Selena Gomez is Good For You

this song is good but much prefer 'the heart wants what it wants', love sad-eyed selena

i will listen to it today.

I have no idea as to what she and whoever she worked with intended, but I think this is sad eyed Selena. "the heart…" seems to be "this relationship is fucked up, I'm miserable, but I can't help that this is what I want"—this was reinforced by the video, which includes an intro w/ tearful SG talking about the shitty things a paramour did to her, probly sposed to remind listeners of JB. But this is "I give up, I don't care that it's fucked up, I have no will anymore, go ahead and use me, I get off on being your toy." I thought she was singing "trust me I can take it," whereas what she actually sings is not much less submissive in context.

This is obv not a sentiment that, say, Jezebel would heartily endorse, but popular music does not and should not exist to reinforce correct notions of gender politics or any other kind, ones that anyone likely to read these words knows are healthy and would not wish the opposite on anyone they care about. I think the people who will respond to this song and might make it huge are not disaffected rock critics eager to foreswear Pitchfork, but are young women, girls (or boys/men) who hear and sympathize the numbness of the washed out chords and her hungover or narcotized delivery: maybe they've been where SG is evoking. It is like Jojo's adderall-ized performance mentioned above.

truly the ASAP verses compromise it…don't like it as much as other shit she's done ("Love song" is my fave) but it certainly made an impression on me immediately without me knowing it was her.

not enough explicit criticism of the male gaze for me tbh

lol

great post veronica. i do agree with you largely. but i also see less numbness. it is there for sure. but i also hear pure sex. and yes most of us have been there. wanting to look good for your boy is an old tradition. i hear that in this too. putting on your makeup, and doing up your hair. it's a girls' tradition, or a boy's tradition, and it doesn't have to be wrong, submissive, or numb. but i do agree that those inflections are present in the song. it is a fine line, but a beautiful one.

funnily when i just pulled up my Spotify to play this, the song that was cued up was "Numb" by Rihanna

no i think you're right, she's sad.

the production on the vocal "and syncopate my skin to how you're breathing" in the 2nd verse makes me realize that this is indeed the perfect song

z-100 is going all the fukk in on this tune…

this is shaping up to be one of those songs with strongly polarized reactions, where men tend to find it sexy and literally every woman I know who's written about it finds it sad

legit cannot stop listening to it

I like it a lot but it's superclearly sad

yea you're right. i have always had a thing for sad songs. MC writes a lot of em.

the saddest line is probably "so don't, so don't [ go ]"

i guess it's different for a gay guy to want to look good for a man than it is for a woman, but i don't consider it bad kind of sad.

Yeah it's all in the tone/delivery, like that's all she thinks she has to offer him/all he wants from her.

definitely a "feminist" talking point - and with such good production, definitely an invigorating viewpoint and song from the pop scene/Selena. i would wage a significant bet that her vocals, isolated, would be highly commendable.

the one thing that comes to my mind is that sadness can be sexy. i know you said the songs seems divided between the 2, katherine, at least in terms of reaction; but i think they are one.

*song

http://www.billboard.com/files/media/selena-gomez-revival-album-2015-billboard-650x650.jpg

(nsfw)

still love this song (the non rap/sparse arrangement version, of course !)
was it a hit ?

i don't know or care all i know is that it is one of the best of years past

thx for reminding me 2 listen to it 2day

oh and actually i heard it got to at least #7 on hot 100 America

it sounds like she's singing "goyim for you"

i look forward to collegiate a cappella groups covering this

this song would be boring if it weren't for the gross pandering to paedos lyrical content, ugh, sorry if you like it. It's just awful, maybe it's because I'm a 40 yr old woman idk.

ok i thought about it a little more, and maybe I should be more "sex positive" and think that if she's just playing at jailbait with daddy issues and she's actually an adult woman, then more power to her, and we understand it as "play" rather than read it literally. But the literal read, of "I am doing this teen jailbait schtick and singing about my daddy issues with a 6th grade vocabulary," sorry that shit grosses me out. There is too much of it in real life.

I don't get where the pedophilia comes in, she's 23

She looks like she's a teenager and her voice is very young sounding.

Ten years from now, we are going to look back at songs like "Good for You" and not only be amazed at how many outstanding pop songs with amazing productions were released during this era – but also how many were ruined (or nearly ruined) by terrible raps during the middle-eight.

sure ok but accusing someone of "jailbait with daddy issues" is loaded as fuck and almost certainly more loaded than the song

I'm not saying that Selena Gomez, the real person, is that, but the character that she is playing in the song comes across that way to me.

Can't a grown woman express affection for her father through song?

just wanna look freud for you

anyway I think this is a more pressing update than the "update" upthread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naKhF6G36rM

i don't even know which lyrics are specifically about daddy issues? i mean the way she sings it, it's not a healthy relationship and her bf has power over her, is maybe even controlling, but...that's why it's primarily a sad song, right?

(it's really grown on me even though it is lana cosplay; amusing that selena's idea of "doing lana" is to mumble and slur so that whatever the lyrics are come out mostly incomprehensible)

(is there a hq mp3 of the asap-free version? didn't realise the (boring, missed opportunity) video was a solo versh. would appreciate it if so bc this is the most egregiously breaking-the-spell rap guest since ty on mila j's "my main")

(selena's awkward affectations actually serve the song well bc the entire thing communicates that constricted awkwardness of having dressed up to the nines and being very uncomfortable with it, so that every move is stilted and careful bc otherwise the sham will be revealed)

last parenthesis sums up the songs ambiguity perfectly!

also is just very relatable

i don't even know which lyrics are specifically about daddy issues? i mean the way she sings it, it's not a healthy relationship and her bf has power over her, is maybe even controlling, but...that's why it's primarily a sad song, right?

― lex pretend, Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because any expression of insecurity in a woman is almost always attributed to "daddy issues," and pop freud needs to be burned to the ground and its ashes shat on

copied the lyrics, and listened for verification, see below. see also wiki entry, link also below.

No fair reading of the song could possibly indicate daddy issues or pedo pandering. As i said a month ago above and as the esteemed Lex sez above, there can be little doubt that its intended to depict a fucked up relationship in which the protagonist has no agency but to appeal to her dominant partner. In no way can anyone seriously suggest that Selena gomez is saying "yes, girls of the world, be good little fuck puppets" or "my passive whispering reflects the proper, prone position women should have w/r/t you, men of the world." she's evoking shitty relationships that maybe she and certainly uncountable millions of individuals on Earth have had. It's a companion piece to "the heart wants what it wants"; in that tune, the protagonist has some shred of agency and awareness of how lousy it is, but now has surrendered in "good for you." how anyone could not conclude it's not unambiguously sad is beyond me: a five year old would hear the washed out minor chords and come to that conclusion.

the song is on z-100 in NYC all the live long day. I like it, but not as much as "Love you like a love song."

I'm on my 14 carats, I'm 14 carat
Doing it up like Midas, mhm
Now you say I got a touch, so good, so good
Make you never wanna leave, so don't, so don't

Gonna wear that dress you like, skin-tight , do my hair up real, real nice
And syncopate my skin to your heart beating

'Cause I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh
I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh
Let me show you how proud I am to be yours
Leave this dress a mess on the floor
And still look good for you, good for you, uh-huh

I'm on my marquise diamonds, I'm a marquise diamond
Could even make that Tiffany jealous, mhm
You say I give it to you hard, so bad, so bad
Make you never wanna leave, I won't, I won't

(pre-chorus and chorus repeat)

Trust me, I can take you there
Trust me, I can take you there
Trust me, I, trust me, I, trust me,, etc etc

(mood killing interlude followed by chorus and "trust me", then out)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_for_You_(song)

she's afraid he's going to leave her. which is sad :(

The newest single was written by Charli XCX and Selena is doing what most popstars do when they sing Sia songs, and imitating all of the writer's vocal tics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=naKhF6G36rM

to be fair it's not just sia and charli songs, it's all songs with demo tracks. sia and charli just maybe have more distinctive tics

When you have Sia or Charli singing on a demo it's kinda diff from it being like Randy Newman or someone, I guess

the chorus on this is almost indecipherable from charli tho lol

i like "good for you" -- it'st least catchier than anything lana has put out this year. lana would write better lyrics tho

i think "syncopate my skin to your heart beating" is a sharp line

yeah that is nice

agreed RE: Lana - i do love the lyrics though. that line is ace.

'syncopate' is an awfully big word for a sixth grader

still insist that the writer meant "synchronize"