das_jerk

I don't think it can be understated how much of a failure this entire era has been for CC. I am trying to think of an album that had more label support behind it (big budget music videos, high profile features from major stars like Playboi Cart, Drake, Lil Nas X) and still failed so badly. Last night just exemplified that CC lacks star power: her dreary performance seemed so out of place while her apparent rival, Sabrina Carpenter, owned the night - from her super fun performance to winning "Song of the Year." I think if CC has a future it will be as a guest feature on tracks from other stars: she does well in supporting roles, not so much in leading ones.

I like this song a lot but was hoping for a choreo-heavy music video and live performances. Perhaps that will be more along the lines of the second single. Jade is such an amazing performer that it just feels like a waste to not have her promoting the album with some live dance performances. Something like "Sweet Melody." I guess we have to wait...

I just realized that by the time Britney Spears was 23 (AR's current age), she had already released four albums! Astonishing

This song is fantastic. I love the melody and key change, and the title is great. The lyrics are meh but if you're going to do LDR-light this is the way to do it. The music video on the other hand was a real missed opportunity to do something interesting and go viral. The tonal changes just make no sense. Like I think it's fine to mix dark and light, but the goofiness really took me out of it. I think AR still hasn't developed a strong screen presence. It is a lot different to act in a music video than cover TikTok dances. But that is something that can come with time. I really enjoyed her EP and am excited to see where her music goes from here.

I hope this will become the feminist anthem that it is. The video does a great job of depicting how feuds between women are the result of patriarchal structures: men in power pitting women against each other. This is ART

I think its unfortunate that people's frame of reference for popular music is so limited nowadays because this song is literally nothing like a Kpop song. I mean, have you heard many (any?) Kpop songs that criticize the music business... Kpop is defined by pastiche - the piecing together of disparate elements into one song. (Pastiche defines post-modernism and has a long history. Even The Beatles were using such a technique back in the '60a on "A Day in the Life." Kpop didn't invent pastiche, far from it.) The whole point of this song is that the disparate elements all relate: they are meant to represent the highs and lows of success within the exploitative music industry. The parts do not make sense without one another, which is not true of Kpop. This multiplicity is made more evident in the music video which divides the modern pop star into multiple characters, but the whole point is that these women are linked to one another, or more accurately pitted against one another, in competition. So, let's give JADE credit. If this song is not wholly original, it is much more biting and thought provoking and POLITICAL than any Kpop song. An anti-capitalist queen What a debut.

So many people are totally missing context in this thread when comparing Britney and Taylor... I mean just take a look at this table of "fastest-selling albums in America:" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_fastest-selling_albums#United_States 2000, the year that Britney sold 1,319,000 copes of "Oops!... I Did It Again," saw four other albums sell over a million. In fact, Britney had only the fourth highest selling album that year. By contrast, Taylor's "Reputation" will be by far the highest selling album of 2017 (as well as 2016). Moreover, where Britney's "Oops" is an outlier in her career in terms of sales, Taylor's "Reputation" is part of a larger trend that has seen Taylor dominate album sales lists this decade and continually improve on her previous sales. Thus, Taylor's achievement is more impressive because (i) it is more of an outlier in comparison to her contemporaries and (ii) it is part of an unparalleled dominance of the music business. Taylor has dominated the music business for eight years. Something Britney (and Adele, *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, etc.) can not say.