“Please, Please, Please” by Sabrina Carpenter, Monday, August 5, 2024
If you listen to Spotify, you probably heard Sabrina Carpenter’s first Billboard Hot 100 number 1 hit, even if you weren’t seeking out pop music. Complaints flooded the Swedish-based streaming service about the song “Please, Please, Please” showing up in the middle of rock and hip-hop autoplay algorithms. Users on X shared their experiences about the seemingly random places the song showed up. The former Disney star has been recording music since 2015 but didn’t enjoy commercial viability until 2019 on Billboard’s Dance charts. The singer’s popularity continued to increase with the song “Skin” in 2021, her first entry on Billboard’s Hot 100. Last year besides a spot on a remix of FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid,” Carpenter scored a top-40 hit with the light pop track “Feather.”
I KNOW I HAVE GOOD JUDGMENT. I KNOW I HAVE GOOD TASTE. Last year, Taylor Swift invited Sabrina Carpenter to open select dates on her Eras Tour. This undoubtedly boosted Carpenter’s popularity and played into a Swift trend that Taylor has been using throughout the Eras tour: elevate female artists but only those whose star power doesn’t threaten the main attraction. From the rumors that Swift has been repeatedly wielding her popularity as a weapon against other prominent artists to keep their albums below her spot atop Billboard’s 200 Album Chart with her own Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s Eras Tour roster included mostly indie pop acts. The release of the first single “Espresso” from her upcoming album Short n’ Sweet proved to be a major success. Critics perhaps overhyped the single, predicting it to be crowned “Song of the Summer,” a song that spans a considerable number of weeks at number one on Billboard’s Hot 100. The song peaked at number 3 and the much less Summer-y Post Malone/ Morgan Wallen track “I Had Some Help” is set to be the coveted, yet increasingly less relevant title given volatility in tracking music consumption. Carpenter’s second single “Please, Please, Please” did top the charts for one week, perhaps thanks to the boost in Spotify plays, but the song’s popularity hardly qualifies it for “Song of the Summer.”
I BEG YOU DON’T EMBARRASS ME, MOTHERFUCKER. Spotify’s personnel had a point boosting “Please, Please, Please.” The Olivia Newton John-styled disco country sound of the track fits on many playlists and is kind of a genre chameleon. The Jack Antonoff production gives crossover appeal to the track. That’s not to say that it fits within a Reggaeton or Gangsta Rap playlist. The lyrics of the song are somewhat autobiographical. Carpenter is reportedly dating her music video costar Irish actor Barry Keoghan, who was once arrested for public intoxication in Dublin. In “Please, Please, Please” the speaker pleads with her lover not to embarrass her. It’s a song about not only doubting a partner but doubting oneself. Rather than saying “don’t prove ‘em right” about her boyfriend’s foibles, she says “don’t prove I’m right.” She’s so embarrassed by the partner’s antics that she even suggests not going out and being seen together. If the song is autobiographical, it’s an odd choice to have the subject in the music video. There’s a certain celebrated ditziness in Carpenter’s music that we haven’t heard much of since Kesha spelt her name with a $. Perhaps the song is a broader commentary on the status of big name female pop stars and their love interests who either slink into the corner at a party or leave the worst asshole impression. Whatever the truth is, I hope that none of my readers, or Carpenter for that matter, will sing this song a wedding.
Comments
Post a Comment