Seven Iconic Electronic Music Lyrics

The joy of repetition: Daft Punk – ‘Around The World’ (1997)

“Around the world, around the world…”

Bangalter and de Homem-Christo’s filtered house classic is a supreme example of nonsense vocals with no variation playing a defining role in a track. Defiantly embracing the joy of repetition, the looped vocal of ‘Around The World’ provides an immediate hook while allowing the groove of the rest of the track to shine.

Time and again, the Parisian duo would re-educate dance producers on how to treat vocals, enlisting vocoders, talkboxes and Auto-Tune retuned hard to bestow enduring melodies with electronic mischief. ‘Around The World’ paved the way for later excursions by a generation of disciples, including, nearly a decade later, Mylo, with his crossover hit ‘Drop The Pressure’:

Mylo deserves credit for concealing an x-rated lyric (“Motherfuckers gonna drop the pressure”) in a sufficiently thick layer of vocoder to sneak it under the censorship radar and onto regular daytime radio and MTV rotation, but back in ’97 it was all about that bassline and that vocal loop – “Around the world, around the wo-orld/Around the world, around the wo-orld” – repeated 144 times without – somehow – either irritating or tiring the listener.

In some ways the lesson of ‘Around The World’ is the simplest, but also the hardest to grasp: if the words are right and the vocal processing is interesting, even the simplest phrase can balance integrity and timelessness. The problem, of course, is finding that phrase.

An even more refined example of this – taken to its logical conclusion – is Moby’s seminal ‘Go’. With a vocal so minimal it barely counts, ‘Go’ is the ideal choice for reluctant karaoke participants.