Subject #1

This blog’s first entry will discuss a song that encapsulates pop culture in the 90’s and thoughtfully illuminates so many of the emotions most of us found ourselves unable to escape for most of the decade. Someday when the documentarians try to portray the turmoil, exuberance, confusion and anxiety of the decade, they’ll look for our generation’s version of “Somebody to Love,” the “The Times They Are A’Changin” that can recapture what was in the air just before the dawn of the New Millennium…an artistic statement that took what we all felt deep down inside and said it better than anyone else could. That song is “Mambo #5” by Lou Bega.

Truth is, who knows why “Mambo #5” hit it so big worldwide? Throughout the 90’s, we saw a number of Latin-flavored novelties bounce onto the charts, Bega’s sampling/cover of the 1949 Perez Prado tune joining the ranks of “Macarena,” “Rico Suave,” and “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Soon after, more serious Latin pop would surge on radio and pop charts, most of it forgettable and much less fun. “Mambo #5” definitely makes the list (a long list indeed) of inane, ridiculous pop that took over toward the end of the decade, and no one will actually admit to really liking it. Still, the next wedding reception you attend, you’ll hear it…sometime after the father/daughter ballad and before “The Chicken Dance.”

Rather than providing a clip of the silly video itself, we found a video of the song mashed up against the famously violent lobby scene from another 1999 hit, The Matrix.