Skip to main content

Rita Ora, Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha, Cardi B - Girls | Song Review and Discussion

Might as well put my take on the drama here as well. You've been warned.

First, the song itself. The first part that I've got to mention is the production. Most of it is very generic, but then there are those weird chanting noises in the background. They ruin the flow of the song for me, detract from the actual lyrics, and just sound bad.

For each artist's part:

Rita Ora's chorus and verse seem very uninspired. The "I'm 50/50 and I'm never going to hide it" part is good and shows that this song had potential to be a bi anthem, but it's squandered. "I'm getting down with her, uh huh" is just boring.

Charli's pre-chorus is decent if not weird. Her obsession with weed is annoying and doesn't really go with the rest of the song at all.

Bebe sounds pretty good, but since when is she LGBT at all? I guess I missed the memo. Still, the best singing part of the song.

Cardi's part (side note: why do they say "Ritaaaa..." then move on to Cardi?) is probably the highlight of the song, despite the controversy with her boyfriend possible, but unlikely status as a homophobe. Her flow is really good, especially the "seven figure, never need a ...." part. It adds the charisma that this song really needs.

Overall, this song just sounds like so much filler. The production is mostly generic, the lyrics are trite, and none of the vocal performances are spectacular. Cardi's verse is good, but not amazing.

**Final Verdict:**

**3/10**

Now, for the drama:

Personally, I didn't see a problem with this song at first. Sure, it is very carefree about the LGBT themes, but I didn't think that being carefree was a bad thing; in fact, I thought that it was good to give us some anthems that LGBT people could relate to more.

However, I had a change of thought when I realized how differently the GP would treat this song if it was called "Boys" and was sang by mostly B list male artists, like Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes, Jason Derulo, and some rapper. That's where I realized the double standard that affects both sides of the coin, and how this song just feeds into that.

Our culture has fetishized casual lesbian pairings so much that girls getting drunk/high and kissing (or more) each other is totally normal; that's what this song is. Meanwhile, it's a total taboo for men to do something like that. Now, I'm not trying to say that men have it so bad or something, but if we keep pushing WLW as a fetish or just something to do as parties, that's going to harm most of the LGBT community. They'll take real WLW as fakers or just doing it for the attention, and they'll continue to make it unacceptable for MLM to have casual affairs.

There's nothing wrong with LGBT people having casual affairs; far from it. If hetero people are having casual affairs, expecting LGBT people to be serious all the time in their relationship would just be unfair. The issue is when pieces of pop culture, like "Girls", feed into the stereotype of girls just liking girls after getting drunk, or as a party trick, or as a way to seek attention. This is harmful to just about everyone involved. Now, is "Girls" the end of the world? No. It's not overtly harmful, and I believe that the intentions were pure. I'd just think that it's not healthy for anything to promote the fetishization of LGBT people. This song isn't unique in that aspect, but efforts should definitely be made to prevent more songs from doing so.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Halsey - hopeless fountain kingdom | Album Review

hopeless fountain kingdom  is alternative (or at least, that's what she likes to be called) singer-songwriter Halsey's second studio album. Released June 2nd 2017, this album comes hot on the trail of Halsey's recent commercial success; the MASSIVE collaboration with The Chainsmokers, topping the chart for so many weeks. Though I'm certainly not a fan of that song by any stretch of the word, I do indeed respect the success of "Closer" and can see the appeal. For this album, Halsey told us that she wouldn't go full pop; that she would still be alternative, and she did stand by these words, for the most part. hopeless fountain kingdom , or HFK, for short, is a great alternative synth-pop album, albeit confusing at a lot of parts. She promoted this album by releasing videos and teasers comparing the album to Romeo and Juliet; at least, a more modernized version. Supposedly, the story depicted a relationship based on that Shakespearean tale, but the way that...

Update

I'm really disappointed in the current state of the blog. I'm sure that I'll resume posting very soon, but it's just... not quite what I hope that it would be in its current state. The biggest issue is that I can't really connect to my few readers. I've only received one comment thus far, and I just wish that I could connect with you more! I'd be more than happy to do requests. I'm also expanding my reviews over to tumblr as well, at https://skymusicreviews.tumblr.com/ , which may help expand my audience. I hope so. Finally, I started university, so I have considerably less free time. I can still work with this, but it's just more to consider for this blog's upkeep.

Julia Michaels - Nervous System | EP Review

It's been WAY too long! I gotta get back on schedule. Nervous System is the debut EP (or mini-album, as she called it for some reason) from songwriter/singer Julia Michaels. It was released on July 28th, 2017. Julia Michaels built her reputation by writing many, many pop tracks, for just about every artist that you can think of. She helped make so many songs Billboard hits, so she definitely has quite a bit of reputation to stand on. Every track except the first one is produced by Mattman & Robin, and curiously, Julia is not the sole writer; she has 3 other co-writers on every single track except the final one. Even though Julia has helped lots of other artists, the GP didn't really know her name until her lead single, "Issues". Her voice is rather strange; it's lilting and kind of squeaky, but at least she's different sounding. Other than that, this is a very stereotypical pop song; if you looked up "boring pop", this would be it. Do keep ...