This review covers the pop track C+C Music Factory – Gonna Make You Sweat.
This track was released in 1990 on the album Gonna Make You Sweat. The track is also listed as C+C Music Factory – Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) (featuring Martha Wash and Freedom Williams).
The track starts with the vocals. This is joined by an electric guitar with short notes along with a subtle melody. After this, some brass elements come in. After this, some hip hop rap vocals come in.
When the rap vocal elements finish, the other vocals come in to take the track into the main chorus. When that ends, the track is just left with the electric guitar for a moment. The vocals come in and the track builds up, eventually adding an additional brass element for a brief period of time. The track then pulls back a fair bit before building back up with an additional melody.
After that, the rap elements make a return. There is then a transition between the two vocals before the other vocals make a return, leading the track into an altered chorus. These vocals then take the track into an additional verse and then lead the track out.
Let’s face it, this is a really famous track. If you grew up in the 90’s, the probability is extremely high you’ll recognize the track within 2 seconds of it starting to play. If the initial success of this track didn’t catch your attention, the many times it was sampled in various media forms probably will. There was a time when you couldn’t help but have caught a phrase or two somewhere along the line. If you weren’t actively looking for this track, you were practically tripping over it somewhere along the line. That’s how big this was throughout the 90s.
One thing that works well for this track is the constant switching back and forth between singing and rap. Two different voices ping-ponging back and forth – especially when its male and female vocals – works pretty well under a lot of circumstances. In this case, there is a blending of two different singing styles on top of it all, so the dynamic sound is increased that much more. This definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
What I also like is the variety throughout the track. So far, I’ve reviewed a number of tracks that just sticks with one sound and leaves it on auto-pilot throughout the entire track. In this case, this track doesn’t do that and, instead, inserts small solo’s, pulls back, and pushes on the gas pedal in various parts of the track. While this does make it more difficult to make the track transition well and flow well, this track pulls this off quite nicely. As a result, it makes it much easier to listen to the track from beginning to end and listen to it multiple times.
Having said that, this track does suffer from a few flaws. While the rap lyrics work well, the singing lyrics are very repetitive. This track would have benefited a lot if there was a greater variety in the singing lyrics. Because of this, the track does feel rather drawn out even though it is only 4 minutes and change long. Ironically, the singing makes this track one of the most heavily sampled tracks around. So what is there is gold, but there needs to be more.
Overall, this track is one of the most heavily sampled tracks I’ve heard. As a result, recognition for just about anyone in North America at least is almost instant. While the samples used are gold, the track does suffer from issues surrounding variety. The singing could have used more in the lyrics department, but what is there is gold. The ping-pong back and forth between singing and rap works in this tracks favour as well. So, a well produced track all around in my view.
Score
7.5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
