Introducing Room Clearers

Posted by Dan March 3rd, 2008 at 01:56pm In The Funk

In conjunction with a project that I’m working on over at my much-neglected personal blog, all this week I’ll be bringing you different songs that I think come under the banner of a “Room Clearer.”

A Room Clearer is not easily defined. It’s a song that is quintessentially unhip. It’s embarassing, it makes you cringe, but often there’s a piece of you that loves it. Part of you wants to run and hide from it, while another part wants to dance wildly and sing along.

A Room Clearer is often supremely dated, often ridiculously poppy and cheery. A Room Clearer is often specific to my generation, which endured a 1990s adolescence.

I’ll bring you one video from each day’s playlist (check the other blog for the full ten-track disc). It’ll be fun, amusing and painful for all.

Here’s the first video, from the “Party Time” mix. It’s Escape Club’s “Wild Wild West,” which is notable for:

• freakish detached female limbs playing the tambourine.
• the Rastafarian/Mexican breakdown.