26 January 2002
Strangely, considering we’d already seen Pink at number one the previous year as one part of Moulin Rouge merchandise ‘Lady Marmalade’, ‘Get The Party Started’ always feels to me like her first ‘real’ hit. We’ve already seen its writer-producer at number one too: Linda Perry, lead singer of 4 Non Blondes and the souvenir-shop grunge of ‘What’s Up?’ Neither of those tracks fill me with giddy anticipation, I have lukewarm memories of ‘Get The Party Started’ anyway, and these re-listens duly follow those expected lines. Yes, singer and song bring enough natural energy for some bouncy forward momentum, plus the second pre-chorus line of “License plate says stunner, number one, superstar” is genuinely witty and fun. Otherwise, this is record-industry-embedded dance-pop which is one flat, tired verse too long: hard to dislike, but not interesting enough to love.
I suppose the most interesting aspect of ‘Get The Party Started’ is the Perry angle and how it again represents the main trend of post-Cheiron ’00s pop: mid-table ex-performers finding greater success as hit-making studio writer-producers. So far we’ve seen ’90s pop star Cathy Dennis and ’70s Mud-rocker Rob Davis at number one in Ireland, we’ll see Perry top our charts again, and best of all, in early 2003 we’ll catch up with the UK’s new writer-producer dream team and their muses. So, 2002 will be a tumultuous, transformative year in pop music. Alas, not enough of the good stuff will make it all the way to the top of the Irish charts – and 2002 will be tumultuous in Ireland for other reasons. So yeah, get the party started.
