"There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" by Shawn Mendes, Wednesday, October 6, 2021
There was a video I watched that made the case that Britney Spears created the arc of the former teenage pop star. The sweet-to sexy-to diva (minus the conservatorship) has been followed by both female and male stars. We can see a little Britney in Ariana Grande, Lindsey Lohan, Selena Gomez. You could argue that Justin Bieber or (minus the sexy) Disney stars like Shia LaBeouf might fit into that arc. At 18 years of age, Shawn Mendes was one of the biggest teen stars. His second album, Illuminate, became his second album to top the Billboard Hot 100. Yet, as of 2021, the 23-year old star has yet to pull a Britney. In 2016, Brendan Dazen in an article for Her Campus describes Mendes as "A naïve 18 year old who happens to look an Abercrombie model." The author notes that when Mendes turned 18, he became a sex symbol, striking provocative poses in magazines and filming shirtless music videos, but unlike Grande and Spears, Mendes' lyrics aren't overtly sexual. Mendes balances the innocent and the sexual. Even at 23, he's the still the boy next door.
SHE PULLS ME IN ENOUGH TO KEEP ME GUESSING. Upon its release, Illuminate opened with the track "Ruin," which some critics compared to a John Mayer style. Illuminate is full of slow to mid-tempo teenage love songs. In 2017, Mendes released a deluxe edition several new songs and an acoustic version of "Mercy." Rather than putting all the new tracks at the end of the album, "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" opened the record. Critics praised the catchy hook, in which listeners can hear Mendes's vocal chords scratch together at times. The song is about a girlfriend who represents a polar opposite to the shy protagonist. She brings him out of his shell, but she plays coy with him when he finally shows his interest in her. The music video features British actress Ellie Bamber and was filmed in Amsterdam, The UK, and Paris. Though somewhat contradictory in lyrics, the song deals with the theme of young love. A fresh-faced Mendes touting about Europe with a pretty girl makes listeners think that Mendes completely enjoyed this stage of his life. However, he stated that he felt lonely because he was too high profile to date. Some speculation arose that the singer was gay, which he flatly denied. Other than a relationship with Hailey Baldwin, before she married Justin Bieber, the singer's dating life was not publicized until he started dating his Camilla Cabello after collaborating on their duet "Señorita." When Mendes reflected on his status as a sex symbol, he said, "Being a sex symbol isn't cool unless you're in love with a girl, and she calls you a sex symbol."
NOT REALLY INTO HESITATION. "Keep your nose clean." This is the advice my music teacher gave me when she told me the greatest key for building a successful career in music. Of course this was a time when the popular music industry was dirty. When wasn't that time? It wasn't bad advice, but it didn't pan out either. Shawn Mendes is perhaps an excellent example of a star that "kept his nose clean" as he rose to fame. In the early 2010s, it seemed like pop music was all about who could have the most shocking hit. Ke$ha was singing about the wild, drunk nightlife, Lady Gaga was begging to "take a ride on [the listener's] disco stick," Katy Perry was covering up her breasts with cupcakes. And if a song was too clean, Niki Minaj was featured to make it a little nastier. Then there were artists who built careers not exclusively on making the next shock hit. Stars like Carly Rae Jepsen and Taylor Swift were known for their bubblegum pop and mostly good girl images. This isn't to say that artists with "good girl" or "boy next door" vibes never got provocative. It's just that they never aimed at making the next shock-pop hit. In 2019, Mendes continued his sexy brand, joining the #MyCalvins ad campaign, along with Noah Centineo, A$AP Rocky, and Kendall Jenner (which was hilariously parodied by James Corden) to the tune of New Order's "True Faith." Mendes follows in a tradition set by Bieber, Nick Jonas, and Mark Wahlberg. Mendes might be the star to rewrite what it means to be "clean cut." The singer is practically the embodiment of a grown up boy scout, free of scandal and rumors of being a bad person. But this definition of clean cut also allows the singer to show off his six pack, without worrying about destroying his reputation.
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