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‘Pretty Girls’ and Pop’s Postmodern Moment

Britney Spears suggested in a recent interview that she should head back to school in order to help her kids with their maths homework. She needn’t bother. With the absolute void of original ideas in her latest release, ‘Pretty Girls’, she definitively proves that multiplying anything by zero inevitably produces absolutely nothing.

Repurposing others’ creations is nothing new – it’s a central tenet of postmodern art, which relies on appropriation, reproduction and compilation as its driving creative forces. If postmodernists believe that we’ve reached a historical epoch in which almost everything which can be done has been done, then ‘Pretty Girls’ is a great argument that we’re about to enter an age of humanity’s regression. The song, or rather the spectacle – stalling music sales mean song and video are inseparable as promotional vehicle for an artist’s other ventures – is nothing but diminished returns.

‘Pretty Girls’ is a clusterfuck of other people’s ideas, pasteurised by the moneygrubbing hands of corporate America. If you shoved Gwen Stefani on a toner-deficient photocopier, ‘Pretty Girls’ is what would come out of the printing tray. So what does the song and video steal? The video’s plot replicates that of Geena Davis’ 80s flick Earth Girls Are Easy, whilst its aesthetics lift liberally from the same period’s gaudy styles. Musically, it evokes the aforementioned Stefani, whilst its production team, The Invisible Men, replicate a superior DJ Mustard beat, which in turn is built off of hip hop’s traditional reusing and remixing of samples.

The song then, is a triumph for postmodern pop, a concept which is currently dragging any number of songs along a solid run atop the world’s charts. Last year, ‘Pretty Girls’ co-star Iggy Azalea rode the same formula to career-making success with her hit ‘Fancy,’ which with it’s 90s styled, Clueless-replicating video and familiar Mustard-stealing production, is in many ways ‘Pretty Girls’ high achieving older sibling. Charli XCX built her recent album, Sucker, off of a similarly hollow appropriation of style and sound, borrowing overtly from 90s teen queen flicks and pop punk sounds. But at least her appropriation was born of some wit and sonic adventurousness. Less so, Ariana Grande’s ‘Break Free’ video, stuffed with vintage science fiction iconography, Meghan Trainor’s Motown voice and 60s pastels, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Video Star stylings, Robin Thicke’s Marvin Gaye apeing antics. The list goes on.

Yet perhaps the greatest example is the recent world conquering‘Uptown Funk’, a paper-thin 80s homage in sound and aesthetics that had no other reason to exist than serve bitesized nostalgia up to anyone who missed out the first time around. Even Taylor Swift recently got in on the action, her ‘Bad Blood’ video borrowing concepts and imagery from a plethora of classic genre movies – Sin City, Tron, Kill Bill, Matrix, and even Spear’s own ‘Toxic’ video – cycling through as many cultural touch stones as possible, with nothing to say about any of them.

What unites them? A shared determination to avoid originality at all costs. They’re three minute recaps of ideas someone else previously popularised. Their instant familiarity makes them palatable and reassuring. In this sense, they are perfect pop – instantly digestible, easily remembered, and completely inoffensive.

And now comes ‘Pretty Girls.’ The video even remixes the song itself to ensure nothing escapes its creative black hole. Sure pop has relied on homage for years – an obvious example is Britney’s own sci-fi voyage to Mars for the ‘Oops!… I Did it Again’ video, which even referenced Titanic in its dialogue break. But this trend is different in its refusal to offer anything new. Its appropriation provides no commentary on its references. At its worst, it can barely even muster a knowing wink at the audience. You like that film that time and popularity has bequeathed some pop cultural cache upon? Here’s the best bits. Come see me on tour! But ‘Pretty Girls’ may mark the death of this trend. The public are beginning to demand more – just look at where the song is currently languishing in the charts. And yet that neon nightmare of a video still dances before me every time I shut my eyes.

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