Have you ever heard of the song that almost won Eurovision in 2005? Perhaps you saw the original music video for the song in 1997 on VHS, or you heard it pumping through all the dance clubs of Europe throughout the 90s.
Or maybe you saw the original clip of “Planet of the Bass” on TikTok in the summer of 2023.
Originally posted on July 28, 2023 with the caption “Planet of the Bass (feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica)” and an in-video graphic reading: “Every European Dance Song in the 1990s,” comedian Kyle Gordon and influencer Audrey Trullinger dance and lip-synch to a snippet of the song in the Oculus shopping mall in New York. The song features lyrics with broken English that seem deeply meaningful while actually being completely nonsensical. Choice lyrics include “life, it never die,” “women are my favorite guy,” and “have a body, feel the groove.”
The TikTok went viral for its uncanny similarity to the music it parodied, leading to the release date of the full song being moved up to Aug. 15, 2023. In the time between the original TikTokand the full song’s release, Gordon released two more lip-synch videos, but with different actresses playing the role of Ms. Biljana Electronica, the fictitious singer.
On Aug. 3, Gordon released the second TikTok using the same audio but filmed in a different location with Mara Olney as Electronica. Unlike the blonde, bouncy, and expressive Trullinger, Olney was a brunette actress who gave a more subdued performance influenced by supermodels. Gordon received backlash from fans for casting Olney, who thought that he had unceremoniously replaced Trullinger. There were calls in the comments to “bring back the original Ms. Biljana Electronica.” Trullinger herself initially thought she was being replaced until Gordon’s stunt became clear.
Gordon released the third and final copy of the snippet on Aug. 7. This time, Ms. Biljana Electronica was played by Sabrina Brier, a comedian who found a way to seamlessly combine Trullinger’s enthusiastic gestures and expressions with Olney’s frosty, detached persona.
Gordon explained that he was poking fun at the way 90s Eurodance music videos often replaced the singers with various models. True to form, none of these three women are actually providing the female vocals of the song; it’s singer Chrissi Poland. With Gordon’s intention revealed, Olney and Brier’s performances have been vindicated and praised.
“This Biljana is underrated. She gets the exact vibe of europop. The eyework she does is spot on,” a commenter wrote on Olney’s performance.
“People in these comments don’t realize that biljana electronica isn’t simply one person. she’s an ideal. […] she can be anyone, and anyone can be her,” another commenter wrote on the third Planet of the Bass snippet, where Brier debuted.
The music video for “Planet of the Bass” debuted on Aug. 15, 2023 to roaring success. At the time of writing this article, it sits at 2.5 million views on YouTube alone. Trullinger ended up portraying Electronica, but Olney and Brier’s versions receive cameos at the beginning on a computer screen. DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica even performed “Planet of the Bass” at a Jonas Brothers concert in Boston the same night of the song’s premiere.
When speaking of “Planet of the Bass” post-release, Gordon clearly didn’t expect his project to become such a massive hit. The song is a part of his upcoming comedy album, which will feature parodies and pastiches of other genres of music, such as bossa nova and country songs. While Gordon likely used it to generate hype for the rest of the album, “Planet of the Bass” became a hit on its own.
Music professor Nate Sloan describes “Planet of the Bass” as “straddl[ing] the line between parody and sincerity.” To make a good parody, the artist must have a deep understanding of what they intend to satirize, and Gordon has that understanding of Eurodance. His DJ Crazy Times persona is something he has been evolving for 10 years. His choice to cast three different women as Electronica shows his understanding of tropes associated with Eurodance music videos.
“Planet of the Bass” became such a hit because it wasn’t made to be a hit — it was a project that blossomed from Gordon’s love and understanding of the craft, something that people picked up on amid their nostalgia for Eurodance music. In the comment section of the music video, the comments can be divided into two categories: jokingly reminiscing on false memories of hearing the song in the 1990s and offering genuine praise for the quality of the song and the music video.
So, while the scenarios parodied in the opening and the ones you may find in the comment sections of these videos are not real, the feelings of nostalgia that they induce are. DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica’s “Planet of the Bass” shows us that harmless, positive nostalgia, combined with luck and the right timing, can produce timeless, wonderful art.
