It's usually difficult to be subjective on the topic of 'good' and 'bad' music. But just as records sometimes come along and are totally unarguably brilliant (you'd have a hard time finding someone capable of legitimately articulating the lack of worth in, say, 'Rehab' or 'Umbrella'), there are also songs which exist as working definitions of 'this is shit'. Basshunter's next single, 'Please Don't Go', is an example of the latter.
Contrary to pictorial evidence in certain parts of the internet, Basshunter has been a difficult chap for people to get their heads around. His first UK single, 'Now You're Gone', was not exactly to everybody's tastes, but it was easy to understand that a lot of the criticism thrown its way was based on generational and geographical differences. A 34-year-old in London, for example, would not really be able to approach the song with the same mindset as an 18-year-old in Stockport. (Even if, in the case of radio programmers, that's exactly what their job is supposed to involve.) But with 'Please Don't Go' you could be a two month old child living in a village so remote that the concept of recorded sound was regarded as The Work Of The Dark Forces and you'd be able to identify it as entirely bereft of merit. It would be the first music you ever heard, and you would still know it was worse than all other music.
1. Yes it is a cover of the song most recently in the charts thanks to KWS.
2. Yes it sounds like 'Now You're Gone' but with all the fun and sponteneity reduced to a joyless and workmanlike attempt to quickly — so very, very quickly — capitalise on its predecessor's success.
On the Popjustice forums, Acerben — a chap who knows his stuff on this sort of thing — says it's a "big mistake". Regardless of whether 'Please Don't Go' sells well or sells badly, we think he's right. You could argue that Basshunter didn't exactly have a reputation as an artistic visionary pushing forward the boundaries of pop but he did manage to score a huge Number One single with an original song, in spite of very little traditional media support. It was a song whose success was based on people absolutely loving the track, rather than on perceived notions of credibility. Of course, that earned the song a different sort of credibility, which is being thrown away by 'Please Don't Go'.
Anyway, here you go.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85ioAUkabe0
Our ears our ears etc.
