This is perhaps one of the dumbest songs ever, but I have to name “#Selfie” by the Chainsmokers as #PhillipsSongOfTheDay for the sheer fact it brightened my day and made me laugh/smile for like an hour.
For the past week, I’ve been reading tweets from people complaining about this song, how stupid it is, and how people can’t believe it’s being played on radio (I believe more than one person commented that they “couldn’t believe what the world was coming to” from the fact that “that selfie song is on the radio”). Today, I noticed “#Selfie” was number six on iTunes top singles, and decided to take a listen to the preview. The electronic/dubstep/club music was kind of predicable and redundant, although electronic/club music like that is supposed to be structured that way (I took a music industry course in school that focused on each genre of music and it’s construction…so believe me, I know…). But then it got into the girl talking:
“Can you guys help me pick a filter?
I don’t know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia
I wanna look tan
What should my caption be?
I want it to be clever
How about ‘Livin’ with my bitches, #LIVE’
I only got ten likes in the last five minutes
Do you think I should take it down?
LET ME TAKE ANOTHER SELFIE”
This casually got me to want to hear the whole song, so I strolled over to youtube to watch/listen to the music video:
Right off the bat, I would agree with the tweets and reviews on iTunes that this is a pretty darn stupid song. But, you have to hand it to the Chainsmokers, it’s actually a pretty clever song too. I kind of think this song captures an aspect of my generation quite well. I believe this song is a form of satire making fun of today’s youth for being shallow, scattered, and obsessed with taking selfies. Consider lines like:
“Sooo… like what do you think?
Did you think that girl was pretty?
How did that girl even get in here?
Did you see her?
She’s so short and that dress is so tacky
Who wears cheetah?
It’s not even summer, why does the DJ keep on playing Summertime Sadness?
After we go to the bathroom, can we go smoke a cigarette?
I really need one
But first,
LET ME TAKE A SELFIE”
and
“Oh my god, Jason just texted me
Should I go home with him?
I guess I took a good selfie”
This narrator cares nothing more than her looks, being considered cool, and getting approval from “Jason.” And this is not the only outlet mocking this aspect of my generation. Twitter accounts like Tweet Like A Girl (@TweetLikeAGirl), Common White Girl (@commonwhitegirl), and Anti-Joke Apple (@antijokeapple) have been popping up, tweeting in the same spirit of “#Selfie,” overall pointing out the flaws of our generation. For example, Anti-Joke Apple made this tweet:
some girls give each other the emptiest compliments I’ve ever heard “aww babe you’re just omg like I can’t” what the f*** did u just say
— anti joke apple (@antijokeapple) January 30, 2014
I personally have witnessed a conversation like the above tweet between two girls. This and the song “#Selfie” makes one just roll their eyes and think “how stupid,” but it’s also a signal to consider why these comments are being made. This would suggest that perhaps these tweets and this song are meant as a warning to force us to start reconsidering our priorities. Are we going to be a “common white girl” and only care about our selfies, or are we going to do something worth our while in the world? People cast this song off as a stupid song with no meaning, but on the contrary, there is a deeper meaning behind the rubbish. I’m not suggesting this song is Grammy worthy (although, you never know…I mean, “Get Lucky” won so many Grammys that it did not deserve, so who am I to judge), but I am saying this song does come with a message worth noting. If not, it’s worth a listen to get you laughing…the line, “I guess I took a good selfie” at the end always makes me smirk.
