5 August 2000
I didn’t pay much attention to ‘Rock DJ’ at the time, so I’ve only noticed now how similar it is to our previous Robbie Williams solo number one, ‘Millennium’. Both use someone else’s music, but recreated cheaply rather than a direct sample: here, it’s a loop from ‘It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me’ by Barry White. Both borrow other people’s lyrics, catchphrases and pop-culture expressions: here we get “Can I get a witness”, “Can I kick it? Yes you can!” and a big chunk of cliched Houston-ground-control stuff. Both fail badly with the chorus, the bit where they’re obliged to be memorable and original: the chorus of ‘Rock DJ’ is risibly bland and this’ll-do. And for both the weak song is just incidental music to its try-hard video.
So, ‘Rock DJ’ follows the same formula as ‘Millennium’ and shows the same failings. These records are just promotional merchandise to sustain the marketable public persona of a tabloid-friendly light entertainment celebrity who happened to find fame initially as a singer. The notion of Robbie Williams leaving a boy band to pursue grown-up credibility is laughable when the output is jokey half-arsed tat like ‘Millennium’ and this. These are records for people who bought Mr Blobby singles. Given that so many English people also bought the jokey half-arsed tat of Boris Johnson as prime minister, I guess the English just love their buffoons and buffoonery.
