Countless videos of kids drinking ‘yee-yee’ juice are floating around on the internet. What does the ‘yee-yee’ juice do? When the beat drops, it instantly dresses them in western wear and inspires a swaggardly dance.
The song that inspired this meme, of course, is Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road.’ A playful blend of country and hip-hop that resonated with kids everywhere. The same song that got pulled from Billboard’s Hot Country chart the moment it saw success.
In the 1960s, Cambodia was hit by several waves of cultural influence that primed the country for a creative renaissance. 1960 to 1975 is known as the ‘golden era’ of Khmer music.
The years of French rule over Cambodia left imported records of French folk and Yé-Yé easily accessible. Imported Afro-Cuban records coupled with the instrumentation of Filipino marching bands broadened the palette of instrumentation available to Cambodia. Trombones, clarinets and latin auxiliary percussion became exciting options to Cambodian musicians.
The American invasion of Vietnam next door led to Cambodian youth tuning into GI radio signals, and exposure to American…
This is a story about how an opportunist stole a band and an already stolen beat from a man he didn’t believe in.
Most of us are familiar with Danny Elfman from his scores for Tim Burton’s films, Jack’s singing voice in Nightmare Before Christmas, or the theme music for The Simpsons. Or maybe through his new wave band Oingo Boingo’s hit songs “Dead Man’s Party” or “Weird Science.” But that’s not what this article is about.
This piece is here to document and honor the weird, wild and wonderful work made by Danny and his 12-piece avant-garde old-wave performance art troupe. …
Alex Benson
I’m a designer who writes about music.
