For the past few years, MARINA has been living out the lyrics of her lead single from Princess of Power, “Butterfly.” Slowly changing shape inside a shroom-saturated chrysalis that has transformed her into a fundamentally “happier, more ‘up’” person. Not only that, but tripping on mushrooms also seemed to make her understand the wisdom of embracing one’s “fate”: that is to say, aging. Not necessarily in a “let me go gray (though MARINA already did do that for a period of time, starting during the lockdowns of 2020) and lose all sense of pride in my appearance” kind of way, but rather, in a way that acknowledges the passage of time. This done, first and foremost, with her inspiration behind “Cuntissimo,” which stemmed from MARINA looking specifically toward older women as her “totems.” Not just in the lyrical content (e.g., “Push-up bra, in my diamonds/Gift from my ex-husband”), but in terms of “how to be” in general as she was made keenly aware of “leaving girlhood behind” this year.
So it is that she wanted to stop “idolizing” or “glamorizing” youth and putting the especial pressure on herself about “staying young.” Not only as a woman (the gender that always experiences the most stress when it comes to “being hot,” which remains synonymous with being young), but as a pop star. Thus, in order to help her on her journey toward this form of “aging acceptance,” MARINA created a mood board (both literally and figuratively) consisting of such icons as Salma Hayek (name-checked in “Cuntissimo”), Thelma and Louise (also name-checked in “Cuntissimo”), Sophia Loren, Eartha Kitt, Jamie Lee Curtis and Madonna (specifically during her The Immaculate Collection photoshoot).
And while Madonna is the undisputed pioneer of breaking down barriers for female pop stars to even be “allowed” to keep making music/remain “relevant” past a certain age (i.e., twenty-five), MARINA appears to be the first one to not bother trying to seem younger than she really is (because, yes, it’s no secret that Madonna has made her fair share of bids, particularly on the surgical front, to remain as fresh as possible). An effort that has been concerted in the years leading up to her fortieth birthday on October 10, 2025. In fact, the day before her big “decade shift,” MARINA shared the image of a letter she had written to herself a year ago about where she wanted to be at this juncture. A peak example of her “manifesting” capabilities. Of the sort she also displayed when she wrote Love + Fear’s “Enjoy Your Life,” a track that was, despite the positivity oozing from it, written at a time when MARINA was quite depressed. To pull herself out of this state, it was as though she had to trick her mind into believing she was this exuberant, this “chill” about everything (e.g., “Sit back and enjoy your problems/You don’t always have to solve them/‘Cause your worst days, they are over/So enjoy your life”).
This was before mushrooms entered her life and “positivity” became so much easier to unlock. And, of all the songs on Princess of Power, “Rollercoaster” most clearly embodies the way in which she “altered her mind” to tap into an entirely new way of thinking. Not just about the present, but her future. One in which she realizes, “I wanna go where the free ones live now/Never going back to the place I lived, no.” And the place she once lived was in the petty concerns and fears wrought by youth (more accurately, trying to cling to it), the very thing that society tells women is the most/best they’ll ever have to offer. To this point, MARINA stated during The Zach Sang Show, “The trick of the patriarchy is to make you think that your value disappears after you’re, like, not deemed ‘attractive.’ But you look at these older women and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s when they actually step into their power.’ So, like, that’s what’s waiting for you on the other side. And it’s just such a shame that that’s kind of, like, covered with this superficial thing. This idea that we think wrinkles equals ‘not beautiful.’”
Of course, MARINA still struggles with “fully letting go” of the indoctrination that comes not just with being a regular “adult girl,” but one who has worked in “the industry” for years. So it is that she admitted during her Eat the World Q&A in London that she wouldn’t necessarily rule out Botox, etc., what with even the steeliest force not being immune to the pressures of Hollywood. But even so, turning forty this year forced her to ask the question (also on The Zach Sang Show), “How do I wanna feel as I get older?” Answering herself with, “I don’t wanna feel ashamed about it, I don’t wanna feel like I have to hang on to youth. I want to have the same space that men are given to age. And I also wanna accrue all the positive things that men do, which is wisdom, knowledge, respect, power. And I think we’re in such a perfect place for that to be in motion.”
Alas, she seems to be more than slightly overlooking the fact that it’s not in motion at all, but rather, at a simultaneous standstill/in a time machine going backward. This much made evident by the current U.S. administration, as well as Taylor Swift’s tradwife-touting The Life of a Showgirl (which, yes, is ironic, considering the life of a showgirl should come across as being way more freeing and salacious).
And one supposes that this is what makes a pop star like MARINA so important at this particular moment in time. A woman who is in total control of herself (without using horrifying terms like “girlboss”), freely pronounces that she’s fine being perennially single and conscientiously child-free. She is a woman who insists, “Spread me like a picnic on the floor in the forest/‘Cause I don’t wanna live if I can’t be honest.”
Right now, the honest truth for MARINA is this: “I don’t think older women get celebrated enough. And now that I’m… ‘ta-ta-ing’ to youth and, like, waving goodbye to it, I was, like, what is my future?” If 2024’s Eat the World and this year’s Princess of Power are to be consistent benchmarks that foretell what it might be (at least creatively speaking), MARINA’s looks very promising/embracing of her age and whatever comes with it—physically and emotionally. Which means that she’s establishing a healthy example for those pop stars coming up in the present, arguably being the first truly modern woman to do so.
Back in 2020 (that ominous year), MARINA found it to be the perfect time to release “Man’s World,” the first single from what would become her fifth album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. While the latter didn’t come out until 2021, “Man’s World” set the tone for the overall theme of the record—which was that man had fucked the world over. And how that fucking was a large part of the catalyst for the pandemic. After all, were it not for men’s corporate greed, surely the destruction of so many animals’ natural habitats wouldn’t occur. And, in turn, wouldn’t lead to the unnatural commingling of animals in human environments in such a way as to create novel viruses.
To that point, MARINA works her chorus around the idea that living in a man’s world (with its associated patriarchal values still firmly in place) is the direct cause of Mother Nature’s relentless destruction. A phrase that functions to mean both 1) humans are destroying her and 2) in response, she is destroying them. So it is that MARINA sings, “Mother Nature’s dying, nobody’s keeping score/I don’t wanna live in a man’s world anymore.” Granted, the only thing anyone is keeping score of is how much profit they’re making from the carnage they’ve wrought upon the environment. The excess packaging, the amount of fossil fuel emissions for shipping, the fast fashion throwaways transforming into non-biodegradable piles in places that should be inhabitable but soon will not be. Et cetera.
All of this is to say that MARINA paints a far more effective and meaningful picture of what it would mean to live in a woman’s world—a matriarchy—by describing the current bleak portrait of a man’s world than Katy Perry does in her lifeless touting of how great women are and that everyone is, in fact, already living in a woman’s world. But obviously, that’s not so.
If it were, perhaps a man like Dr. Luke wouldn’t be able to freely continue producing “hits” like Perry’s latest single despite his reputation for being an abuser. Whether or not one believes his abuse was sexual (since women are not to be believed, right?), there’s no denying, at the very least, its verbal toxicity in relation to Kesha, the inaugural artist he “took under his wing” in order to solidify a reputation for “nurturing” talent. This would also extend to Perry, whose first major hit, “I Kissed A Girl,” was produced by Dr. Luke. Along with “Hot N Cold,” the second official single from Perry’s “debut” (if you don’t count Katy Hudson), One of the Boys. An album title, incidentally, that feels as though it’s come back to bite her in the ass, considering how much it applies to the notion of continuing to work with someone who has been called out for his long-standing inappropriate behavior. And how much Perry represents a version of “the divine feminine” that is in keeping with pandering to the male gaze.
There is no better example of that than the video for “Woman’s World,” all part of her latest attempt at a “comeback.” But whoever dealt with the “brainstorming mood boards” and marketing aspects was perhaps too chickenshit to inform Perry that things have changed quite a bit since the last time she released an album, already four years ago (like “Man’s World,” Smile came out in 2020). And, even at that time, Perry’s rhetoric wasn’t striking much of a chord with listeners, with the album barely selling fifty thousand copies in its first week. Compared to the Perry “heyday” of Teenage Dream and even Prism, that was a long way to fall. And, in 2024, it seems Perry still has the mentality of Beyoncé’s approach to feminism circa 2014. Which means, essentially, shouting a lot of hollow, generic phrases (e.g. “She’s a winner, champion/Superhuman, number one/She’s a sister, she’s a mother”—except, like, what if she’s not?) and dressing up as Rosie the Riveter (yes, something Beyoncé also did in 2014).
Even if one could try to get behind Perry’s hackneyed form of feminism (white feminism, mind you), there is still the atrocious video to get over. One that portrays Perry in a porn fantasy-style version of Rosie the Riveter, complete with her “seductive” wielding of the drill she has in her hand. Contrast this against the ethereal, goddess-coded video for “Man’s World,” and the messaging divide between the two songs is even more marked. With the latter genuinely embracing the notion of a “woman’s world” and the former effectively upholding the status quo of a man’s world in terms of how they want to see women presented in it (that is, if they “must” be). So while MARINA frolics serenely through nature in loose-fitting fabrics with women and men of all different shapes and backgrounds, Perry reinforces the chasm between the sexes with her “us versus them” presentation, rounded out by that presentation being exactly what’s supposed to get an “average straight man” off. This also includes reiterating the trope that it can be a “woman’s world” even if still mirroring the same shit that’s been happening in a patriarchy for centuries.
Of course, with the true change that would arrive in a “woman’s world,” misogynistic men surely wouldn’t be happy. And yes, the most basic step toward that change is admitting this still is a man’s world—something the aforementioned Beyoncé didn’t want to admit either when she released “Run the World (Girls).” MARINA does that both deftly and poetically when she phrases the need for change like this: “If you have a mother/Daughter or a friend/Maybe it is time/Time you comprehend/The world that you live in/Ain’t the same one as them/So don’t punish me/For not being a man.” In the span of this three-minute, twenty-eight-second call to action, MARINA even manages to broach the unpleasant subject of female subjugation throughout history, singing, “Clouds in the whites of our eyes, we saw it all/Burnt me at the stake, you thought I was a witch/Centuries ago, now you just call me a bitch.”
Conversely, the “best” Perry can come up with (along with one of her chauvinistic co-writers, Dr. Luke) is the totally vacant lines, “Sexy, confident/So intelligent/She is heaven-sent/So soft, so strong.” This being about the only verse that deviates from the half-hearted chorus, “It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be livin’ in it/You better celebrate/‘Cause, baby, we ain’t goin’ away/It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be livin’ in it.” Perhaps Perry feels that if she keeps repeating it, it might come true.
But perhaps the next time she considers “writing” a “feminist anthem,” she might want to consult with MARINA, who clearly knows how to do the damn thing (complete with actually having the song produced by Jennifer Decilveo—you know, a woman).
As two pop stars often compared on a vocal level, it’s also no surprise that Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande tend to have overlapping themes in their music. Indeed, Carpenter even opened for Grande on 2017’s Dangerous Woman Tour (specifically for the Brazil dates that occurred after the illustrious Manchester Arena bombing). At that time, Carpenter had only released two albums, Eyes Wide Open and Evolution (Grande herself just had three, rounded out by Dangerous Woman).
A year after the tour (which she cherished enough to decorate her couch with an Ariana Grande pillow so as to commemorate the momentousness of the event), Carpenter would release her “companion piece albums,” Singular: Act I and Singular: Act II. This “set” would signal her full-tilt sonic transition on 2022’sEmails I Can’t Send, which saw her shift away entirely from the country twang that still occasionally came out in the years since singles like “We’ll Be the Stars.” The same kind of twang that Taylor Swift eventually chose to shed as well. But it was a more Miley Cyrus-inspired twang that Carpenter possessed—which is perhaps what helped her to win third place in The Next Miley Cyrus Project back in 2009, six years before the release of Eyes Wide Open.
However, many seem to have forgotten that Christina Aguilera—far more than Taylor or Miley—is Carpenter’s key musical influence. And that shines through in the vocals she’s presented over the years. Aguilera’s voice has the kind of signature pitch that Mariah Carey is frequently praised for (though, of course, MC would likely mention that she has a five-octave vocal range compared to Xtina’s four-octave one). Grande has the same octave range as Aguilera, yet is most often compared to Carey. A comparison she’s more than taken a shine to in her collaborations with “The Diva” in recent years (including working on a remix of “Oh Santa!” that she performed with Carey for Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special in 2020). The latest being a remix of “yes, and?” that’s, believe it or not, far inferior to the original. In any case, perhaps Carpenter’s comparisons to Grande (particularly in the wake of “nonsense”) ought to be flattering to the latter—after all, she’s not that much older than the blonde Pennsylvanian (a description that also applies to Aguilera), but is already being considered worthy of such an elevated “mentor status.”
Alas, that mentorship came too late in terms of Grande providing inspiration to Carpenter on how to treat accusations of being a homewrecker. Something that was hurled at her in the wake of Olivia Rodrigo’s debut hit single, “drivers license,” in 2021. As Carpenter retells it on “because i liked a boy,” “I got death threats fillin’ up semi-trucks/Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked a boy.” She also points out the fact that it’s all a little bit silly considering she wasn’t even dating Joshua Bassett (the ultimately gay dude who caused all this commotion) anymore when Rodrigo dropped her hit. Hence, her addition to the chorus: “And all of this for what?/When everything went down, we’d already broken up/Please tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked a boy.” And “who she is” to the Olivia fans who were scandalized by her “stealin’ from the young” (side note: Rodrigo is a mere four years younger than Carpenter) is a “homewrecker” and a “slut.” These being the labels Carpenter attaches to herself throughout the song, choosing to wear them like scarlet As (in fact, she said Easy A—not, say, The Scarlet Letter—was the vibe she was channeling for the track).
In contrast, after being accused of actually breaking up a home (namely, Lilly Jay’s home with Ethan Slater), Grande came at the mass of criticism and online hate with the simple and effective clapback, “yes, and?” While Carpenter chose to emulate a more Britney Spears in the “Circus” video route for the visual that accompanied “because i liked a boy,” Grande put a face to shrugging off outside contempt by paying homage to, of all things, the Paula Abdul video for “Cold Hearted.” But the nod to this Abdul video wasn’t as random as some might think, for the original sees a slew of “record company executives” arrive to effectively critique what Abdul has been working on. In the same vein, Grande labels her version of record company executives simply as “The Critics.” Inviting them into her “art space” with open arms as she proceeds to then tell them, “Now I’m so done with caring/What you think, no, I won’t hide/Underneath your own projections/Or change my most authentic life.”
She then urges others who have been mercilessly criticized for their actions, like Carpenter, to “come on, put your lipstick on (no one can tell you nothin’)/Come on and walk this way through the fire (don’t care what’s on their mind)/And if you find yourself in a dark situation/Just turn on your light and be like/‘Yes, and?’/Say that shit with your chest, and/Be your own fuckin’ best friend.”
It’s a sharp departure from the much more self-pitying tack Carpenter takes with her go-to lyrics, “Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked/I’m the hot topic on your tongue/I’m a rebound gettin’ ’round stealin’ from the young/Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked a boy.” Elsewhere in the song, Carpenter is sure to downplay and diminish the relationship she had with Bassett as one of pure innocence (or, as she sings, “Fell so deeply into it/It was all so innocent”), as though making certain that all her detractors retroactively know that nothing “untoward” happened. Save for “cuddling on trampolines,” “bond[ing] over Black Eyed Peas” and “tryna hold you close while your heart was failing.” All platonic enough, surely.
Grande, conversely, wants to see to it that her detractors know she doesn’t give one goddamn what they think. To more “zen-ly” get that message across, Grande pronounces, “My tongue is sacred, I speak upon what I like/Protected, sexy, discerning with my time, my time/Your energy is yours and mine is mine/What’s mine is mine.” The reemphasis on that last line also seems to be a direct reference to Slater, who she now openly declares to be “hers.” She appears to double down on that message with another song on eternal sunshine titled “the boy is mine.” Making no apologies whatsoever for her “outrageous” behavior, Grande further goads, “My face is sitting, I don’t need no disguise/Don’t comment on my body, do not reply/Your business is yours and mine is mine/Why do you care so much whose dick I ride?/Why?”
These are questions that Carpenter could have just as easily posed to the Livies that were out for blood in the wake of “drivers license” reigniting the many suspicions about Carpenter “stealing” Bassett away from Rodrigo (a speculation that was further propelled by Rodrigo’s “traitor” lyrics, “You’d talk to her/When we were together/Loved you at your worst/But that didn’t matter/It took you two weeks/To go off and date her/Guess you didn’t cheat/But you’re still a traitor”).
Alas, Grande hadn’t yet released “yes, and?” to light the way for how to deal with being called a homewrecker and a slut. Marina and the Diamonds, however, had already released “Homewrecker” in 2012, gleefully touting the right approach and attitude for handling naysayers with the assertion: “And I don’t belong to anyone/They call me homewrecker, homewrecker (I’m only happy when I’m on the run)/They call me homewrecker, homewrecker (I broke a million hearts just for fun).”
It’s one of the most iconic opening lines of any hit song: “Wake up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy.” When Kesha first came up with it back in 2009, the comparison seemed “harmless” enough. After all, women (especially white women) wanting to be as “badass” as men was a particular motif of the 2000s. That “Tik Tok” would be released just before the decade closed out was telling of how much it ultimately belonged in that time frame. Particularly after the revelations about Diddy (formerly P. Diddy, formerly Puff Daddy) and, among other things, the sex trafficking operation he’s cultivated over the years.
The entire dam was initially opened when Diddy’s ex-girlfriend, Cassie, sued him for sexual assault in late 2023. At that time, in fact, Kesha opted to change the lyric while performing it live during the Only Love Tour. Her quick fix?: “Wake up in the morning feelin’ just like me.” After all, how could someone like Kesha not stand in solidarity with a fellow victim of abuse? And yes, “sexual assault” seems like far too general (and gentle) a term for some of the things he did to Cassie, which included forcing her to have sex with other women (specifically, sex workers) in different cities while he filmed it and masturbated.
Similar claims subsequently came from producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who has recently filed his own lawsuit against the disgraced rapper for coercing him into having sex with sex workers, in addition to being at risk of “constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping” by Diddy. Among other allegations laid out in the lawsuit are the mention of parties—which were, of course, attended by underage girls—where Diddy would lace alcohol with drugs for his sinister purposes and sexual power plays. So yeah, maybe waking up in the morning and feeling like P. Diddy isn’t the greatest look (or lyric) anymore. Because what kind of person wants to feel like such a piece of shit after what they did the previous night? Then again, what makes a true piece of shit is that they feel no remorse for their actions at all.
As the meme momentum gathers about Kesha and her now illustrious “Tik Tok” lyric (this includes the monkey meme positioned as a reaction to that particular line), one wonders if Kesha herself, as someone who suffered through her own abuser (who need not be named at this point), might soon feel inclined to make an official amendment to the song by re-recording it. But something squeaky clean that still rhymes (e.g., “Wake up in the morning feelin’ like so pretty”) inarguably alters the entire tone of the track, which is one of the peak examples of what is now more than somewhat vexingly referred to as sleazecore. Thus, on the one hand, leaving the P. Diddy mention is a careful preservation of 00s heritage. A way to maintain the reminder that there are many things about that decade that aren’t worth getting wistful over, or nostalgic about. That, while it was easy to romanticize abusive men (and abusive male behavior in general) then, it is no longer so easy to do so now.
For Kesha to have envisioned “being a G” after a night of partying to equate with being like P. Diddy is also a reflection of women’s attitudes and more pronounced internalized misogyny during that period. Another prime example being Marina and the Diamonds’ (before she became simply MARINA) “Girls,” first released in 2009 (just as “Tik Tok” was) and featured on her 2010 debut, The Family Jewels. It only took about a year for MARINA to look back on it and realize how misogynistic it might come across. A rallying cry against “basic” (read: hot and looks-obsessed) women that was liable to brand her as a “pick me” in future years (the same way Pink would be for 2006’s “Stupid Girls”).
Indeed, even after she first mentioned it being problematic in 2011, she brought it up during a 2021 interview when asked about the songs she would likely never perform again live, calling “Girls” just “very 2009” in its misogynistic sentiments, including, “Look like a girl, but I think like a guy/Not ladylike to behave like a slime/Easy to be sleazy when you’ve got a filthy mind” and “Girls, they never befriend me/‘Cause I fall asleep when they speak/Of all the calories they eat/All they say is, ‘Na-na-na-na-na.’”
One can’t imagine that Kesha would ever do that (i.e., cease performing it) with “Tik Tok,” knowing full well that it’s one of her fans’ favorites (along with other Dr. Luke-era fare such as “Blow,” “Your Love Is My Drug,” “We R Who We R” and “Die Young”). Which again brings up the question of whether or not, as the R. Kelly-esque scandals in Diddy’s closet continue to come out, Kesha will buckle under the pressure and alter the lyrics in a more official capacity as a means to “not trigger anyone” going forward.
Obviously, “Tik Tok” isn’t the first song in recent years to be given a retroactive “ick factor” after a public figure was effectively canceled. And at least 1) Kesha herself isn’t the reason for its cancellation and 2) the single had more longevity before certain “unmaskings” occurred—far more years of guilt-free airplay/streaming than, say, “Pink” by Lizzo, which features prominently in the opening scene of Barbie. But it’s not like that song slapped nearly as hard as “Tik Tok,” so it didn’t feel like any big loss. With this, however, it just goes to show that referencing “lotharios” (read: predatory assholes) in music is not without its unique set of risks.
It is an increasingly “grand tradition” in the genre of songwriting. Not to mention a rite of passage for any major pop star who stirs up enough controversy. That tradition being to “clapback” at the faceless blob known as “The Critics” (though some are simply trying to treat art with the seriousness it should be imbued with—but try telling that to a stan, or a celebrity as convinced of her perfection as Lana Del Rey). With Ariana Grande’s lead single from Eternal Sunshine, “yes, and?,” she revives this grand tradition with the help of the inspiration that came from being, let’s just say it, a homewrecker (a song title that’s already been used, to memorable effect, by Marina and the Diamonds [now MARINA], and appears on the list below). Repurposing the narrative to her benefit with a song that takes ownership of loving a certain babyface ginger dick, Ethan Slater. Best known, that’s right, for his portrayal of SpongeBob SquarePants in the musical of the same name (Grande always has a fetish for the wiry, slightly gay types).
While “yes, and?” can’t quite surpass a track like Madonna’s “Human Nature” in terms of its stinging qualities against the critics (e.g., “I’m not your bitch/Don’t hang your shit on me”), it’s definitely become instantly “up there” among the ranks of iconic clapbacks in song form. Below are a few other noteworthy ones from the past few decades, in no particular order.
“shut up” by Ariana Grande:Obviously no stranger to criticism by the time 2020’s Positions rolled around, it was fitting that Grande should kick off that album with the saucy “shut up.” A clear message to critics, tabloid headlines and online trolls alike, Grande’s directive was simple: “You know you sound so dumb (so dumb, so dumb, so dumb)/So maybe you should shut up/Yeah maybe you should shut up.” Elsewhere, she points out that those who tend to criticize tend to have the most time on their hands and are also plenty criticizable themselves. Thus, she adds, “How you been spendin’ you time?/How you be usin’ your tongue?/You be so worried ‘bout mine/Can’t even get yourself none.” That line about “using one’s tongue” also foreshadowed the lyric from “yes, and?” that goes, “My tongue is sacred/I speak upon what I like.” Because, apparently, it’s only okay when Ari does that, not critics.
“Without Me” by Eminem: Released as the lead single from Eminem’s fourth album, The Eminem Show, “Without Me” was a sequel, of sorts, to “The Real Slim Shady” from 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP. By 2002, when The Eminem Show came out, Eminem was, even more than Grande, extremely well-versed in being caught in the melee of critics’ and politicians’ contempt. Not to mention the fellow celebrities/public figures Eminem was wont to name-check in his songs. In “Without Me,” that includes Dick and Lynne Cheney, Elvis Presley, Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC, Limp Bizkit, Moby and Obie Trice (though Obie is only mentioned in reference to “stomping” on Moby). More than anything, however, Eminem’s intent is to remind all of his detractors how “empty” it would feel without him in the music industry. Hence, the earworm of a chorus, “Now, this looks like a job for me/So everybody, just follow me/‘Cause we need a little controversy/‘Cause it feels so empty without me.” The accompanying video portraying Eminem as a superhero rather than a villain only added to the efficacy of his jibe at critics.
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Sinead O’Connor: Although “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the second single from I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, is about many things, one of its most fundamental verses is peak “clapback at the critics,” of which there were already many—especially in conservative Catholic Ireland—at the time of O’Connor’s second record release. The verse in question goes: “There’s millions of people/Who offer advice and say how I should be/But they’re twisted and they will never be/Any influence on me/But you will always be/You will always be.” In this way, O’Connor insists that the public perception or criticism of her will never matter—only the opinion and viewpoint of the one she truly loves (at that time, producer John Reynolds) will. The video for the song also heightens the notion of O’Connor continuing to perform however she wants to and say whatever she wants to as its entire premise is just her dancing and singing onstage in front of an expectedly judgmental crowd.
“Human Nature” by Madonna: The occasional Sinead adversary, Madonna, brought listeners the inarguable mack daddy of all clapback songs in 1994, with the release of Bedtime Stories (still among one of Madonna’s most underrated records). A direct reference to her treatment and the general slut-shaming that occurred during her Sex book and Erotica era, Madonna wanted to remind critics that she may have forgiven, but she didn’t forget. As the fourth and final single from the album, “Human Nature” differed from the previous singles (including “Secret,” “Take A Bow” and “Bedtime Story”) in that it deliberately sought to remind listeners and critics alike that, despite presenting a “softer side” for this record, the defiant, devil-may-care Madonna was still there. Ready to pounce—and in a black latex bodysuit, too. For just as iconic as the song itself was the Jean-Baptiste Mondino-directed video, awash in S&M aesthetics inspired by Eric Stanton. As Madonna herself said of the track, “The song is about, um, basically saying, ‘Don’t put me in a box, don’t pin me down, don’t tell me what I can and can’t say and it’s about breaking out of restraints.” The restraints that critics have, so often, foolishly tried to place on Madonna.
“Like It Or Not” by Madonna: By 2005, Madonna had more than just the usual critics on her back. After turning forty-seven, Madonna kept pushing the so-called limits of pop stardom by daring to keep not only releasing records and performing live, but still dressing “too scantily” “for her age.” Complete with the leotards and fishnets that characterized her Confessions on a Dance Floor period. Fittingly, “Like It Or Not” served as the finale to the record, with Madonna promising her detractors, “This is who I am/You can like it or not/You can love me or leave me/‘Cause I’m never gonna stop.” Turns out, she might have been directing those comments at Guy Ritchie as well.
“Vulgar” by Sam Smith and Madonna: In case you couldn’t tell by now, Madonna is not just the Queen of Pop but clearly the Queen of the Clapback—as further evidenced by this modern update to the content and attitude of “Human Nature.” Sam Smith and Madonna came together for this song after the latter’s condemnation for her appearance (too obviously riddled with plastic surgery—that was the usual critique) at the 2023 Grammys and after Smith, too, was criticized for his increasingly “fat” and “effete” appearance during the Gloria album rollout and the according visuals that came with it (including the video for “Unholy”—during which Smith is dressed in some very Madonna-as-Dita attire). Teaming up to hit back at those who would try to keep them down (even though Madonna has far more experience with that than Smith), the duo triumphantly announces, “Got nothing left to prove/You know you’re beautiful when they call you/Vulgar/I do what I wanna/I go when I gotta/I’m sexy, I’m free and I feel, uh/Vulgar.”
“Your Early Stuff” by Pet Shop Boys: The Madonna-adjacent (in terms of gay fanbase, musical stylings and coming up in the 80s) Pet Shop Boys also know a thing or two about being critiqued. Especially when it comes to the main criticism being that they’ve been around “too long.” As though an artist should simply pack it in because some arcane alarm clock goes off in their head about being “too old” to continue when, the reality is, true artists keep creating art until the day they die. Featured on 2012’s Elysium (the duo’s eleventh album), Neil Tennant had no trouble writing the song as, per his own words, “Every single line in that song, every single thing has been said to me.” This includes such backhanded “compliments” as, “You’ve been around but you don’t look too rough/And I still quite like some of your early stuff/It’s bad in a good way, if you know what I mean/The sound of those old machines” and “Those old videos look pretty funny/What’s in it for you now, need the money?/They say that management never used to pay/Honestly, you were ripped off back in the day.” Unlike the other songs on this list, “Your Early Stuff” is perhaps most unique for stemming directly from the criticisms of the common people, as opposed to more ivory tower-y, “legitimate” critics.
“URL Badman” by Lily Allen: Another British addition to the list, this still too-untreasured gem from Lily Allen’s equally untreasured Sheezus record, “URL Badman” is Allen at her most delightfully snarky (which is saying something, as she she’s quite gifted with snark). Taking little boys who write for the likes of Complex and Vice (RIP, but that’s karma) to task, Allen speaks from the myopic perspective of the URL Badman in question, declaring, “It’s not for me, it must be wrong/I could ignore it and move on/But I’m a broadband champion/A URL badman,” also adding, “And if you’re tryna call it art/I’ll have to take it all apart/I got a high-brow game plan/A URL badman/I’m a U-R-L-B-A-D-M-A-N with no empathy.” This speaking to the crux of how musicians feel about critics in general.
“Attention” by Doja Cat: Released as the lead single from Scarlet, Doja Cat’s mountains of controversy had piled up significantly by 2023, chief among them being her blithe defense of dating a white supremacist/sexual abuser and her venomous attack against her own fanbase, who she told to “get a job”—the usual dig made by people who think paid time for unsatisfying labor is supposed to make you a more worthwhile person on this planet (hence, “Billie Eilish Is A Jobist”). “Attention” paired well with this rash of events, with Doja Cat creepily talking about some invisible monster (perhaps what Lady Gaga would call “the fame monster” inside of her) that needs the attention, not her. It’s a very, “That wasn’t me, that was Patricia” defense, and maybe “Scarlet” is the easier part of herself to blame for needing her ego to be fed. Nonetheless, she still demands of the critics, “Look at me, look at me, you lookin’?” later mocking them with the verse, “I readed all the comments sayin’, ‘D, I’m really shooketh,’ ‘D, you need to see a therapist, is you lookin’?’/Yes, the one I got, they really are the best/Now I feel like I can see you bitches is depressed/I am not afraid to finally say shit with my chest.” Obviously, that last line sounds familiar thanks to appearing in the chorus of Grande’s “yes, and?” when she urges, “Yes, and?/Say that shit with your chest.” In another moment of skewering the critics, Doja Cat balks, “Talk your shit about me, I can easily disprove it, it’s stupid/You follow me, but you don’t really care about the music.”
“Taco Truck x VB” by Lana Del Rey: Lana Del Rey has often felt similarly. And, like Sinead O’Connor’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” it’s one verse in particular that makes Del Rey’s lengthy “Taco Truck x VB” (the “VB” being an abbreviation for a previously unreleased version of Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”) stand out as a clapback track. The one that shrugs, “Spin it till you whip it into white cream, baby/Print it into black and white pages don’t faze me/Before you talk, let me stop what you’re saying/I know, I know, I know that you hate me.” And just like that, Del Rey dismisses all responsibility for dubious behavior….like wearing a Native American headdress, posing a non sequitur “question for the culture,” posting unblurred-out videos of black and brown protesters/looters during the BLM of summer 2020 or insisting she’s not racist because she’s dated plenty of rappers (on a side note: no one knows who she might be talking about apart from white “rapper” G-Eazy).
“Homewrecker” by Marina and the Diamonds: Even if Marina Diamandis a.k.a. Marina and the Diamonds a.k.a. MARINA is singing from the perspective of her alter ego, Electra Heart, 2012’s “Homewrecker” is still plenty viable as a clapback song. And it definitely ties into Ariana Grande’s overarching theme on “yes, and?,” which is a direct addressment of the critics who have called her, that’s right, homewrecker. Opening with the tongue-in-cheek lyrics, “Every boyfriend is the one/Until otherwise proven…/And love it never happens like you think it really should,” MARINA paints the picture of a woman who won’t be torn down by the slut-shaming insults lobbied against her. Besides, as she announces (in the spirit of Holly Golightly), “And I don’t belong to anyone/They call me homewrecker, homewrecker.” She gets even cheekier when she adds, “I broke a million hearts just for fun” and “I guess you could say that my life’s a mess/But I’m still lookin’ pretty in this dress.” This latter line reminding one of Grande’s lyric on “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” “You got me misunderstood/But at least I look this good.”
“Piece of Me” by Britney Spears: No stranger to being called a homewrecker herself after getting together with Kevin Federline in 2004, when Shar Jackson was pregnant with his second child, Spears was already jaded about critical lambastings by 2007. And “Piece of Me” was the only appropriate response to all the scrutiny (especially after Spears was reamed for her performance of “Gimme More” at the 2007 VMAs). Thus, she unleashed it as the second single from Blackout. Having endured the critical lashings of her every move, 2007 was also the year that Spears famously shaved her head at a Tarzana salon, providing plenty of grist for the tabloid mill. But to her endlessly stalking paparazzi and the various critics, Spears roared back, “You want a piece of me?/I’m Mrs. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous/I’m Mrs. Oh My God That Britney’s Shameless/I’m Mrs. Extra! Extra! This Just In!/You want a piece of me/I’m Mrs. She’s Too Big Now She’s Too Thin.” So apropos to her entire existence in the spotlight, Spears’ Vegas residency would end up being called that as well—a heartbreaking choice considering how many pieces her family took of her to make her endure that ceaseless run of performances.
“Rumors” by Lindsay Lohan: Inarguably Lindsay Lohan’s only solid contribution to the music business, “Rumors” embodies the apex of 00s tabloid culture, awash in all the language of voyeurism (“I can see that you’re watchin’ me/And you’re probably gonna write what you didn’t see”). And Lohan made the mistake of releasing it slightly before she would really be turned into a tabloid/late night talk show joke. This stemming from her overt dependency on drugs and alcohol at a time when a movie titled Herbie: Fully Loaded was going to come out. Cue all the obvious jibes. If only “Rumors” had been released just a year later to secure maximum impact as a defense for her clubbing/party girl behavior. Even so, it remains what RuPaul would call safe as part of the clapback canon.
“Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X featuring Jack Harlow: In 2021, Lil Nas X came under fire by Nike for selling a limited run of Satan Shoes featuring the famous swoosh logo with the help of MSCHF, an art collective based in Brooklyn. Nike sued for trademark infringement, prompting Lil Nas X to create quite the tailored concept for the premise of the “Industry Baby” video (with the title sardonically alluding to the insult “industry plant”). Incidentally, it was directed by Christian Breslauer, who would also go on to direct Grande’s “yes, and?” video. But Lil Nas X wasn’t just rebelling against the lawsuit, but all of his haters in general, rapping, “You was never really rooting for me anyway/When I’m back up at the top, I wanna hear you say/‘He don’t run from nothin’, dog’/Get your soldiers, tell ’em that the break is over.” And while co-production from Ye (a.k.a. Kanye West) has left some taint on the track, it still packs a punch when it comes to walloping the critics.
“Mean” by Taylor Swift: Probably the most flaccid of the clapback tracks on this list, “Mean” was a direct response to music critic Bob Lefsetz, who reviewed Taylor Swift’s 2010 performance at the Grammys less than favorably. Among some of his more scathing assessments about her off-key performance (made all the more noticeable because she had joined Stevie Nicks onstage) was that she full-stop “can’t sing” and that she had “destroyed her career overnight.” Nostradamus this man is not. But his words clearly stung enough for Swift to include an angry little girl clapback (something that “Look What You Made Me Do” would perfect) on 2010’s Speak Now, released nine months after she performed at the Grammys in January. Which means she found the time to tack “Mean” onto the record for optimal impact. Even so, Lefsetz would rightly note later of the rumors that it was about him and his review, “If this song is really about me, I wish it were better.”
“Not My Responsibility” and “Therefore I Am” by Billie Eilish: The subject of frequent scrutiny, Billie Eilish already has two clapback at the critics songs under her belt and she’s only twenty-two years old. The first “song,” “Not My Responsibility,” wouldn’t really become a song until it appeared on her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, in 2021. Originally created as a short film interlude for her Where Do We Go? World Tour, the song came at a time when Eilish was being constantly called out for being, let’s say, the epitome of a twenty-first century sexless pop star. A direct attack on body- and slut-shaming, Eilish softly states, “I feel you watching always/And nothing I do goes unseen/So while I feel your stares/Your disapproval/Or your sigh of relief/If I lived by them/I’d never be able to move.” This more modern commentary on what criticism in the age of social media can do extends not just to critics, but the legions of online commentators as well. A legion that Eilish also acknowledges on “Therefore I Am,” which was released later in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, ergo Eilish’s ability to film freely in a vacant Glendale Galleria. A privilege the critics she derides would never have access to. Something that shines through in her laughing taunt, “Stop, what the hell are you talking about?/Ha/Get my pretty name out of your mouth/We are not the same with or without/Don’t talk ’bout me like how you might know how I feel/Top of the world, but your world isn’t real/Your world’s an ideal.” Often, an impossible one for anybody to live up to. But such is the complex and isolating nature of being a critic.
Although Romy Madley Croft, better known as the xx’s Romy or just Romy, still has yet to give us that solo album she teased back in 2020, at least she keeps releasing singles to placate listeners until the full-length debut arrives. And it all started with “Lifetime” almost a complete three years ago (a “lifetime” ago, as it were). It was with that specific single that Romy established herself as an artist with a jubilant message to convey. In contrast to much of her work with the xx, there is less a tone of moroseness and more a tone of ebullience in the singles she’s bequeathed us with thus far (e.g. “Lights Out” and “Strong,” both a collaboration with Fred again..). “Enjoy Your Life” proves no exception to the thus far customary rule for Romy’s solo work.
Funnily enough, Romy isn’t the first Brit in recent years to tell us to “Enjoy Your Life.” In 2019, MARINA told us to do the same on Love + Fear. Sure, MARINA is technically Welsh, but it’s all part of the same island. In any case, it seems no coincidence that the shittier things get, the more people want to cling to positivity as best as they can (and, as another British bird from the Spice Girls claimed, “All you need is positivity”). Indeed, it seems positivity is on an upswing despite all evidence displaying that people should feel quite the contrary. Yet it’s all part of human nature, not just in terms of denial as a coping mechanism, but also the idea of “endurance” and “survival.” Because part of being able to endure through nonstop experiences of trauma—both concentrated and collective—is to put a “positive spin” on things. In the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s been: the world got a chance to stop for a moment and “take stock.” Apparently, though, not long enough to realize that the way we exist is fundamentally designed to doom us all. In any case, Romy, just as MARINA before the pandemic hit, doesn’t think that should keep you from having a good time. After all, this life is allegedly the only one we’ve got, so we might as well make the most of it…no matter how objectively shitty it might seem (especially to people who aren’t pop stars).
But, similarly to Romy, MARINA admits that writing her own “Enjoy Your Life” was a way to stave off some of her overarching feelings of negativity, having penned it during a time when she was extremely depressed. During the promotion cycle of Love + Fear, she told Vogue of the song, “I just literally didn’t see the point in life. I didn’t understand what life was about. I definitely felt very depressed and didn’t understand why life was good, literally functioning day-to-day thinking, ‘Just get through today.’” So sure, her lyrics were more of a self-pep talk than anything else, urging her to “enjoy the now” without constantly worrying so much about the future. Appreciate what you have and try to see the beauty in the breakdown, etc. As for Romy’s take on the message, she also presents it with correspondingly upbeat music. And, in contrast to her usual style, she does something a bit different here musically, favoring the sound embodied by 90s dance beats (with help from co-producers Jamie xx, Fred again.. and Stuart Price) while also managing to incorporate Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s “La Vita” into the song (as well as Oby Onyioha’s “funkadelic” “Enjoy Your Life”). In point of fact, it’s Glenn-Copeland who played such a pivotal role in imbuing Romy with any sense of positivity. For, as she remarked of using the sample, “When I heard the line, ‘My mother says to me enjoy your life’… I was speechless. Those few words felt like the most simple and disarming sentence. Ever since I was eleven, I’ve been aware of and drawn to the phrase, life is short. I’ve felt inspired by people who I’ve seen react to this by trying to see the positives in life, even when things are going wrong and times are hard.”
Romy, however, goes on to admit, “As much as I’d love to naturally be one of those people, I’m not always able to do this myself and often get in my own head and my own way, so sometimes a reminder goes a long way. Glenn’s lyrics were a direct connection to what had been a very quiet, private thought. It resonated especially deeply as it is because of my mum passing away when I was eleven that this perspective on living life was even a part of me.” Incidentally, Glenn-Copeland also adds in his song that, “La vita è dolce” a.k.a. “Life is sweet.” Even if bittersweet (as The Verve knows). That much is unwittingly captured in the accompanying video. Directed by Romy’s wife, Vic Lentaigne, the visuals are clearly personal. Hence, the “vintage home movie” effect often incorporated into it (look out, Lana Del Rey). And then there’s also the images of Romy thumbing through old photo albums when she’s still a child with her mother, in those years before she died. The aching for those memories to be present instead of past is negated by Romy’s insistence upon living exuberantly—what her mother would have wanted for her, to be sure.
Scenes of Romy at the ocean and other various bodies of water play an important role in the baptismal nature of a song such as this. For every time one falls prey to negative thoughts, they can “be born anew” with a positive outlook (in addition to the presence of dogs, many dogs)…no matter how ephemeral it may be. Of course, with existence itself being so ephemeral, it doesn’t really matter much to the universe what “state” you decide to be in from one day to the next. All Romy can say is that, “I hope this song celebrates and shares the words that Glenn said so beautifully and my reaction to it and hopefully uplifts a dancefloor along the way,” adding, “I hope you know I would never want to tell anyone how to feel or to pretend to feel good when they don’t, I know how that feels.” Thus, “Enjoy Your Life” is more of a gentle reminder on Romy’s part than a “dancefloor edict,” if you will.
And, talking of the dancefloor, it appears several times throughout the video, with Romy interspersing these moments amid scenes of her driving along (in the passenger seat) with the wind blowing in her hair or riding on a boat or soaking up the sun on the beach (a moment that comes full-circle when a photo of Romy’s own mother doing the same appears at the end). There are times when Romy herself is the architect of fun on that dancefloor, playing DJ in a far more adept way than Paris Hilton. Like Robyn once said in a song title, Romy finds herself “dancing on my own again/Anxiety, my old friend/Since when will you try something new?” That “something new” being to enjoy her life and embrace whatever comes her way with a positive attitude. After all, as she says in the song, “I made a promise to my mother/To stop running from my problems.”
Or, as MARINA phrased it, “Sit back and enjoy your problems/You don’t always have to solve them.” The world has clearly taken this approach to heart as everyone sits back and watches it burn, resigned to the day when it might finally explode. So yes, why not just enjoy your life while it lasts? God or whoever knows that generations after this probably won’t be able to delude themselves as easily…or perhaps they will because “shite” will be all they’ve ever known.
While everyone had assumed that 1) Putin would never dare to actually invade Ukraine and that 2) if he did, it would never go on this long, they were all mistaken on both counts. As of March 27th, it is three-hundred and ninety-seven days into the invasion, and talk of nuclear war only continues to mount. Especially as Putin speaks of storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a maneuver that has been deemed a way to take said country as a “nuclear hostage” to the whims of the dictator swinging his “missile” around as leverage. By stationing missiles there, not only is Belarus a hostage, but the rest of the world becomes a prisoner to the irascibility of a man who wants to be able to constantly have the threat of “the button” on his side. And yet, when so many men in the past, including Putin contemporaries Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, have made this threat only as a means to “flex,” it becomes a case of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”—not that anyone has a problem with that in this scenario. It’s just that, the more a threat like this is made, the more idle it becomes. For one has to be willing to be insane enough to know that in pressing the button, they’re effectively kamikazeing themselves.
Although everyone loves to condemn a baby boomer, it has to be said that no one knows better than said generation what it means to live under the anxieties of ceaseless nuclear threat. Ergo, the pervasiveness of music centered on the topic in the boomer heyday. Whether Sheldon Allman’s “Crawl Out Through the Fallout” and “Radioactive Mama,” Ian Campbell’s “The Sun Is Burning” (also covered by Simon & Garfunkel), The Fugs’ “Kill For Peace,” Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” or Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Wooden Ships,” there was no shortage of grandiose numbers or “little ditties” about the subject matter. Some used music to make light of the situation as best they could. This included Allman, who sings on “Radioactive Mama,” “Well, when we get together, clear away the crowd/There won’t nothing left except a mushroom-shaped cloud.” Allman also adds, “Your kisses do things to me in oh so many ways/I feel them going through me, all those gamma, gamma rays.” Because if we can’t joke about things like this, then honestly, how are we supposed to get through it?
The thing is, being out of the boomer era and on to a new one where everything is a potential source of offense, it would be unfathomable for songs like Allman’s to be released today. Including “Crawl Out Through the Fallout,” wherein he sardonically urges, “Crawl out through the fallout, baby/To my loving arms/Through the rain of Strontium-90” and then notes, for good tongue-in-cheek measure, “I’ll love you all your life/Although that may not be too long,” as well as, “Crawl out through the fallout back to me/‘Cause you’ll be the only girl in the world.” And no, this certainly isn’t what Rihanna had in mind when she said, “Want you to make me feel like I’m the only girl in the world.” Indeed, by the time the 2010s rolled around, nuclear war had become a far less chic topic in music, having reached a crescendo in the 1980s with singles such as Blondie’s “Atomic,” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” Rush’s “Between the Wheels” and Ultravox’s “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.”
With the 80s seeing the greatest spike in Cold War tensions of the twentieth century, things calmed down (or at least pretended to) in the decades beyond. Perhaps so much so that musicians forgot altogether how terrifying it was for people to live through the perpetual pall of nuclear war’s dark shadow. Hence, while Charli XCX and MARINA use the words “nuclear” and “radioactive” to describe a relationship, they do so with the level of cavalier apathy so often credited to a millennial. At the same time, it was as though they both somehow had their finger on the pulse of what was to come in the next decade, with MARINA’s “Radioactive” appearing on 2012’s Electra Heart and Charli’s “Nuclear Seasons” appearing on 2013’s True Romance. Regardless of the years that each album came out, both singles, eerily enough, were initially released in 2011. What’s more, by putting the songs out during this moment in time, they also had the advantage of doing so when it wasn’t such a “hotbed” issue to wield such terms as metaphors. Which both of them do. For Charli, the “nuclear season” she refers to is a relationship that’s about to blow up as she announces, “We in the nuclear season/In the shelter I’ll survive this though.” Because a fallout shelter remains, evidently, a timeless symbol in our fucked-up world. MARINA, then Marina and the Diamonds, also knew how to brandish the trope in her first single from Electra Heart, singing, “When you’re around me, I’m radioactive/My blood is burning, radioactive/I’m turning radioactive/My blood is radioactive/My heart is nuclear/Love is all that I fear.” Roughly ten years on, however, the thing one ought to fear most is the total lack of potential for love in the world. For there should be no concern on MARINA’s part about love even being an option in this loveless, AI hellscape.
So sure, if baby boomers thought it was bad to grow up being shown the “Duck and Cover” video in elementary school, they can take comfort in knowing that the rest of us are probably worse off for having nuclear war used as love metaphors rather than a legitimate source of concern. In said 1951 informational video from the Federal Civil Defense Administration, Bert the Turtle shows kids “what we all must learn to do.” Which is crawl into our “shells” and hide. The carapace that most white children were expected to have being a fallout shelter. Thus, the narrator assuring the white students watching, “Be sure to get into the house fast, where your parents have fixed a safe place for you to go.”
For those NYC Black kids who were lucky enough, maybe their building had a community fallout shelter in the basement that’s since been converted into a shitty laundry room. Otherwise, it was probably tough titty. For we can’t pretend it’s not part of the racially-prejudiced dictator’s aim to wipe out the marginalized. Which is exactly what would have happened in the 50s and early 60s if a bomb had actually detonated. Because only the white folks were investing in bomb shelters. After all, the financial disparity between white and Black Americans at that time was an even more considerable factor. Not to mention the racially assumptive policies of civil defense that deliberately chose to ignore that people of color did not have the same resources as the “ideal” of the day: the suburban, white, middle-class nuclear (ironic, yes) family.
So maybe it is nice to have Charli and MARINA “equalize” the bomb by making it a love metaphor (and yes, a toxic one). One that redefines what the narrator in “Duck and Cover” says: “The bomb can explode any time of year, day or night.” Yes, the love bomb sure can. Elsewhere, our narrator promises, “Older people will help us, as they always do.” A big presumption that obviously didn’t take into account how selfish the modern adult would become. The narrator makes certain to include the caveat, “But there might not be any grown-ups around when the bomb explodes.”
“Grown-up” (an illusory term) present or not, the idea that ducking and covering was really going to spare anyone from nuclear fallout was both precious and self-deluding—and likely a huge government conspiracy designed to placate the masses. Which is why they could write off nuclear attack as being just another “little danger” to potentially be prepared for as viewers of the video are soothed, “We all know the atomic bomb is very dangerous. Since it may be used against us, we must get ready for it. Just as we are ready for many other dangers that are around us all the time.” No one thought to point out that these dangers (e.g., fires, earthquakes) were not needlessly designed by the government.
And so, even now, we all just keep hoping for the best in terms of how “prepared” we are. That these dictators are merely pathetic man-boys crying wolf, but would never actually greenlight the mushroom cloud. Plus, if no one is around anymore to oppress, where’s the fun in that to a dictator?
