Few people could disagree that Ariana Grande is the Queen of Pop right now. For me, it’s meaningful music, being both lyrically real and easy on the ear. Her music isn’t polarising; I’d struggle to find someone that would turn off the radio if she came on, and could easily find many who would blast it unashamedly (myself included).
That’s why I was so intrigued by the opinion voiced by Megan Nolan, whose brief article written for the Independent I stumbled across online. I read it when it was first published, and it’s been nagging away at me ever since. She raises issue with male artists and bands covering Ariana songs, specifically addressing Mumford & Sons cover of ‘breathin’ and The 1975, who covered ‘thank u, next’. To summarise, she says that because the songs are written from a deeply female experience and perspective, and that the concepts sung about are “important concepts, especially for young women”, that these songs should be kept for women only to perform.
“The message behind this practice [of men covering her songs] is a gentle irony: Look, it seems to say, at us real musicians daring to touch the silly music for girls. How absurd, how wacky. It implies that pop music requires the legitimising addition of Serious Men to make it okay to like… It doesn’t need the approval of earnest male gatekeepers to confirm it as such.”
I know I could be treading in hot waters here, so I’ll be careful; but could it perhaps be that they covered the songs not because they thought she was due legitimising as an artist, but because those songs are absolute bops?
In 2019, I highly doubt anyone is thinking that Ariana Grande needs “legitimising”. I don’t need to defend the Queen of Pop - watch her transform ‘The Wheels On The Bus’ into an instant hit on The Tonight Show, or you could even read the figures if you want to. But by suggesting that men who cover women’s songs are ‘male gatekeepers’, doesn’t that defeat the point by in turn creating female gatekeepers? Once the music is put out into the world, who is anyone to say who can and cannot enjoy it? Experience it? Be influenced by it? And create their own art from it?
The idea that pop music needs legitimising by men is flawed, not only because these men are making the same kind of pop music, but because ultimately music is for everyone. The lyrics might be written from a female perspective, but why should that stop me singing along? Take Tove Lo’s ‘Cool Girl’ for example, with the chorus lyric ‘I’m a cool girl, Ice cold, I roll my eyes at you boy’. I totally get how this could be weird for a man to sing - but does anyone really care when the beat is as good as this one is? And if you do, check out this cover by Jacob Wellfair - if you’d never heard the original, I doubt you’d even notice the change in lyrics to ‘Cool boy’.
I understand what it’s like to love an artist and their music to the point of blindly defending them (trust me, no amount of torture could get me to say a bad thing about Jess Glynne or Coldplay). But that isn’t what’s at play here. I think the more disturbing issue is the use of gendered lyrics/experiences to stop people from enjoying the music how they see fit.
I’m an instrumentalist; not a singer. For me, I don’t listen to the lyrics first time around. By default I listen to the groove, the feel, whether it makes me want to dance (regardless of who’s watching). That’s why it took for someone else to tell me about the lyrics to ‘Blurred Lines’ for me to get what everyone else was going on about.
So if I want to cover a song, it’s usually because of the music, not the lyrics. If someone else doesn’t want to cover a song themselves because of the lyrics, then that’s up to them, and has nothing to do with me, and so equally does my opinion on whether they should.
Long story short - music, once released, belongs to the listeners; not the artist, nor a passionate fan who wants to take away from someone else’s experience to heighten their own. You can’t decide how someone else should interpret music, and gender shouldn’t be used to withhold music from other people.
And sometimes, an absolute banger can be an absolute banger, regardless of the lyrics and whether they fit the gender of the vocalist.
Anyone disagree? Do you hold lyrics as more important than the beat behind them? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts!