“Baby Don’t Hurt Me” by David Guetta ft. Anne-Marie & Coi Leray, Thursday, June 22, 2023

 

Maybe you started bobbing your head thirty years ago when Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway released "What Is Love." The 1993 infectious hit escaped the discotheque and reached number 1 in 13 countries-- though peaking at number 11 in America--and spawned cultural memes before there were memes were on dial-up Internet, most notably appearing in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch-turned feature film as Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, and the guest of the week danced at The Roxbury. 

WHAT WE DO BEHIND DOORS IS OUR BUSINESS. Fast forward to 2023 and we're in the middle of a '90s revival. Maybe Lady Gaga started the early '90s revival in 2020 with tracks like "Babylon" on Chromatica, but we could hear it also on Tove Lo's "Grapefruit" last year. Last August French DJ David Guetta released the on-the-nose club hit "I'm Good" (Blue) featuring vocals by Bebe Rexha. The song interpolated what I thought was an untouchable classic, Eiffel 65's "Blue" (Da Ba Dee). Then in April, Guetta took perhaps the most iconic '90s dance chorus and added new verses, sung by Anne-Marie and rapped by Coi Leray, replacing the forgettable verses from Haddaway's original hit "What Is Love." The music video features Anne-Marie dressed in '90s-style club couture and Coi Leray dressed in what looks like early '00 club wear. The video is shot like a high-budget '90s music video, but in contrast the film technique looks cheap, tacky, and enduring in a '90s nostalgia sense. David Guetta also appears in the video, dressed in a white suit, standing at the bar drinking a product-placement advertisement, Volcan VA vodka. 

I POP IT LIKE ADDERALL. Something the video for "Baby Don't Hurt Me" feels, well, creepy. It's a bad vibe more than a logical argument and it has to do with David Guetta's presence in the video. Rather than acting as a DJ, he's just--there. The plot of the video follows the disagreement between the singer Anne-Marie and rapper Coi Leray. Their beef seems to be a clashing of the '90s and the '00s, though they are only six years apart in age. Anne-Marie was born in 1991 and Leray was born in 1997. The song "What Is Love," while a club and meme staple into the late '90s was obviously before both the millennial singer and Gen-Z rapper's time, and yet somehow, this '90s/'00s club takes us to timeless space where a somewhat villainous-looking music mogul/zaddy watches intently as the dance floor is literally transformed into a boxing ring and Anne-Marie and Leray fight dirty. I'm not judging the video as immorality, but the expressions on Guetta's face make me feel icky. And even with the literal SNL nod to the Night at the Roxbury sketches/ movie and the credits real when the three performers head bob in the car at the end don't erase the unsettling feeling I have for the video. Really it's an unsettled feeling about this song. "What Is Love" is a musical trope. What's next, Guetta, "Never Gonna Give You Up" with trap beats? I think that if you are in the mood for '90s nostalgia, look to my '90s vibes playlist, which I'm updating today. I'll add this song to it, but I think that there are certainly better executions of how to make a nostalgic bop without ripping off a song you wish would just be a fading memory of the night you bobbed your head at the Roxbury. 



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