Analysis: If you don’t know the Punjabi music bhangra, you should. It’s a total blast. Bhangra is kind of the old school hip hop of India, made world famous by artists like Daler Mehndi. So when my wife shared this song with me, it was obvious what had to be done – run bhangra through The Eliminator 1000. It’s kind of a travesty that no bhangra or other Indian music is in the Eliminator 1000, as I have been listening to Indian music for quite some time now and love quite a lot of different genres from the Indian subcontinent.
Bhangra is all about getting up and dancing. These songs can really get you moving. Diljit Dosanjh is one of the biggest Indian musicians and his fame kind of follows the Indian diaspora around the world meaning he’s starting to have relevance on some of the international charts. But everyone should like bhangra as far as the Eliminator is concerned. Bhangra is a bit like reggae or reggaeton, where there is a pretty fixed rhythm and feel that predominates, but most bhangra songs are just plain old fun and vibey. So it can be hard for me as an outsider to distinguish. Many bhangra songs are played at almost every Indian wedding for years and years, because they can be easily remixed and can go on for literally forever with all kinds of varying takes on the base song. Remix heaven, actually.
Laembadgini the song has several hundred million views on Youtube, but it’s actually one of Dosanjh’s lesser known songs, lol. But it has the classic bhangra beat. And a translation of the lyrics is here.
So it is kind of afterthought to talk about the very old sounding True, by Spandau Ballet. I really loved this song as a young high schooler. Nostalgia, man! #1 in the UK in 1983, and #4 on the US charts for a time. Like many many songs from the early 1980s, this song has been sampled and covered a million times by other newer artists. But if there was ever a song that needed to be Eliminated in this project, it is this one. There is literally nothing left about this song that is fresh or relevant. I’ll give the sax solo some credit, I mean that has some staying power as far as pop saxophone solos go. No reason to stop listening to that. But the vocals and the early 1980s synthesizer mellowness of it all are done, and gone, culturally and musically. It’s a song for Elimination.
Laembadgini goes in at #701 (1,400 more listens). Bhangra is a genre like reggae that can literally take over the entire Eliminator 1000, which won’t happen, but it needs to be in here. And Laembadgini is a great standard way to start for great songs to listen to over and over again. Spandau Ballet, and True, are Eliminated.
Want to learn more about The Eliminator 1000? Propose a song to go in! Reply to this post, comment on the post, or Tweet (Account: @1000Eliminator) or Facebook (Account: mattnyman.com) me. Here’s the links to the song lists: the Spotify Playlist, the Youtube Playlist, the Google Sheets List, and the webpage.
