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Popular Music and Hard Rock

POPULAR MUSIC AND HARD ROCK

Aqua [Denmark]. "I'm a Barbie Girl." 3:16 minutes. Copyright BPI Communications Inc., 30 August 1997. Written by Soren Rasted, René Dif (Ken), Lene Graford Nystrom (Barbie), and Claus Noreen. Produced by Johnny Mosegaard Pederson, Karsten Delgado, Soren Rasted, and Claus Noreen. Available in the album Aquarium and in video by Universal Records.

[Although the song makes no mention of Cinderella, it plays upon the same issues that critics complain of in the Americanized, Disney version of Cinderella, where the plastic girl becomes an object of desire in a love-game. On the juxtaposition of Barbie and Cinderella types or antitypes see Denise Duhamel, under Modern Poetry. A bubble-gum rock celebration of permissive gratification:

-Hi Barbie!
-Hi Ken!
-You wanna go for a ride?
-Sure, Ken!
-Jump in!
-Ha ha ha ha!

I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world,
Life in plastic, it's fantastic!
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere.
Imagination, life is your creation.

Come on, Barbie, let's go party

I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie world," etc.
I'm a blonde single girl in the fantasy world
Dress me up, take your time, I'm your dollie.
You're my doll, rock and roll, feel the glamour and pain,
Kiss me here, touch me there, Hanky-panky.

You can touch, you can play,
You can say I'm always yours, oooh whoa.

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation

Come on, Barbie, let's go party, ha ha ha, yeah
Come on, Barbie, let's go party, oooh, oooh

[repeat]

Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please
I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees
Come jump in, be my friend, let us do it again
Hit the town, fool around, let's go party

You can touch, you can play
[If] You can say I'm always yours

[repeat]

Come on, Barbie, let's go party, ha ha ha yeah
Come on Barbie, let's go party, oooh, oooh

[repeat]

I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation

[repeat]

Come on, Barbie, let's go party, ha ha ha, yeah
Come on, Barbie, let's go party, oooh, oooh

[repeat]

-Oh, I'm having so much fun!
-Well, Barbie, we're just getting started!
-Oh, I love you Ken!

The success of the song depends on its juxtaposition of the innocence of child's play and the eroticism of teen play, as each looks on the other as her/his plastic fairy tale dollie.]


Bogguss, Suzy. "Hey Cinderella." By Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg, and Gary Harrison. 4:06 minutes. From Suzy Bogguss, Something Up My Sleeve. Produced by Jimmy Bowen. Famous Music Corporation. Liberty Records, 1993.
[Verse I recalls the marriage day; Verse II, on being older and compromised. The Refrain: "Hey, hey Cinderella! / What's the story all about? / I got a funny feeling / We missed a page or two somehow; / Oh, Cinderella, / Maybe you could help us out: / Does the shoe fit you now?"]
Cinderella [heavy metal]. Tales from the Gypsy Road. Interview tape (a Cinderella story in itself). Directed by Bill Bowman. PolyGram Records Inc. New York, New York. Video tape. 60 minutes.

Rush [rock group]. "Cinderella Man." In Hemispheres. Core Music Publishing, 1978. Music by Lee and Lifeson; lyrics by Peart.