“Watermelon Sugar,” by Harry Styles, Thursday, May 12, 2022
Released as a single in May of 2020, the second track on Harry Styles' Fine Line, "Watermelon Sugar" was bound to be a hit. The song was saved as the fourth single from Fine Line after the more wintery singles, "Lights Up," "Adore You," and "Falling." Fine Line was already massive before "Watermelon Sugar." It currently holds the record for the biggest sales week of a solo male British singer. And while Styles' rock-influenced eponymous first solo record also topped Billboard's album sales, Fine Line packs a more memorable punch. And it's that sugary, sweet sound that landed the album in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES. If the world had been normal in 2020, "Watermelon Sugar" would have simply been a tasty treat. The pop charts would still have its TikTokers and Doja Cats. He'd still contend with Olivia Rodrigo, and maybe Sam Smith's dark pop album, To Die For, which was later changed to Life Goes, and Lady Gaga's Chromatica would have resinated with a non-Covid world. But "Watermelon Sugar" topped Billboard's Hot 100 in August of 2021, the first Styles single to achieve that feat. The video was filmed in January of 2020 and released in May after being delayed because of the pandemic. The video opens with the words: "this video is dedicated to touching." And there is a lot of touching in the video, starting with Styles touching a slice of watermelon provocatively. The video is highly stylized, mimicking '60s colored film at times. Styles is wearing Gucci's Summer 2020 collection, and he is surrounded by bikini-clad models. Everyone looks like they're having a good time in the summer sun on the beach, enjoying watermelon, getting sticky-wet. And with all of the touching that happens in the video dedicated to touching, the models expressed how careful Styles was to gain consent before touching them.
I JUST WANT TO TASTE IT. "Watermelon Sugar" is a sensuous song. Watching the video and listening to the song you can't help but feel the dripping of sticky fruit juice petering on your chin and falling on your white shirt. I think I felt a strong discomfort to this song when it came out. Yuck. Be more discreet. Don't eat like a child. Of course, no one didn't see that this song was really about sex. But more than it is about sex or a specific act, I think it's about liberation--feeling comfortable enough in your own skin to be seen as dirty without shame. It plays into the aesthetic '60s era Styles is capturing in the sights and sounds of the single. Styles says that the song was partially inspired by the 1968 post-apocalyptic novel In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. The novel is set around a narrator who escapes from a commune to collect "forbidden things." Having not read the novel, I wonder if there are any deep connections with the '60s psychedelic, counter culture movement as shown in the novel and Harry Styles' Fine Line sundry aesthetic. But the theme of "forbidden things" is one that I explore a lot in my blog. Growing up pretty repressed and closeted, expressions of sexuality, both hetero- and homo- caused great embarrassment. I always felt that I was the only one like me and that I had to hide my true feelings about almost everything. But as we get older, we start to care much less about what other people think about us. Yes, we still use napkins, but when you're at a beach party with your loved one(s), you can let the juices drip down your chin.
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