You Belong on the Radio - UK Music Charts (2)

I haven’t discussed new music since November and I’ve only looked at the British music charts once, all the way back in August 2014, so it’s time to do both again as these songs seem ripe to be analyzed. Let’s listen to some fresh tunes then, shall we?

#1 Mike Posner – I Took a Pill in Ibiza

This is a rather interesting song. At first glance it starts out like a standard “fame and stuff” song but it actually turns out to be rather critical and weary of it.

I'm living out in LA

I drive a sports car just to prove

I'm a real big baller cause I made a million dollars

And I spend it on girls and shoes

You have all the standard elements, money, sex and drugs (in the title and the opening lyrics) but you already see here how all those status symbols seem self-serving in a way.

But you don't wanna be high like me

Never really knowing why like me

You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone

You don't wanna ride the bus like this

Never knowing who to trust like this

You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing

Stuck up on that stage singing

All I know are sad songs, sad songs

Sure, this is no deep analytical dissection of fame and celebrity but it really sounds like someone being somewhat disillusioned by his own stardom.

I'm just a singer who already blew his shot

I get along with old timers

Cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot

And I can't keep a girl, no

Cause as soon as the sun comes up

I cut 'em all loose and work's my excuse

But the truth is I can't open up

Seriously, this guy really talks about some depressing things and admits to a lot of issues most people aren’t aware of in their own lives, the escapism of work or general emotional detachment. It’s not This Is Hardcore, but it is a no.1 one acoustic pop song that at least takes a stab at it without really getting much wrong. I sorta respect that.

#4 Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla $ign – Work from Home

Could be that this song is nothing else but a song about someone (presumably someone female) sitting at home, horny, waiting for her partner to come home to fuck instead of him working all the time?

I ain't worried 'bout nothin'

I ain't wearin' na nada

I'm sittin' pretty, impatient, but I know you gotta

Put in them hours, I'mma make it harder

I'm sending pic after picture, I'mma get you fired

Yes, I think I figured that out all by myself. You see, they (there are several singers after all) are making it “harder” for him to go on working. Yes.

And I don't need no explanation

'Cause baby, you're the boss at home

There is something terribly stupid about having women sing lyrics like this. Of course “he” is the boss at home because this song is only about asking for him to come home to give "her" something to do. Mainly sex, but the whole song makes it sound like they have nothing at all to do for themselves. If their man isn’t home, they lose any purpose.

The rap part that says things like

She ride it like a '63

I'mma buy her no Celine

Let her ride in a foreign with me

[…]

I pipe up, she take that

Putting overtime on your body

is not really helping, just reiterating the same old sex clichés we’ve seen in dozens of other songs. This is no fun but just the same old “master and servant” relationship model we are constantly told to follow. This is so old-fashioned and lazy, I don’t see how it needed six men (!) to write this crap.

#6 Jonas Blue – Fast Car

It is very hard to find any top 10 without a song that deals with escaping this dreary world.

You got a fast car

I want a ticket to anywhere

Maybe we make a deal

Maybe together we can get somewhere

Any place is better

The song later goes into more details (some screwed up family situation) but it boils down to the same thing we’ve seen in all those songs: a strong urge to escape, to not change the situation but to leave, anywhere, just away from the current state of things. I repeatedly insist that this is such a strong meme in our culture because almost everyone feels unhappy with our state of life, this culture, the way we have to live but no one sees (or looks for) any alternatives. Of course, no “fast car” will ever change that.

#13 G-Eazy feat. Bebe Rexha – Me Myself & I

It has been really weird for me to start reading about the songs I’m discussing here and their artists, before writing about them, simply because I know so little. So, now I know much more about G-Eazy (whose name I had never heard before today) and the song is somewhat pleasant to listen to but I still think the lyrics suck. What is attempted here is to show yet another take on fame and all its pitfalls but this reads like the polar opposite of above’s I Took a Pill in Ibiza.

On the one hand, the singer continually talks about needing privacy and some space for himself, as if all that fame is just too much for him. People have expectations and it is all really stressful.

And as far as I can see, I just need privacy

Plus a whole lot of tree, fuck all this modesty

I just need space to do me

[…]

I just need to be alone, I just need to be at home

Understand what I'm speaking on

If time is money I need a loan

On the other hand, most of the rest of the song talks about his “hunger” (for fame) and how much he wants to achieve and, yes, of course, sex and drugs and money and cars and all that other boring crap.

A Stella Maxwell right beside of me

A Ferrari, I'm buyin' three

A closet of Saint Laurent, get what I want when I want

[…]

I'm swimming in money

Swimming in liquor, my liver is muddy

But it's all good I'm still sippin' this bubbly

Any possible hint of criticism gets lost in the depiction of excess here and the few moments that are left somehow make it worse because they seem to try to justify the superficiality of everything else. “I love chicks and fast cars, I earned this! But sometimes I’m a little lonely.” Boo-hoo.

#26 DNCE – Cake by the Ocean

I feel almost stupid writing about another annoying sex song but that’s what we have here, just another one that depicts the girl as too shy and careful, while the (male) singer dares her to do more and more. Which is another way of saying “Come on, let me fuck you.”

You're a real life fantasy, you're a real life fantasy

But you're moving so carefully; let's start living dangerously

Talk to me, baby

I'm going blind from this sweet, sweet craving

How many of those songs does anyone ever need?

Funfetti, I'm ready; I need it every night

Oh, okay, that settles that.

#48 Meghan Trainor – No

Before I slip into depression of all those songs every time say the same in the same way, let’s look at a song that seems a bit different. It is like an answer to all those hook up-songs.

First you gonna say you ain't runnin' game, thinkin' I'm believing every word

Call me beautiful, so original, telling me I'm not like other girls

I was in my zone before you came along, now I'm thinking maybe you should go

Blah, blah, blah, I be like nah to the ah to the no, no, no

She refers to all the things those men sing in their songs and she clearly declines the not-so-attractive offer. It’s all “blah blah blah” to her, which it definitely is.

I don't need your hands all over me

If I want a man, then I'mma get a man

But it's never my priority

That’s what I’m talking about. Female self-determination, no bullshit, just saying “I get what I want when I want it, so stop your silly game.” I really like this one, more lyrically than musically, but still, way to go. What a nice way to end this.