Cheese (cheesy music)
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Cheese as a musical genre has evolved from the Northern England slang usage of the word to mean kitsch. Similarly, Cheese (sometimes 'cheesy music') has become a useful byword or 'catch all' expression for a number of popular musical genres that are usually enjoyed with an ironic knowing. It is a popular theme among university students, with many student nightclubs playing cheese regularly.
Whilst some people light-heartedly enjoy cheese, most people with even a basic interest in music see the term "cheese" as a derogatory label for a song that fits into one of the following categories:
a) Is produced for commercial, money making purposes only.
b) Is made by a producer with little skill.
c) Has poor production values.
d) Is generally not enjoyable to listen to.
Point d) is debatable because many people do enjoy cheese, though they may feel guilty for listening to music that fits into categories a),b) and c). In addition cheesy songs can be seen as an "immature" form of music.
Genres that will be looked upon as 'Cheese' are normally the most popular and may include records from the following:
- 1970s disco
- 1980s pop (from Stock Aitken Waterman)
- Hair Metal
- Commercial pop dance (for example, a lot of the output of AATW Records and Media Records could be viewed as this)
- Novelty records
- Romantic film music
Whilst songs that have "made it" with huge commercial success are usually considered cheesy because of their pop-like status, this is not to say that all popular songs are cheesy, or that all cheesy songs are popular.
Generally dance music is much more likely than rock-based music to be labelled cheese. However, it is hard to definitively label a particular song as "cheese" because often the definition can vary depending on one's musical taste or opinion.
A key element of a cheesy song is a basic melody, with little derivation from the main hook. Most cheesy songs will also feature a catchy vocal, which is the main element that classifies the song as such. In house music this will usually take the form of a female vocalist singing a repetitive phrase or chorus, or a male or female vocalist singing sexual lyrics. In trance music, a female vocal running throughout the song can classify it as cheese. In harder genres such as Hard-NRG and hard dance, songs with action movie type vocals are considered extremely cheesy. An example of this would be a heavily filtered voice proclaiming "you have five seconds to dance before this song explodes" in a deep robot voice or similar.
Generally it is hard to label music without vocals as cheese, but there is such a thing as a cheesy melody. In house music this can take the form of the pitch ascending rapidly before a build up. This is a pattern also seen in trance music.
Often, groups or individuals who release cheesy songs are part of the One-hit wonder phenomenon, though reputable producers are known to release cheesy songs also, such as Eric Prydz' smash-hit, Call On Me, which was a cover of Steve Winwood's "Valerie", or Bob Sinclar's song "Rock This Party".
