We analyse the latest Australian Number One song so you don't have to: this week, LFMAO.

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LMFAO (feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock)
‘Party Rock Anthem’
(Interscope/Universal)


The new #1 single here in Australia is ‘Party Rock Anthem’ by LMFAO (featuring singers Lauren Bennett and GoonRock). It replaces Snoop Dogg and David Guetta’s ‘Sweat’ at #1 after only a week at the top. ‘Party Rock Anthem’ is LMFAO’s first #1 single; they first entered the lower reaches of the charts with ‘I’m In Miami Bitch’ in 2009, and tagged along on a David Guetta tune in 2010 called ‘Getting’ Over You’. Neither Lauren Bennett nor GoonRock have ever troubled the Australian charts before. ‘Party Rock Anthem’ is produced by RedFoo (the elder member of LMFAO, and uncle to the younger member, SkyBlu) and GoonRock.


LMFAO (feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock)
‘Party Rock Anthem’

You sometimes hear people say that chart pop is aimed at the lowest common denominator; when they say this, they usually mean that it’s so dumb that anybody can understand it. I suspect that, when asked to nominate an example of lowest common denominator pop, a lot of people would nominate the Black Eyed Peas, the band responsible for such literary high-brow folk songs, 'My Humps' and 'I Gotta Feeling'. Judging by 'Party Rock Anthem', you get the impression that LMFAO are hoping to ride the wake of the Black Eyed Peas' success. And think that — if anything — the Black Eyed Peas are aiming slightly too high. In other words, ‘Party Rock Anthem’ comes across as the Black Eyed Peas for people who really like novelty dance songs.

In order to make the Black Eyed Peas comparison more obvious to their fans (who must not be big on subtlety), the Afro-wielding duo that is LMFAO added two people to their line-up – GoonRock and Lauren Bennett. Bennett is the white girl amongst the coloured dudes, like Fergie; in the video, she even resembles Fergie, what with the veteran L.A. porn star looks, heavy make-up and dead eyes. When LMFAO, GoonRock and Lauren Bennett are all together in the video clip doing their respective things, the visual resemblance to the Peas is quite striking.

The Black Eyed Peas link goes well beyond the line-up and the looks, of course. ‘Party Rock Anthem’, like much of the Black Eyed Peas' oeuvre, sacrifices musical craft for blunt hooks (usually through a fairly blatant sample/rip-off - compare the main synth hook here to Yolanda Be Cool and DCups's huge smash 'We Speak No Americano') and dance-ability. Such lack of musical craft is not always how it is with chart pop, by the way; in songs like ‘Bad Romance’ or ‘Your Love Is My Drug’, the hookiness and dance-ability is in the musical craft, not in spite of it. In contrast, ‘Party Rock Anthem’ comes off as little more as a collection of hooks set over big dance beats, randomly spaced out throughout the song.

The song starts with a synth riff heavily reminiscent of the one in Eric Prydz’s ‘Call On Me’, which sampled Stevie Winwood's ‘Valerie’, a song from the same cheesy '80s milieu as the song ‘I’ve Had The Time Of My Life’, which provides most of the hooks in ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’). Before long, LMFAO sing this curiously literal lyric: "Party Rock is in the house tonight / Everybody just have a good time". The literalness of this lyric is an example of how dumb LMFAO think their listeners are, of just how lowest common denominator ‘Party Rock Anthem’ is: LMFAO believe that their listeners need to be told a) what they are listening to and b) what they should be doing while they listen. Perhaps LMFAO believe that a large proportion of their listeners are capable of confusing 'Party Rock Anthem' with, say, 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' by the Smiths.

After repeating this chorus a couple of times (like ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ does), LMFAO move into a fairly incongruous dance section (like ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ does). Mind you, it's not an exact copy; where the Black Eyed Peas signal the change of section with a spoken "dirty bit!", LMFAO signal the change with a spoken "shake that". Very different, you see. There's then a rap over the dance section (like in ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’), with LMFAO members RedFoo and SkyBlu mouthing the usual dance song rap section platitudes about how much fun there is to be had "in the club" (like 'The Time...eh, you get the picture). Neither RedFoo nor SkyBlu (the two members of LMFAO) are extraordinarily capable rappers; their lyrics are not well-thought and neither has much flow. RedFoo’s rap is more coherent, but is utterly predictable, while SkyBlu sounds drunk. Part of what makes SkyBlu sound drunk is that his lyrics go to some odd places he hasn’t thought through – he claims for example, that "I’m running through these hoes like drano" - is he claiming that whorish women around him have blockages in their pipes? Or that he is not only particularly poisonous but is deliberately inflicting it on other people?

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