"She's a rock 'n' roll chick and she's looking like a star"

December 3, 2012 7:59 AM

Gloria, the first video from the fantastic Dutch musician Junkie XL's new album Synthesized, is a deadpan love letter to the cheesy music videos of the late '80s, early '90s.

And much like the era of music it's referencing, it's also terribly catchy, so earworm-alert.

posted by quin (20 comments total)

Video named Gloria + Love Letter to Cheesy Music Videos = Obligatory Laura Branigan Link
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:14 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

The name 'Junkie XL' sounds like a clothing company that the Beastie Boys would've started in 1992. You know, for fat junkies.

This song confuses me. The chorus is sort of the chorus of Gloria by Them, but not quite. But still, he's singing 'Gloria...Gloria'. But the rest of the song isn't the rest of Gloria by Patti Smith, either. So it's not sampling the chorus, it's appropriation? Confounding.
posted by item at 8:22 AM on December 3, 2012

It's not cheesy enough for a Dutch rap song.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:36 AM on December 3, 2012

Junkie XL is one of the more prolific producers in dance music. He's been around a long time.
posted by empath at 8:46 AM on December 3, 2012

Uh oh, cheesy music videos of the late '80s, early '90s, I think Junkie XL's got your number!

I also think he's got the alias that you've been living under.
posted by orme at 8:55 AM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

I like JunkeXL just fine - but I *love* that I discovered him from playing video games, and he's on a video game company record label. I know that makes him cheesier in some people's minds, but I think those people have teeny tiny minds which the Singularity will Leave Behind.
posted by freebird at 9:00 AM on December 3, 2012

best ELVIS remix ever
posted by philip-random at 9:04 AM on December 3, 2012

I like this just fine (as far as tributes go, the dude in the high school scene was exactly what I wanted boys to look like back then) but I wonder how much I would have liked it if I had not been disappointed by the lack of Laura Branigan that my brain initially promised me. Because my love of that song is so ridiculously large (and unironically so), my vision is impaired.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:12 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

His progressive house stuff is so much better.
posted by empath at 9:12 AM on December 3, 2012

He's been around a long time.

"Action Radius" has a permanent place on my "gotta get shit done" playlist.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:26 AM on December 3, 2012

I lived through the 80's once. I'll be damned if I'm going to do it again.
posted by SPUTNIK at 10:09 AM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

>I lived through the 80's once. I'll be damned if I'm going to do it again.

I came here to say the exact same thing.

I say let the kids today make these little tributes to the 80's. They totally get it wrong, and those small details are so important, especially the one about how that particular cheese was so fresh for it's time. (Disclaimer: I remember TV-61, and how they'd play any video they could get their hands on.)
posted by Catblack at 10:59 AM on December 3, 2012

related: Call on Me, which samples Steve Winwood's Valerie over visuals inspired by the John Travolta/Jamie Lee Curtis aerobics expose Perfect.
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:18 AM on December 3, 2012

Good song, kind of meh video
posted by mannequito at 11:42 AM on December 3, 2012

Saturday Teenage Kick was one of my favorite albums of the 90's. I'll have to check this out more thoroughly.
posted by slogger at 1:47 PM on December 3, 2012

I'm early nominating this track for Summer Jam of 2013. Earworm health hazard.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 3:09 PM on December 3, 2012

Sound like ZZ Top does Them.
posted by Twang at 9:28 PM on December 3, 2012

Also check out the alternate video featuring a gang of Norwegian seniors being a menace to society! And then watch Small Town Detectives: Oddfjord because it's a fun series. ...And then "Gloria" will be stuck in your head forever.
posted by roboppy at 12:23 AM on December 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also check out the alternate video featuring a gang of Norwegian seniors being a menace to society

Now that's what I'm talking about! That's the video this song deserves.
posted by mannequito at 1:17 AM on December 4, 2012

Did they even have whiteboards in schools in the 80s?
posted by Chrysostom at 2:34 PM on December 18, 2012