped it.
Colours is full of sly, so-stupid-they-MUST-be-clever moments so I could go either way about the lyrics – “we gon’ tek ur money” is pointed in a song titled “Kate Middleton”, whether or not it intends to be. I choose to believe there is some agency there, because I think it makes Nadia Oh more fun.
However, my favorite moment in the entire album is the bit in “So Unforgettable” where she sings “just put it in my mouth” so maybe I am not really “qualified” to judge…
A good portion of my appreciation of this song arises because she says, “Throw your wallets in the sky” rather than “Throw your wallets in the *air*.” It seems so much more joyously weird.
I’ll have you people know that I sang this song to the cat all weekend, variously adding his name to the lyrics in various places (B-B-B-Billy-ton, etc). This is the ultimate (ULTIMATE!) judgment of a song’s worthiness. That is all.
I did think it was funny/excruciating that in one of her other songs, she sings “Amsterdam is for the win!”
But I’m mostly with Zach and Katherine here.
Butbutbut Zach gave this thing a [10]! He’s joined the dark side!
Oh shit, I totally misread his “I despised it too!” comment. Whoops. I’m 100% anti-Zach, then.
More love for Colours. Not a single bum track, kind of a Ke$ha dance-till-we’re-dead thing but both darker and stranger (not nec. sillier, though it is very silly). Would say it’s more Scooter and a dash of M.I.A. affect, but toward a kind of nihilist-party thing than a leftist-party thing.
Listened to the album after reading all of the positive comments here. Still don’t get this song, but the arcade machine v church choir fight of “Is That You” is pretty incredible.