10 Totally Cheesy Songs (That Are Still Awesome)

10. David Bowie - Magic Dance

David Bowie was a true genius.

Where most of his contemporaries struggled, to a cringe-worthy extent, to update their sound to the commercial excess of the 1980s, Bowie updated his with a charming acknowledgement of what had become of the cultural norm. He wasn't trying to maintain his cool because he knew it was a cyclical thing. Bowie instead opted for rampant, sleek commercialism, luxuriating in the mature sophistication of it.

He also recognised how absolutely daft everything had become, and applied not cynicism but his wicked sense of humour to the period.

"Goblins and beasties, is it? Ha. F*cking hell. Anyway, here's a banger."

Starting with a disorienting effect that transports the listener into a another world, Bowie welcomes us to that wacky bullsh*t world with a casual perfection of every '80s trope: elastic bass, dramatic synth, and an hysterical over-abundance of key changes. A goofy spooky dancefloor filler infused with Bowie's peerless pop sensibility, it is at times involuntarily romantic because the guy was such a sexual creature. He is talking about an actual baby, but that croon can't help but suggest otherwise.

A song Bowie likely cringed at a few short years later is something a generation cherishes to this day: a true genius.