Post #2

 Discotheque Without The H 

As written in blog post one Lithuanian’s identity is tied to their language, disputes over religion, history and relations with its neighbors, and race and ethnicity. Lithuania’s 2021 entry of “Discoteque” by The Roop is what I will be analyzing for this second blog post. At first glance this funky song is somewhere in the electro pop region with avant-garde costumes and memorable dance moves. Their live performance is what I will be basing my analysis off of. However, through researching past performances from The Roop and watching their music video there is more continuity between the bands' performances than most viewers may realize. The Roop is a Lithuanian band from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. It is comprised of three members. Vaidotas Valiukevičius is the lead singer, Robertas Baranauskas is the drummer, and Mantas Banišauskas plays the guitar. These three grew up together and have had an interesting start in the music industry. The band has been together for over a decade and have only become famous and gained popularity in more recent years. They started coming into the public eye in 2018 competing in Lithuania’s national final with their song “Yes, I do.” Then again in 2020 their song “On Fire” which won them the Lithuanian national final. This song became especially popular and an audience favorite. However, due to the cancellation of the Eurovision finale they were not able to compete on a transnational stage. Some controversy occurred in 2021 when countries had to choose to keep their entries from 2020 or to hold national competitions again. Lithuania was a country that choose to hold a new competition and many The Roop fans were angry that they would have to compete again for their spot. In the end The Roop obviously ended up winning the national finale again, finishing fourth in the semi-finals, and finishing eighth with 220 points in the grand finale. Additionally, The Roop’s name comes from the old English word to shout and is a message to be unapologetically yourself.  

Discoteque’s live performance opens with the lead singer, Vaidotas, in the dark robotically swaying in front of the backlit bright plain purple background which quickly changes from a purple rectangle to horizontal purple lines, to a pulsating white square. A singular spotlight flicks on revealing Vaidotas is a bright yellow two-piece suit. The suit is very boxy and avant-garde edging on childlike or cartoonlike with very high waisted and wide legged trousers and a slim fit shirt barely visible under an oversized, shoulder padded, cropped, suit coat. Just like many other aspects of the song this suit breaks the rules of what a “normal” men’s suit should look like while also encouraging uniqueness. The yellow color in the costumes is explained in an interview between William Adams and The Roop to represent hope while the flashes of purple in the background are meant to represent ambition. Along with the striking yellow suit the first motion Vaidotas does when the lights flash on is a strange hand gesture. Vaidotas puts his hand up near his face and separates his ring and pinky from his middle and first fingers. Not only is the squeezing finger gesture hard to do it is almost alien-like similar to the tone of the song. It is also a hand motion that is continually referenced throughout the performance and later built on. In this initial hand gesture, he only displays his hand in one way but later on he switches what fingers are separated quickly alternating between hand gestures making the move even harder. Although The Roop will not clarify exactly what this hand gesture means audiences assume it takes inspiration from the group’s childhood in some way and in general is a new hand gesture to go along with Discoteque. This may seem odd however with their song “On Fire”, meant to represent Lithuania in Eurovision 2020, a hand motion above the head with wriggling fingers played with the idea of fire and became synonymous with the group and their song. This fire motion is used in the “Discoteque” performance as a callback to “On Fire.”  

The backing dancers and rest of the band dressed in the same bright yellow funky outfits are revealed when the song hits the chorus. The two backing dancers join in a backlit moment in the same way Vaidotas started the song and stay in a triangle formation with Vaidotas closest in the middle for the duration of the song. The male backup dancer is the choreographer for The Roop. Both the male and female dancers were in both in the “On Fire” music video and live performance. Additionally, although Robertas and Mantas join in with some dance moves they stay off to either side staying in place while playing their instruments and singing harmonies and backing vocals. Thus, the music in the song is only drums. Throughout the performance the dance moves including the hand motions are very playful but robotic at the same time always performed in time with the hypnotic beat of the song. Their moves are playful preformed with over-the-top energy and overdramatic facial expressions.  

The camera angles also play into these precise and robotic moves experimenting with mirroring a single band member and cutting to show all performers dancing in perfect synchronization in cut together separate shots. Near the end of the performance a visually interesting moment takes place where it seems that Vaidotas takes hold of the camera and sings looking directly into it while the dancers crowd behind him. The angle is one I haven’t seen in other performances and is very shaky as they dance with bouncing steps like it is a handheld camera. This camera trick is used to connect with audiences at home and makes it feel like the performers are seeing and singing directly to them. However, it is not as appealing for live audience members because they are not the ones being sung to and their view is most likely being obstructed by the camera at this moment.  

The only colors used in the performance as yellow and purple, which I spoke to the significance previously, and black in white to fill in the space. The background alters in different variations and patterns loosely looking like the strobe lights, DJ volume bars, and sometimes flashes of lightning. At the lyric “I’ve got the moves-it’s gonna blow” accompanied with a boom sound effect the background changes alternating between a swirling purple and black checkered pattern and an 80’s swirling neon purple grid. These swirling patterns change form and become and wiggling disco ball. These backgrounds could also be a call back to the name “Discoteque” since disco was still popular in the 80’s and most of these abstract background designs are indicative of popular 80s style.  

One theme I noticed in this performance is that despite such a catchy and visually and audibly interesting song there is not much meaning behind the lyrics or performance. Unlike other Eurovision songs there are no issues with cultural appropriation, orientalism, virtue signaling etc. with the performance, lyrics, and performers. The Roop keeps this song light and positive with a somewhat vague message of self-liberation and promoting dancing. Although some fans have predicted the lyrics “let’s discoteque right in my home, it is okay to dance alone” are in reference to the pandemic, considering it was written in Fall 2020, this is not the case. The Roop acknowledges that this message of dancing alone and practicing social distancing or being lonely during the pandemic does fit but was not the intention in the song writing process. In an interview Vaidotas explains that the song is supposed to celebrate dancing and its mental and physical benefits. The song is supposed to make people dance and feel happy. The dichotomy between the eerie cords in the song and the lyrics’ meaning is an interesting aspect to look at. And maybe that somewhat simple message was right in front of the audience's eyes the entire time. The title of the song “Discoteque” is close to the French word for nightclub and was adapted to the English word disco. However, the title of the song is spelled without the “h” in Discotheque symbolizing that this is a different type of club, one that is as unique as this band and the song.  

Word count: 1390 

 

References  

Fuster, L. (2021, May 10). Lithuania's the roop at eurovision 2021: "The mood button will be on". wiwibloggs. Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://wiwibloggs.com/2021/05/09/the-roop-interview-eurovision-2021/264871/  

Grand final of Rotterdam 2021. Eurovision.tv. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://eurovision.tv/event/rotterdam-2021/grand-final  

Ndr. (n.d.). ESC 2021: The roop singt für litauen "discoteque" Im finale. Eurovision. Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://www.eurovision.de/videos/2021/ESC-2021-The-Roop-singt-fuer-Litauen-Discoteque-im-Finale,litauen810.html  

The roop - discoteque (official music video ... - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWqrdzNoBKA  

The roop - lithuania - rotterdam 2021. Eurovision.tv. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://eurovision.tv/participant/the-roop-2021  

The roop "discoteque" | lithuania eurovision ... - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXdDcD9h_WE