I read a review over the summer of Selena Gomez’s new album Revival. The critic wrote about how Selena doesn’t have the voice of Adele or similar artists like Demi Lovato. She has an interesting pitch, a raspy tone, and a deceptively impressive range. What Selena has, what she has shown through Revival, is that she knows. She knows what she says, she knows what she doesn’t, and she plays us, the audience, to perfection until we’re all dying to watch the next music video.
She’s an underappreciated force and her music unexpectedly defined my summer. After a year spent listening to music chosen for me, due to spending most of my time with someone who had way stronger feelings about what was good or what was not, I went home and got to listen to whatever I wanted. I listened to critically acclaimed albums, and then, I listened to Selena. She, as much as Vince Staples and TNGHT, was part of my revival.
“Hands To Myself”
The music video is what gets you with this song. It’s a completely self-indulgent, ridiculously sexy brief movie of Selena rolling around in a bra and underwear in some famous dude’s house. The song itself is amazing. It features the memorable lines, “you’re metaphorical gin and juice,” and “all of the downs and the uppers/keep making love to each other.” I am a huge fan of this song because it is an amazing example of what large parts of the music industry has turned into: sex sells. And so, it would seem, does Selena. The crux of this song is when Selena cheekily looks off screen and admits about this pesky keeping your hands to yourself business, “I mean I could but why would I want to?”
The problems with this song and video? Infinite. However, if you can remove yourself for a few minutes and allow the media to use its masterful powers of keeping you completely engaged and dancing, you might just have a good time.
“Same Old Love”
It begins with jazzy and rhythmic snaps, purposeful scratchiness in the background. “Same Old Love” is better understood while watching the music video. It follows Selena in a car driving to her show in the city and you see her watch love. She watches a mother and son sharing a moment as the mother cries, driving away in a packed car. You see young couples kissing on street corners and a young girl feeding her fish as her dad is passed out on the couch.
Selena is sick “of that same old love,” and she’s sick of watching unhappiness. It is so easy—too easy—to get stuck in the cycle of what you think love should be. What you think is the usual, that “same old love,” is actually torment and difficulty. As I was told by Selena and many other people, love is hard, but it doesn’t have be that hard.
“Good For You”
“Good For You” is a sultry, low tempo musing on desire as well as the desire to be seen. Selena whispers over a simple track and repetitive beat about her longing to just look good for you. In the age of empowerment and liberation, some people might cringe at lines like, “let me show you how proud I am to be yours,” but I would politely disagree. The way I experience this song is as a love letter to feeling sexy. This song exemplifies how it feels, for me at least, to wear “that dress you like, skin-tight.” It helped me reclaim my own sexuality as an independent and as a partner, though I spent the summer alone. I’m not a sex object, but there’s a special feeling that comes when you are confident and safe enough to let yourself, for tonight, look good for somebody else.
“Kill Em With Kindness”
An attempt at a dance floor banger with a message, “Kill Em With Kindness,” Selena dares her audience to replace their violence with peace. She asks us, “to put down the weapons you fight with/and kill em with kindness.” I was not angry at times when I should have been during this past year, largely because I don’t really get angry a lot. Somehow, this song reached the part of me that was furious, but so disinclined to fight. To kill someone with kindness is not a Gomez trademarked phrase; it’s been used before and it will be used again. The magic is that this song found me when I needed it to, when I needed someone to tell me I could be strong and I could fight without hate.
If you look hard enough, you can find something worth learning from anything. Selena Gomez isn’t pretending to be an innovator in the music scene and she isn’t trying to make songs that will necessarily start revolutions. Selena knows how to work the industry and her audience effectively and with style. I don’t intend to be judged on my tastes, but if someone does try to challenge my affection for Selena, I’ll have a few things to say.
Image Credit: Wenner Media, Wikipedia, Vevo