Seven Iconic Electronic Music Lyrics

The unique tribute: Justice – ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ (2007)

“Do the D.A.N.C.E, 1-2-3-4 fight/Stick to the B.E.A.T, get ready to ignite…”

Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay’s ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ gave Ed Banger Records a solid crossover hit – one that went on to win the sync lottery in their native France, becoming the most broadcast track of 2009 on French radio. But formulating the lyrics and choosing who would sing the vocal part didn’t come easy to the Parisian duo, as they explained to Richard Buskin in a feature we published last year.

“Writing the words is really tricky because we don’t want to make them too serious or too complicated or too pretentious, but we also don’t want to come up with stupid dance music lyrics like ‘Shake your ass, you look beautiful’,” de Rosnay explained. “At least the music of Michael Jackson is something we believe in. So, we built the lyrics mainly around the titles of his songs…”

It was an inspired move, by an act who unashamedly admitted to the “difficulty in writing words that aren’t in your native language”.

“Do the D.A.N.C.E
1-2-3-4 fight!
Stick to the B.E.A.T
Get ready to ignite
You were such a P.Y.T
Flashing all the lights
Just easy as A.B.C
That’s how we make it right

Do the D.A.N.C.E
Stick to the B.E.A.T
Just easy as A.B.C
Do the dance”

The amalgam of lyrics – which lifts words from, among others, MJ’s ‘PYT (Pretty Young Thing)’, ‘Black Or White’. ‘Whatever Happens’ and ‘Workin’ Day And Night’, as well as The Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’ – manages to shrug the need for deep meaning, while also remaining credible – blessed with the king of pop’s master talent for songwriting.

The second stroke of genius was employing a group of London schoolkids to do the singing, rather than a guest vocalist. “It’s always really hard for us to find people to sing our songs because we’re not fond of featuring guest vocalists. We prefer them to be anonymous,” said de Rosnay.

The decision turned out to be a prescient one: after several trips to the UK (and the vocal recording in London’s AIR studios), the track went on to become a club hit and a YouTube sensation, the cut and paste lyrics reflecting not only the duo’s wider production style, but also Jonas & François’s much-vaunted video.

We’re not going to claim that ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ represents a common trend in electronic music lyrics – if there are hundreds of similar Jacko tributes sung by children, we’re not aware of them. Instead, consider the problems Justice solved in one masterstroke. Not good at writing lyrics? Steal lines from someone else. Stuck for a theme? Pick a hero and write a tribute. Can’t sing? Hire someone else. Don’t want a star guest vocal? Use unknowns. An inspired stroke of lyric and vocal writing genius.