"Sucker" by Jonas Brothers, Tuesday, March 28, 2023

In 2019, The Jonas Brothers broke their nearly six-year hiatus and returned with first the single "Sucker," an album titled Happiness Begins, and an Amazon documentary titled Chasing Happiness. The Jonas Brothers had been a massively successful band in the late '00s and early '10s, but had a niche audience of mostly teenage girls through Radio Disney and Nickelodeon as well as a few Christian radio stations. 

I'M A SUCKER FOR ALL THE SUBLIMINAL THINGS. What was the demand for the reunited Jonas Brothers? Like countless childhood stars from the Disney or Nickelodeon universe, Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas grew out of their tween image. Nick's solo career was the most successful of the brothers, but that success also included acting and modeling and ultimately becoming a thirst-trap for the gay community. The albums X2 and Last Year Was Complicated tackled mature material beyond anything he sang about with his brothers. Similarly, Joe found success with the sexually-themed saccharine hit "Cake By the Ocean" when he formed the band DNCE. Would a reunited Jonas Brothers return to the squeaky clean bubblegum of the band's roots or would the group fully embrace adult themes? The answer was somewhere in the middle. Just as the Brothers had grown up so had their audience. But the re-assembled brother band from New Jersey wasn't just a nostalgia act in the way that Covid band revivals or some TV show reboots only capitalize on the loyalty of old fans. "Sucker" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the first number one in the band's history. 

WE GO TOGETHER BETTER THAN BIRDS OF A FEATHER. Sometimes an artist's name alone can make a number one hit, and when an artist comes back after a long hiatus there can be bump in popularity that a song wouldn't normally receive. I think that both of those factors would push "Sucker" into the top 10. But what made "Sucker" a number one hit was its catchiness which lead to streams, downloads, and radio play. It's not surprising to find that Ryan Tedder was the production genius behind the song. The band has a number of songwriters on the track, but all three Jonas Brothers are credited as writers. Younger millennials and early Gen-Z, now grown up found the perfect balance of nostalgia and contemporary pop sounds. Of course, the Brothers still in their late 20s to early 30s are as handsome as ever and the sex appeal of a colorful pop record modestly highlighting the siblings' posteriors as they look wistfully into a pool certainly couldn't hurt. But "Sucker" was a love anthem, much like what the boys had sang years ago. The difference this time is that all three brothers were married with Joe marrying Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner shortly after the single's release. "Sucker" is a song about the crazy things you do for love, and today, I'm a sucker for this song.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Photograph" Ed Sheeran, Saturday, February 3, 2024 (updated repost)

Image
  Before " Shape of You ," Ed Sheeran was known primarily as a singer-songwriter. His albums + and X took clear influence from The Beatles , Carole King , Elton John , James Taylor , and the ballad writers of yesteryear. But he had a knack for throwing in a few rap bars along the way. With every record, Sheeran gained more acclaim. His sophomore record produced the mega Billboard #2 hit , " Thinking Out Loud ," which won two Grammys including Song of the Year. The final single from the album, " Photograph " was written in collaboration with Snow Patrol 's Johnny McDaid . Sheeran drew inspiration from his long distance relationship with singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt (the featured musician on Kodaline ’s acoustic version of “Brand New Day” ). The two spent five months apart. They would eventually break up, but the song remains a gem on Sheeran's second best-selling record.  LOVING CAN HURT . "Photograph" was the song that introduced m
Read more

“Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (reworked post), Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Image
When I was a Christian teenager, a book started circulating in my church youth group. Joshua Harris wrote about youth with wisdom and authority that seemed logical and categorical for every situation to the young women who read I Kissed Dating Goodbye . The book’s thesis argued that dating was a worldly alternative to the more purposeful Christian concept of courtship. Dating fueled erotic passions, which must be saved for a heterosexual marriage. Dating is casual, even preteens dates. Courtship was about vetting a marriage partner and would happen in the late teen years or early adulthood.  YOU THINK I'M PRETTY WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP ON .  Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye was part of a movement I’ve written about a lot: purity culture. How much this movement influenced young Katy Hudson, a pastor’s daughter in Southern California, touring with a slew of Christian rockers on the heels of her debut, self-titled album , I can only speculate what went through the 17-year-old star’s
Read more

"All of Me Wants All of You" (Helado Negro Remix) by Sufjan Stevens, Sunday, February 27, 2022

Image
I've talked about how Carrie & Lowell , Sufjan Steven 's 2015 masterpiece, is a quintessential portrait of dealing with grief and forgiveness when I wrote about the first two tracks, " Death with Dignity ," and " Should Have Known Better ." By the third track on the record, " All of Me Wants All of You ," explores grief in a different way from the previous two tracks. As with most songs on the album, "All of Me" appears to be deeply personal to the artist. But being personal doesn't stop this track's language from being the most obscured with allusions to geography and possibly an allegory from a little-known Spanish play. ALL OF ME THINKS LESS OF YOU.  There's a debate   on Lyrics Genius about the meaning of this song, especially surrounding the identity of the only other character mentioned by name in this song, Manelich. Is he the one the song is about? Stevens has written vaguely about homosexual attraction throughout
Read more