Album Review: Olivia O'Brien - 'Was It Even Real?'

Since she released her first solo singles in 2016, singer/songwriter Olivia O’Brien has sung about depression, failed and messy relationships, and drowning her sorrows in bad habits. She’s written songs about trust issues, feeling invisible, and learning to love herself as she is—all extremely important and valid life lessons that are essential to being human. It’s hard to believe she’s only 19 years old.

O’Brien first rose to fame after she was selected by rapper Gnash to record a song she had written, “I Hate U, I Love U,” as a duet. The song received significant popularity and reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—so it didn’t take long for talented songwriter O’Brien to sign a deal with Island Records. After a few other collaborations and a series of standalone singles, she released her debut EP in 2017, It’s Not That Deep, featuring five tracks including “Empty,” “No Love,” “RIP,” and “Tequilawine”—the latter about mixing the two drinks to distract from a disgruntled crush. I remember a time when lyrics about drinking and alcohol were taboo for singers under legal drinking age in the United States, but clearly O’Brien has proved she has the songwriting ability and depth as an artist to not play by anyone’s pop music rules.

Over the last few years, a new generation of pop stars have been creating their own rules and trends (as most pop stars tend to do), but something unique about the likes of Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha, and even Charlie Puth is that they’ve found great inspiration in writing and recording songs about the shallowness of Hollywood and Los Angeles and the empty, surface-level relationships they’ve found with the people there. Olivia O’Brien is most definitely a pioneer of this trend, who has not shied away from channeling such frustrations into her work. O’Brien, who has struggled with depression since she was a child, has no issue with including those relevant struggles in her music, either. “I Don’t Exist,” the second single from her full-length debut studio album Was It Even Real?, is partly inspired by the uptight people she’s encountered at Hollywood parties and clubs as well as articulating what it’s like to feel invisible in general—something that will surely resonate with misfits from all social standings. Another single from the album, “Love Myself”—released earlier this winter—is an ode and reminder to any and all that loving yourself has to come before anything else. The song, which serves as the album’s closing track, is reflective of O’Brien’s hope that people will start listening to the album when they’re feeling down and then feel uplifted by the time they reach the end. “It doesn’t have the same unattainable note that a lot of happier, confident songs have,” says O’Brien of the song. “I should love myself, but I don’t. I should treat myself better, but I don’t … So much other shit is like, ‘I already love myself. I’m confident. I’m great.’ This is more attainable. It starts with being easier on yourself. So many kids are depressed. I wanted to end on a high note.”

Was It Even Real? is an impressive debut that surely places O’Brien in a league of her own. She rants about relationships, feeling like she doesn’t exist, learning the same lessons over and over again, as well as some ballads, anthems, and bops about meaningless encounters and expecting too much from people, such as “We Lied to Each Other,” “Care Less More,” and “Just A Boy.” It also succeeds with acoustic guitars and heartfelt sounds rather than overproduction. Not one song on the album feels like it could be sung by another artist, which is already an achievement in itself. And unlike other pop stars of the moment who may capitalize on the emptiness of living in L.A. for one song here or there, O’Brien has managed to capture that feeling of both emptiness and depression on several different songs—and not one sounds the same as the last. Overall, she just hopes that her music will resonate and help others who’ve felt the same way. “I wrote this in a really dark place, and I hope I can help other people who may be in that same spot,” she says. “My idea was for you to listen to listen to the album when you’re feeling sad and by the end, you’ll feel better without even realizing it.” While her album’s title may have been inspired from questioning whether any of her relationships were real, O’Brien has proven that she definitely is.

Jeffrey’s favorites from Was It Even Real?: “I Don’t Exist,” “Inhibition (omw),” “Just Friends,” “We Lied to Each Other,” “Care Less More,” “Just A Boy,” “Call Me!!!,” and “Love Myself”

P!nk Lacks Her Usual Emotional Punch on 'Hurts 2B Human' (Album Review)

It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a full two decades since we first met Pink—the most memorable pop music rebel in recent memory who has managed to maintain her spot in commercial Top 40 music despite the ever-changing parameters of the fickle, unreliable genre at large. If you recall, when she first arrived on the scene, Pink was the antihero to commercial pop princesses like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears (“Tired of being compared, to damn Britney Spears… She’s so pretty, that just ain’t me!” she famously sang on “Don’t Let Me Get Me” from 2001). Thereafter, Pink began to resonate in the same way as the other pop rock queens of the 2000s like Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson, with forgotten jams like “God is a DJ” being lost in comparison to the legacies of songs like “Sk8er Boi” or “Since U Been Gone.” Pink’s true turning point was in 2006 with the release of her fourth studio album I’m Not Dead—which solidified her as an era-defining star of the 2000s with the addition of both poignant social and political commentaries (remember when she and the Indigo Girls asked if President George Bush would take a walk with them?) as well as her shameless, cutthroat tendency to drop F-bombs in her singles that somehow conversely turned her into one of the most commercially reliable artists in pop, and she’s stayed there ever since.

Her simultaneously heartwarming and take-no-prisoners attitude was not without backlash—“What if this song’s on the radio, then somebody’s gonna die” she cheekily sang on lead single “So What” from her 2008 studio album Funhouse—a response to criticism for profanity in her singles that received radio play nonetheless. After a public separation and then reconciliation with longtime husband Carey Hart—which provided continued inspiration for 2012’s The Truth About Love—Pink entered a hiatus. She recorded a collaborative album with Canadian musician Dallas Green as a duo called You+Me in 2014, and took time off to raise daughter Willow (born 2011) and son Jameson (born 2016). Her seventh studio album and first in five years, Beautiful Trauma, arrived in 2017 and was a combination of the socially and politically conscious Pink from the 2000s with a more grown-up, level-headed Pink we had only seen glimpses of in the past. The album was one of the highest-selling records of the year and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.

In the midst of a sold-out worldwide tour spanning nearly two years, Pink announced this February on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she had a new single, “Walk Me Home,” from a new album, Hurts 2B Human, expected in the spring. The announcement was exciting at best since most Pink fans had become used to waiting at least 4 to 5 years between new studio albums, and the release of her previous lead single “What About Us” was one of the strongest songs from this decade. Although, it is worth noting that with the release of Beautiful Trauma, Pink gained a label that the Pink from ten years ago never would have received—people started calling her boring and predictable. “Since when did she become such a basic pop singer?” read one review. “She had kids and got boring” flooded comments on YouTube. It was in stark contrast to the generally positive reviews the album did receive—since Beautiful Trauma was a much more mature, personal offering without overproduced efforts than we had received from Pink in a long time, it’s definitely one of her best albums—but observations that she had grown up and gotten boring was in fact chipping away at a larger issue: Pink, aided perhaps by the Top 40 commercial pop world that has yet to evict her, has been allowed to age. She has been allowed to still be successful without necessarily pushing boundaries, something that is quite frankly not an option to many other female pop stars. Ageism in pop music especially concerning women is nothing new, but just like the F-bombs she used to through on the radio with no regrets, Pink flipped everyone the bird by reaching a new stage in life and was still allowed the same success as a pop singer that she was given as a twentysomething talking smack about stupid L.A. girls. This has a tendency to bother some pop music fans who continue to root for other female pop stars who must always be original and push boundaries to see commercial success and get people to pay attention to them. I suppose that’s somewhat valid—but it’s not Pink’s fault, since blaming female celebrities for larger cultural issues is an age-old trick.

On her latest studio effort Hurts 2B Human, Pink sets out to replicate Beautiful Trauma’s winning formula of anthemic bops and emotional, heartfelt ballads and the result is, well, the sequel that doesn’t quite live up to the original. “What About Us” from Beautiful Trauma succeeded because of the strong production and comeback promotion that it received, but also because it provided some much-needed commentary on the ambiguous political climate of the United States in 2017, when Donald Trump had first become president. In comparison, “Walk Me Home” achieves the same level of anthemic restitution that makes you want to sing it from the rooftops, but it’s not as strong—or as original. I think the missing link now between Pink and socially/politically conscious songs is that they’ve become much more commonplace than they were in 2006 when she released “Dear Mr. President” or when the Dixie Chicks said they weren’t ready to make nice. Not to say they resonate any less, or that “Walk Me Home” is not as welcome as any other artist singing about all that’s wrong in the world right now, but the lyrics and the song itself play it a little too safe to pack the punch that it’s going for. And as result, Hurts 2B Human as a whole plays it somewhat too safe while simultaneously coming across as a bit unoriginal and incredibly underwhelming.

Unoriginal is not a label I would want to ever give to a Pink album, but unfortunately it feels like the only fitting term for Hurts 2B Human. She is right—it does hurt to be human. Being alive is hard, especially in an era when swindling politicians and human rights being taken away are constantly inundating the news. The overall theme that she is going for on the album is something Pink has done quite well in the past on both I’m Not Dead and Beautiful Trauma—that life is complicated and emotional, and that we should all strive to understand each other a little better. But most songs on Hurts 2B Human lack the emotional punch and fight-or-die energy that we came to love on previous Pink songs like “Beautiful Trauma,” “True Love,” “Please Don’t Leave Me,” or “Who Knew.” The album’s opening tracks, “Hustle” and “(Hey Why) Miss You Sometime,” have an overwhelming sense of been there, done that. Thereafter, she opts to focus largely on ballads about growing up. She sang about longing to go back to playing Barbies in her room on Beautiful Trauma, and reunites with acclaimed songwriter Julia Michaels for a new lamentation called “My Attic.” She sings about finding strength on “Courage” (written with Sia) and whether she has always stood in the way of her own happiness on “Happy” (bringing back fond memories of “Nobody Knows” from I’m Not Dead). She covers the pains of being human with Khalid, and delivers catchy EDM on one of the album’s highlights—“Can We Pretend” (since reality is boring), featuring Cash Cash. But the end result just doesn’t live up to her other albums—it’s frustrating that what feels like the only memorable highlight from an album called Hurts 2B Human is an EDM song which poses the question “can we pretend, that we both like the president?” (with a signature Pink chuckle near the end of the song). I feel like perhaps more time could have benefited the album with some more creativity and originality—it hasn’t even been a full two years since Beautiful Trauma, making this the shortest gap between Pink albums since 2001’s Missundaztood and 2003’s Try This (which is interesting considering Pink has referred to the latter as her most rushed and inauthentic album).

I don’t subscribe to the criticism that Pink got older, had kids, and became boring. I think that’s sexist and misogynistic at the very least. I don’t think Hurts 2B Human is lacking merely because it’s unoriginal in comparison to other pop artists who are forging paths and pushing boundaries, since that is also a little misogynistic. I think it’s lacking just because it doesn’t pack the same emotional punch that we’ve come to expect from Pink. I think she may have tried too soon to replicate her newfound formula for adult-woman pop success from Beautiful Trauma with her previous socially and politically conscious lyrics and ballads from the 2000s, and the end result was not as enthralling as I would have hoped. Pink once referred to the promotional period for her third studio album Try This as a terrible time in which it felt like people were “putting a quarter in the slot to watch the monkey dance.” I would like to believe that, as a global superstar and household name (and a strong, badass woman), she would no longer need to rely heavily on lengthy promotional tours led by her label and management. After all, Hurts 2B Human was very casually announced on Ellen just a few months before it was released, so I wouldn’t want to think that the album was born from a label forcing her to produce a new pop album solely for profit and that’s why it sounds somewhat unoriginal. I think Hurts 2B Human was born from Pink’s classic tendency to be outspoken through her art during stormy political times and an anxious era where nothing is certain. She’s also spoken about how motherhood has “completely changed” her, and how it has led her to think twice about the world she’s leaving for her kids. Epiphanies providing inspiration for her music is nothing new for Pink—considering I’m Not Dead was born from her father having a heart attack and realizing the reality of adult responsibilities and everyday life.

Usually, even when her songwriting is formulaic—covering a wide range of heavy topics from divorce, drug abuse, or sobriety—Pink sings with such emotion and conviction that she can convince you a song is so much better than it would have been otherwise. And I’m just not hearing that on Hurts 2B Human. Maybe Pink is simply more interesting when she’s singing about her marriage or how she hates the president, but that’s not really the case, since she’s long since proven she has the ability to make good and relevant music about a wide range of topics. The album just isn’t her best work, and feels like she may still be capitalizing and holding onto the success of Beautiful Trauma. Nonetheless, Pink doesn’t have to prove anything anymore. We’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her for the last 20 years, and something tells me she still has more in store for us.

Jeffrey’s favorites from Hurts 2B Human: “Walk Me Home,” “My Attic,” “Can We Pretend,” and “Happy”

Marina is Better Than Ever Without 'the Diamonds' (Album Review: 'Love + Fear')

In 2010, Wales native Marina Diamandis burst onto the music scene with her new wave-infused debut studio album, The Family Jewels, under the catchy stage name Marina and the Diamonds. Two years later, she conquered the pop music world with her sophomore effort Electra Heart—a concept album revolving around a character she created to represent and critique female archetypes in American popular culture, which received critical acclaim in the United States but didn’t resonate as much in her native UK. She became known for her unconventional fashion sense and stage presence, complete with theatrical on-stage costumes to go along with it, and was quickly labelled a “pop enigma” known to subvert typical popular music conventions. As early as 2009, Diamandis described herself as an “indie artist with pop goals,” and has spent the majority of her career forging her own path. Her synthpop-inspired third studio album, Froot (2015), dealt lyrically with Diamandis’ struggles with depression and was considered to be more personal than her previous releases. During that time, she was starting to feel the pressure all around, and decided that it was time for a break.

This year, Diamandis has made her long-awaited return to music as Marina—without the Diamonds. “I couldn’t really go back to music for a while after Froot because I’d been doing this for almost a decade, and I just had started to feel as if too much of my sense of self was connected to my artistic profession, I suppose,” she told W magazine in March. Instead, she decided to return to school to study another passion of hers, psychology, and spent six months studying at the University of London between 2017 and 2018. During that time, she also started her own blog, MarinaBook, to share thoughts regarding mental health and general well-being. Overall, she just had a yearning to feel like a human being again. “I have been completely obsessed with being an artist since I was 15, and I’m 33, so it’s been quite a large chunk of my life,” she said.

Part of that yearning was the inspiration to drop the Diamonds from her stage name in favor of a mononym—simply Marina, since she believes the entire point of being an artist is bridging the gap between art and reality. “I don’t want to be some kind of elusive star,” she explained. “I felt like I should feel like that in the past, but I've realized that’s really not part of what I want to do in this life at all … It’s not that I didn’t feel authentic before; I just felt a pressure to appear to be a certain way to people at some points, and I don’t feel like that anymore at all.” With the Diamonds and everything they represented behind her and with a newfound confidence in front of her, Marina has released her fourth studio album—Love + Fear—two 8-track collections that form a set. The title is inspired from a theory by psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, which alleges that there are only two human emotions, love and fear: “All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety, and guilt. It’s true that there are only two primary human emotions, love and fear. But it’s more accurate to say that there is only love or fear. For we cannot feel these two emotions together at exactly the same time. They’re opposites.” Marina was instantly inspired by this, since she thinks it’s the most universal thing that bonds us all. And on the album, she certainly reminds us that there is a lot of overlap between the emotions.

Love + Fear is most definitely Marina’s best album to date and may even go down as her magnum opus. Combining the philosophical and existential themes she explored on Froot with newfound socially conscious topics, she reminds us that trying to figure out humanity is anyone’s best guess—since we’re all in the same boat. Love + Fear goes much further lyrically and conceptually than her previous efforts, which seems fitting as her growth as an artist is easily documented and visible throughout all of her studio albums. On Love, she sings about looking to nature during a time where she felt physically detached from the world and expresses jealousy to spiders for having their place in the universe completely figured out—relatable, right? She preaches and repeats self-love mantras to remind herself that she’s okay as much as we’re okay, and laments that she, let alone everyone else, has yet to truly figure out what it means to be human. Marina sings about love on Love, but there’s also a looming sense of anxiety. But on Fear, she seems more comfortable in embracing her insecurities, trying to understand and accept the age-old unpredictability of life, and despite the underlying theme of fear, Marina is still optimistic about finding love—whatever form it may come in—on Fear. If Love comes across as maybe a bit too pleasant and focusing only on the proverbial positives in life, Fear makes the record feel like a complete album: a variety of conflicting emotions in a whirlwind of upbeat bops and slower ballads, with an incredibly intelligent touch of social consciousness and an attempt an at answer to humanity’s lingering questions not only for this generation, but for all of time.

Dropping “the Diamonds” in favor of being simply Marina might as well be a reassessment and reinvention of Diamandis’ entire career, since she feels both familiar and pleasantly refreshing on Love + Fear. She also seems clearly rejuvenated from her break from music, both lyrically and vocally, like she really has nothing to lose. “[Being an artist is] not my whole life anymore,” she told Vogue this month. “I love music, but I really come from a place of feeling like I have nothing to lose, and I think that’s healthy. I’m here because I want to be here and not because a fourth album was due, because I’m not someone to go through the motions. If I didn’t do music, there are so many other things I could do.” From telling us to let go of insecurities and anxiety to enjoy our lives as much as possible, to reminding us that life is strange and that kindness is a requirement to be strong, the album is a complete listening experience of love, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, and happiness—all at the same time. And since we are all pretty much in the same boat in this world, maybe embracing all of these emotions at once is what it truly means to be human.

Jeffrey’s favorites from Love + Fear: “Handmade Heaven,” “Superstar,” “Orange Trees,” “Enjoy Your Life,” “True,” “Life is Strange,” “Karma,” “No More Suckers,” and “Soft to Be Strong”

Two Game-Changing Teen Comedy Films Turning 20 This Year

1999 was quite the year for film. The Sixth Sense established M. Night Shyamalan as Hollywood’s premier suspense man with an affinity for surprise endings. Hilary Swank turned heads for her performance as a transgender man in Boys Don’t Cry, as did Angelina Jolie for her portrayal of a rebellious sociopath in Girl, Interrupted. Phil Collins won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song after creating one of the most memorable soundtracks of all-time for Disney’s Tarzan, and American Beauty received the most Academy Award nominations that year. But 1999 was also a seminal year for the teen comedy film—with two exceptional comedies in particular celebrating their twentieth anniversaries as timeless classics.

If anything, a majority of teen rom-coms released in 1999 had something in common: they set a trend for reimagining classics of literature as youth comedy films (not to mention Clueless had set the gold standard for the trend four years earlier in 1995, which was actually a retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma). She’s All That, starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook, was a ‘90s teen retelling of Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and 1964’s My Fair Lady. Cruel Intentions, featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, and Ryan Phillippe, reimagined the French novel Dangerous Liaisons—originally from 1782—as a ‘90s precursor to Gossip Girl set amongst wealthy New York City high school students instead of 18th-century France. Conversely, there was also Dick—a comical retelling of the real-life Watergate scandal starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams, as well as the notoriously misogynistic but still somehow endearingly beloved American Pie, whose plot historically speaks for itself. Amidst this crowded backdrop of comedy films targeted at teens and youth, 10 Things I Hate About You—a loose modernization of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew—arrived and changed the landscape forever.

10 Things I Hate About You introduced us to a lot of faces. It was a breakthrough film for Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and made Heath Ledger a reluctant worldwide star. But the film also introduced us to the one and only Kat Stratford, portrayed by Stiles. In a nutshell, Kat is an unabashed misfit who refuses to fit in at her high school or play by the standards set by anyone else but herself. Her younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is the complete opposite—a charming and perky queen bee who is admired and desired by half of their school’s male population. The problem? Their strict father will not allow Bianca to date until Kat does, presenting a large conundrum considering Kat refuses to conform or play by the rules, leading her to appear undesirable at best to the “unwashed miscreants” at her school. In a turn of events, Cameron (Gordon-Levitt)—who wants to date Bianca—enlists the help of the mysterious and feared burnout Patrick Verona (Ledger) to take out Kat so he can ask out Bianca. As most 20th-century rom-coms go, pandemonium ensues and betrayal is in the air—but it resolves itself neatly enough for a happy ending. The difference here, however, is that someone like Kat Stratford had gone completely unrepresented until 10 Things I Hate About You hit theatres in 1999, and she completely reinvented the mold for female misfits.

Julia Stiles as Kat and Larisa Oleynik as Bianca in 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999 (Photo: Buena Vista Pictures)

Misfit girls weren’t unheard of when 10 Things I Hate About You came out, but they were still far from normalized or taken as seriously as head cheerleaders or perky it-girls. Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) burst onto the screen with her unhidden eccentricities and weirdness in The Breakfast Club, and one could even say Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) from Pretty in Pink was a misfit protagonist for her supposedly unusual ambitions, embraced independence, and less fortunate upbringing, but she was far from breaking the mold as far as unconventional visions of women go. Even Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) from She’s All That wasn’t much of a misfit protagonist since she was apparently always beautiful under her geeky glasses and ugly overalls—it’s hard to truly frame a female character as a misfit when the given underlying implication is that they never really had to be misfits in the first place, combined with the fact that the “happy ending” in these tales is finally fitting in, whatever that means, or worse; being taught how to fit in. But 10 Things I Hate About You did what the aforementioned films could not: they made the female misfit cool. Unlike Allison Reynolds or Laney Boggs, Kat Stratford never needed someone to notice her or bring her out of her shell, simply because she didn’t care. Kat exuded a level of primal independence and self-confidence that is still scarcely presented to audiences, let alone women, in such an abrasive and unapologetic way. Kat didn’t care what people thought. She could call Ernest Hemingway an alcoholic misogynist in her English class without flinching, and could smash the car of her school’s cocky pretty boy when he wouldn’t move out of her way. She stood out not only because she didn’t feel the need to fit in, but because she was confident enough in herself to not care about other people’s perceptions of her. For a teenage girl to be portrayed with such power to summon the strength inside herself outside of other people’s expectations is nothing short of revolutionary. Most teenagers would be too self-conscious to be such an open outcast, but Kat Stratford led by example. She threw everyone’s expectations of her out the window in favor of who she wanted to be. “I don’t like to do what people expect,” she says. “Why should I live up to other people’s expectations instead of my own?” Kat didn’t even have to sacrifice her rebellious, grunge rock-loving exterior to be taken seriously by a male counterpart, something that is practically ingrained in most other female misfit narratives. Even twenty years later, she is still so refreshing as a young female character who was not only allowed to be an angry girl but as someone who refused to let anyone get in her way. She helped bring female nonconformists into the mainstream and redefine the rules for them, giving women more of a platform to be people with stories rather than a vessel to further a man’s story. Kat’s impact on female narratives was evident by the time Legally Blonde followed in 2001, and certainly helped create other misfit characters like Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) in Mean Girls or Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) in Juno.

Drew Barrymore as Josie Geller and Michael Vartan as Sam Coulson in Never Been Kissed, 1999 (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Much like the female-written and female-driven nature of 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999 brought us another groundbreaking and, in many ways, revolutionary romantic comedy film: Never Been Kissed, starring Drew Barrymore in the professional debut of her own production company, Flower Films. Although the film’s clumsy but loveable protagonist Josie Geller is fundamentally different from the battle cries of the unapologetically feminist and self-confident Kat Stratford, Never Been Kissed is revolutionary in many of the same ways. Josie, portrayed by Barrymore in one of the best roles of her career, is the youngest copyeditor at the Chicago Sun-Times and dreams of being a reporter. One day that very dream comes true when she is selected by the loud head of the paper (Garry Marshall) to go undercover as a high school student to learn more about kids and teenagers today (well, in 1999). Although she jumps at the chance to finally be a reporter, Josie’s brother Rob (David Arquette) quickly reminds her that she didn’t exactly have the easiest of times in high school—cruelly nicknamed “Josie Grossie” by her peers, she was the epitome of the class nerd and it becomes evident that Josie, like most people, has not fully healed from the scars left by the relentless bullying. Nevertheless, she accepts the challenge and returns to high school, where she is very quickly befriended by nerdy mathlete Aldys (Leelee Sobieski) and begins to assume the same role she held in high school the first time. But soon, her boss Gus (John C. Reilly) insists that she must befriend the popular kids (Jessica Alba and James Franco are among them, in their film debuts) since that’s where the stories are, and not only does Rob return to high school as well to lead the charge but Josie is subconsciously falling for her English teacher Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan), who also has feelings for her. In the midst of showcasing Barrymore’s hidden talent and strength for physical comedy, Never Been Kissed emerged as a happy ending for all misfits—female or otherwise—who were bullied, ignored, and tossed aside. Kids who are bullied are taught that there will be a silver lining, but rarely was there a film or a character that accurately portrayed what it’s like to be that person in high school and carry those scars into adulthood. Never Been Kissed is Josie’s redemption narrative, and can serve as the same for anyone who sees themselves in her shoes. Like Kat Stratford, Josie Geller is strong and resilient—just in different ways. She may have not fully recovered from the torture experienced at the hand of the popular kids in school the first time around, but like most who are marginalized, she did emerge stronger from the experience. How else would she have conjured the strength to accept her first, triggering challenge as a reporter? Josie also reminds us that there is value in being bullied or misunderstood—that sometimes our greatest weakest is also our greatest strength—and opened the doors for other female narratives of the same nature: would we have gotten to experience the stories told by Bianca (Mae Whitman) in The DUFF, Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) in The Edge of Seventeen, or even Kayla (Elsie Fisher) in Eighth Grade if it weren’t for Josie Geller? I’m doubtful. Never Been Kissed helped to forge the idea that geeks, nerds, and misfits are just as interesting if not more interesting than the popular kids.

Drew Barrymore on the set of Never Been Kissed with director Raja Gosnell (Source: Zimbio)

The main difference between 10 Things I Hate About You and Never Been Kissed, which both changed the game for teen comedy films in their own way, is the contemporary discourse that has followed them. The universal consensus is that, two decades later, 10 Things I Hate About You is a classic while Never Been Kissed has somehow not aged as well and is seen as mildly problematic. Since both films celebrated their twentieth anniversaries in the last two months, various publications have felt the need to assume a position on how the films have aged. Regardless of any indiscretions brought about by 10 Things I Hate About You, much of the literature surrounding its anniversary has been positive and celebrates how very few other teen comedy flicks—if any—have managed to replicate such a unique and empowering narrative. Never Been Kissed, however, has not been re-embraced as lovingly, since most publications have chosen to focus on the fact that Josie’s teacher Mr. Coulson actively develops feelings for her, someone he believed to be a student, and was angry at the discovery of her ruse. Anne Cohen from Refinery29 believes that what is more shocking and perhaps dated is that Josie’s boss insists that Coulson is “the story,” a.k.a. the man falling for the supposed student. She also writes that the film frames “inappropriate and predatory relationships either in the rosy glow of fantasy romance, or playing them for laughs.” In the same vein, Zoe Beaty from Grazia magazine claims that Never Been Kissed has distinctly misogynistic undertones from the very beginning since men at a newspaper are “obsessed with what schoolgirls are up to” (which isn’t the story at all; I have to wonder if some writers actually watch or rewatch the films they’re assigned to write about for a given anniversary). She also writes that the film “isn’t exactly… woke. Not at all, actually. Even at its most basic it’s about a successful reporter who won’t ever be happy with herself until the cool kids say she’s ‘sexy.’ But it did allow us to spend upwards of two months telling our friends that guys were ‘crunching’ on them (‘do I want to be crunched?’) and there are at least four dance routines to feast on.” I think they may be confusing Never Been Kissed with She’s All That, but what these and other publications fail to take into account is that Josie’s relationship with her teacher was a) not the point of the story and b) cannot be considered overtly inappropriate considering the newspaper, let alone the audience, knows that Josie is actually a consenting adult. In fact, Coulson’s first encounter with Josie in class is to ask if she’s really 17—implying that even he had his doubts. Still, the consensus surrounding Never Been Kissed is that it’s problematic because a teacher falls for someone he believes to be a student, and that the film harbors misogynistic undertones.

Look, misogyny is literally everywhere if you look hard enough. But what I think is misogynistic is the fact that, twenty years later, we’ve chosen to discuss how Never Been Kissed is somehow problematic for a plot point involving a man that is in no way the main focus of the story. Even Michael Vartan chimed in on the supposedly “creepy” nature of his character’s motives, saying he believed it’s completely inappropriate but did come to Mr. Coulson’s defense by stating, “I don’t think he lusted for her. It certainly wasn’t a physical thing. I mean, obviously she’s beautiful, but I think … he just sort of fell for her as a human being. He’s just really taken by her spirit and her soul and, you know, maybe deep down inside he felt like there’s no way this girl is 17, but on the surface, a teacher hitting on a student of any gender for that matter who is underage is completely inappropriate.” The film is Josie’s journey to healing past wounds and finding her professional calling, all while providing new representation for female nerds and misfits. Maybe we should focus more on that than the male supporting character who is now supposedly a predator when that’s not the deal. We shouldn’t force meaning where it doesn’t belong just for the sake of appearing current and relevant. 1999 was twenty years ago, and times change. Trends change, and people change, too. Things that cross a line or are considered risqué today might not have been seen that way twenty years ago for various reasons, and it gets even stickier if you go further back in time. It’s impossible for a single cultural text to hold up in every context for the remainder of time, but that doesn’t mean they always become invalid or necessarily “problematic.” Songs performed by Letters to Cleo probably wouldn’t fly in teen rom-coms today like it did in 10 Things I Hate About You. But whatever the interpretation, these two films were among many that set the tone for romantic comedies in the 21st century and new millennium, and without them we might never have met some of our favorite rom-com characters of the present day.

14 Songs That Were Intended as Singles But Scrapped Later

Before the days of streaming, choosing the right lead single, especially for a pop album, was a drastically crucial decision. Some songs just scream “lead single” and have the potential to become worldwide hits, while others are destined as album tracks that would not go as well on the radio or on television. Often times a pop lead single will be something upbeat or catchy to catch the listener’s attention, and then the possibility for slower songs or ballads becomes more available to showcase range and versatility.

For listeners, it may often seem obvious which songs should be lead singles, but sometimes the fans, the charts, and the artists say otherwise. Sometimes changes are made at the last minute that have nothing to do with charts or reactions, but more something the artist decided felt right. Did you know that “Havana” was not originally Camila Cabello’s debut solo single? Or that Gwen Stefani had recorded an entirely different album that she scrapped before releasing This is What the Truth Feels Like in 2016? These are fourteen songs that were intended as singles but scrapped later.

“Crying in the Club” – Camila Cabello

After her messy exit from girl group Fifth Harmony at the end of 2016, “Crying in the Club” was released as Camila Cabello’s debut solo single, co-written by Sia and Benny Blanco. The song was originally intended as the lead single from her forthcoming debut album initially titled The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving., with Cabello stating that she wanted her album to tell “the story of [her] journey from darkness into light, from a time when [she] was lost to a time when [she] found [herself] again.” She released another single called “I Have Questions” soon thereafter which was also set to be included on the album, representing “the healing” part of the title, with Cabello explaining on social media: “I realized I wasn’t making music just to make an album anymore, I was making this music to heal, it wasn’t until I had made enough songs to listen back to and realized I could hear myself coming back through these songs. I didn’t write it with the intention of delivering a message, but I realized the message was in the hurting, the healing, and the loving.” However, following the mass success of a third single called “Havana”—a future number-one worldwide hit fused with contagious Latin energy—Cabello later confirmed that all previous singles had been scrapped from her debut album, with the title being changed to simply Camila. She told The New York Times that she changed the album title partly to rid herself of drama, and explained in another interview that she felt “Crying in the Club” and “I Have Questions” no longer represented the artist she had become. Regardless, the song has since become a cult classic—with many fans championing that “Crying in the Club” was worthy of the success “Havana” saw—emphasizing the need to dance your troubles away when you’re feeling melancholy.

“Focus” – Ariana Grande

“Focus” was released in October 2015 as the intended lead single from Ariana Grande’s third studio album originally titled Moonlight, but after the song only saw moderate chart success and received mixed reviews from critics (with many noting it sounded too similar to Grande’s 2014 hit “Problem”), the single was scrapped from the album and Grande promptly forgot it ever existed. “Focus” was, however, included as a Japanese bonus track on what would end up being her third studio album, Dangerous Woman. Dee Locket from Vulture later articulated why the song was removed from the album, writing that the song's rollout was not “remembered as a success – it was calculated to a fault, too polished for a time when pop’s biggest stars, particularly its women, were letting their flaws bleed into the music.”

“Baby Don’t Lie” – Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani released “Baby Don’t Lie” as her comeback single in October 2014, marking her first solo release since 2006. A month earlier, she had confirmed that she had been in the studio making a new solo studio album with Pharrell Williams, who said, “When I tell you she’s killing it, it’s another level.” Stefani released a second single from the album in December, “Spark the Fire,” and revealed she had worked with Calvin Harris, Charli XCX, and Sia on the album but confirmed the following month that she was slowing down the recording process, feeling that it was not yet complete. She also performed a Sia-written track called “Start a War” in concert around this time, but the song was never released physically. After filing for divorce from her husband of thirteen years in August 2015, Stefani later revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she had scrapped the album and started again, since “[i]t didn't feel right. [...] I didn’t feel fulfilled. That record with Benny [Blanco] was done that way because I had just given birth and had just started on The Voice and felt like I should do something in music, but what was I going to do? There wasn’t enough time. So I tried to make a record where I was just kind of involved—which is how a lot of people do it, but it didn’t work for me.” What would become Stefani’s third studio album, This is What the Truth Feels Like, was released in March 2016 and neither “Baby Don’t Lie” or “Spark the Fire” appeared on it, with the singer favoring an honest, emotional approach on the record which is clearly reflected in the title.

“Flame” – Tinashe

Turns out that R&B phenomenon Tinashe actually released three intended lead singles for her second studio album Joyride and scrapped them all. She first released the song “Player” featuring Chris Brown as the album’s lead single in October 2015, but scrapped it soon after. In July 2016, she released “Superlove” as the new intended lead single for the project, but it too was soon scrapped. “Flame” followed as the third intended lead single from Joyride in March 2017, which is probably one of her best songs but was a commercial flop. In a 2018 interview, Tinashe claimed that releasing “Flame” as the album’s new lead single was her label’s idea, stating, “I wasn’t forced, but it was one of these situations where it was like, ‘Okay, I will trust you guys and this is what you believe is the best decision so I’m going to get behind it,’ because that’s more advantageous than to sabotage my own songs... And when that wasn’t necessarily successful, I realized that it was my turn to get back into the driver’s seat as far as curating every move I made from there on out.” All three scrapped singles would end up appearing on the album…as Japanese bonus tracks.

“All About You” – Hilary Duff

(A shot of Duff allegedly from the photoshoot for the album she scrapped in 2014. Source: Twitter)
When Hilary Duff made her long-awaited return to music in 2014, she released two new singles from an upcoming new album: “Chasing the Sun” and “All About You,” with the former being a rather glib homage to enjoying youth out in the sun while the latter showed catchy comeback promise. Both saw folk-pop and acoustic pop influences, which Duff stated was the sound she wanted for her comeback album. That folk-pop album was originally said to be released by the end of that year, with a photoshoot for said album later leaking on Twitter, but by February 2015 Duff was working on a new dance-oriented direction for the album and confirmed she had been working with several producers and songwriters including Tove Lo on new tracks. Duff’s fifth studio album and first since 2007, Breathe In. Breathe Out., followed that June and while it has been considered to have underperformed commercially, it has since become a cult classic for many pop music fans. Some of the folk and acoustic pop tracks were included on the final track listing, with some new dance-pop tunes in between including “Sparks,” “One in a Million,” and “Stay in Love,” to name only a few. Duff described the album’s change in direction in an interview with MTV, saying that the album is “a range of stuff” and stated, “I would say definitely in the beginning when I started writing, it was pretty heavy, coming out of my past year of life. It's changed since then, which is good because I think that the overall theme too – me, personally, I’m not this super heavy girl. You know? I’m one for the sunshine, so it’s shifted a lot and it feels a lot better to me. […] I definitely want people to feel like they’re getting a glimpse into my life and what I’m made of. I am a normal girl who has had a not-so-normal life. I feel like my fans have stuck with me because they can relate to me and I want them to. I want them to feel like we could go out and have a fun night together. I want them to know that my heart has been broken, but it’s not the end of the world. Life goes on. I want them to feel like I’m there for them. I want them to feel happy. And I want them to know that I care and that I have cared about them all this time.” While “All About You” and “Chasing the Sun” were scrapped as singles, they were included on the album as (you guessed it!) Japanese bonus tracks.

“Here’s to the Zeroes” – Marianas Trench

Marianas Trench initially recorded “Here’s to the Zeroes,” a misfit anthem, for their fourth studio album Astoria, but the song didn’t end up making the final cut. The song was, however, included on a new EP that preceded Astoria called Something Old / Something New, containing two old songs that were scrapped from previous albums and two newer songs that were scrapped from Astoria, with the other song in that category being a track called “Pop 101”—initially released as the intended lead single from Astoria in July 2014.

“Find You” – Nick Jonas

Nick Jonas released “Find You” in September 2017 as the intended lead single from his upcoming third studio album…which still has yet to materialize. Amid a series of soundtrack songs and collaborations with other artists, Jonas claimed the song was from his third solo album which was already complete at the time of the single’s release, telling Official Charts that “Find You” is “the start to the campaign” and that he had a full body of work already finished. “I think it is some of my strongest work yet,” he said. “It tells the story of this last year and a half of my life and I found real optimism in the creative process this time around which was different and exciting for me.” And yet, a third solo album from Nick Jonas does not appear to be on the horizon any time soon, given that it’s been nearly two years and this year he has reunited with the family band for a new album and tour, so I think it’s safe to assume that any further solo material from Jonas has been shelved for the foreseeable future.

“Who’s That Boy” – Demi Lovato feat. Dev

“Who’s That Boy,” a collaboration Demi Lovato did with female rapper Dev for her third studio album Unbroken in 2011, was initially supposed to be released as the second single from the album following “Skyscraper,” but the plan was scrapped after Dev announced a pregnancy that would complicate promotion for the single. Thus, “Give Your Heart a Break” was released as the second and final single from Unbroken in January 2012, which Lovato said became the inspiration for new material on her fourth studio album Demi. So it’s a wonder if Demi would be in the same place musically if “Who’s That Boy” was the second single instead of “Give Your Heart a Break”… Sounds like it could be the premise for an alternate reality episode of a sitcom.

“Ain’t Your Mama” – Jennifer Lopez

In 2016, six years after leaving the label, Jennifer Lopez returned to Epic Records and Sony Music Entertainment for a new record deal. A few months later, she released “Ain’t Your Mama” as the expected lead single from an upcoming new album. The song was originally written by Meghan Trainor and Dr. Luke in 2014 for Trainor’s debut studio album, but didn’t make the cut. Lopez described the concept behind the song as “very empowering” and explained, “Guys have this tendency, once they love you in the beginning and you’re the hottest woman on Earth, and then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Okay... where’s my food?’ It’s like, ‘What?! Are you kidding me? Take me out! What are you doing right now?’” Despite signing a multi-album deal with the label and “Ain’t Your Mama” receiving generous promotion and radio play in North America, J.Lo’s ninth studio album has yet to appear and, three years later, it’s doubtful if “Ain’t Your Mama” would still appear on the project.

“In My Blood” – The Veronicas

An incredibly catchy dance-pop club anthem, The Veronicas released “In My Blood” in June 2016 as the lead single from their upcoming fourth studio album, which was said to follow in 2017. The group later confirmed they would not be releasing a new album that year and chose to hold all further releases until 2018, with yet another single called “The Only High” being released. As of 2019, The Veronicas have recently released another new single called “Think of Me” and their fourth studio album is generally expected to arrive this year, but whether or not 2016 singles “In My Blood” and “On Your Side” will appear on the final track listing has yet to be deciphered.

“Sorry” – Naya Rivera feat. Big Sean

In 2011, Glee star Naya Rivera signed with Columbia Records following the success of her appearances on assorted soundtracks and singles from the series. What would end up being her only major-label release as a solo artist, a collaboration with her rapper boyfriend at the time called “Sorry,” followed over two years later in September 2013. By Rivera’s account, production on her debut album “kind of halted” due to “so many things going on,” stating, “Politics got involved so I've been putting it on the back burner; there are a lot of things that I'm doing that I'm excited about.” In May 2014, in what can only be described as a travesty since Naya Rivera has an incredible voice and was the best character on Glee, Columbia Records dropped her, claiming that her single had underperformed commercially. “Sorry” remains her only release as a recording artist.

“Power” – Kat Graham

In 2012, actress and The Vampire Diaries star Kat Graham signed with A&M/Octone Records and released her debut EP, Against the Wall, soon thereafter. The following year, “Power”—a contagiously high-energy bop about embracing the power within oneself—was released as the intended lead single from her forthcoming debut studio album. However, two more years would pass before Graham’s debut album would surface, and by that time she had left her record label in favor of an independent one. As a result, “Power” never saw the light of day again, but if you are in the market for a new workout song or just a good anthem to blast when you’re feeling good, buy and stream “Power” so it will get the justice it deserves!

“Alien” – Britney Spears

“Alien,” perhaps Britney Spears’ only attempt at an honest ballad about what it was like to be her growing up in the public eye, and simultaneously one of her most famously mocked songs, was originally intended to be released as the third single from her infamously underwhelming eighth studio album Britney Jean (Spears even said so herself in the documentary I Am Britney Jean). Although never explicitly stated or confirmed, the song was presumably scrapped as the third single due to the lukewarm chart performance of the second single “Perfume” or even the album as a whole (which would become her lowest-peaking record). “Alien” would also come under fire itself in 2014 when a version of Spears singing the song without pitch correction or auto-tune was leaked on YouTube. Critics and commentators immediately pounced on her apparent inability to hit the song’s high notes and many interpreted it as confirmation for a perceived lack of vocal ability over the years. William Orbit, the song’s producer, came to Spears’ defense saying that the leaked version was merely a vocal warm-up, something all artists do, and said, “Whomever put this on the internet must have done so in a spirit of unkindness, but it can in no way detract from the fact that Britney is and always will be beyond stellar! She is magnificent! And that’s that.” All things aside, “Alien” still remains one of Britney’s most honest songs and narratives, despite the heavily processed vocals and a vocal glitch that appears about two minutes into the song. It might not be anyone’s best work on the production side, but Spears offers a level of vulnerability on “Alien” that is scarcely offered in the rest of her body of work.

“Party For One” – Carly Rae Jepsen

Yes, apparently the rumors are true: “Party For One” has been scrapped as the lead single from Carly Rae’s upcoming fourth studio album Dedicated, set to be released on May 17, 2019. Jepsen initially released the self-care single as the first song from her next album last November, along with a music video. But by the time the next two singles arrived in February, “Now That I Found You” and “No Drug Like Me,” word on the street is that “Party For One” has been removed from the album’s final track listing. Definitely a shame, but I guess that just means the song will just have to be reclaimed as the masterpiece that it is and become a cult classic just like every other song on this list!

Why the Jonas Brothers' Reunion Feels Patriarchal

While there has already been plenty to be excited about in 2019, few musical or pop cultural events have made the impact of the Jonas Brothers’ reunion—especially since, more than anyone else, boy bands can rely on the high-pitched, nostalgic screams of their fans for success, considering it’s been a decade since their last album.

It is far from unheard of for boy bands or girl groups, which are almost always marketed towards kids or teenagers, to reunite or go on reunion tours—the Backstreet Boys, while never having officially broken up or gone on a lengthy hiatus, are one of few boy bands who have maintained commercial success long after their peak. In fact, their most recent studio album released this year, DNA, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and became the second largest gap between number one albums on the chart, at 19 years. Additionally, they became the first American boy band to top the U.S. charts in three different decades. The difference now, of course, being that the Backstreet Boys can no longer be considered a boy band—all of the current members are fully grown men, making it categorically impossible for them to still be classified as such. And yet, they still owe a large portion of their continued commercial success to the audience that they were marketed to as a boy band—young women. The Jonas Brothers, the famed three-piece family group that rose to fame on Disney Channel in the mid to late 2000s, officially reunited this year to release a new album—their first in ten years. The difference between the Backstreet Boys and the Jonas Brothers, however, is that the nostalgia of the Jonas’ return seems calculated—a cross between catering to the now-grown Disney audience that worshipped them as teenagers, and a mainstream pop market that still seems to bow down at the feet of grown men, and seek to tear down grown women.

Boy bands and girl groups have the special privilege of being considered among the most fabricated and manufactured of all pop music—the groups themselves are almost always created by talent managers or record labels, and even the strongest amount of chemistry between group members cannot distract from the fact that it leads them to appear, at least on a base level, unauthentic. Pop music, after all, is designed to sell, and when you are designing a girl group or boy band in this very way, selling out becomes quite literally the biggest priority. Boy bands in particular, however, have the distinct yet unfortunate angle of using the patriarchy to their advantage: since they are undoubtedly always marketed towards young women, chances are they are going to have movie-star good looks and at least some form of talent to bank on. In a culture and society that still very much caters to men and asks so little of them just because they are men, boy bands can continue to prosper again and again. From the Jackson 5 in the 1960s, to the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC in the late 1990s, to the Jonas Brothers in the 2000s, and One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer in the 2010s, boy bands can try very little and still be an enormously marketable opportunity—as long they’ve got their looks with perhaps a trendy haircut and some form of talent, their fate is almost immediately sealed: because they’re men. Yet, if we apply this same formula to some of the best remembered girl groups from the 2000s and beyond, almost all have crashed and burned: the Pussycat Dolls, Danity Kane, or Fifth Harmony. In this regard, it’s almost shocking that it took the better part of six years for the Jonas Brothers to execute a reunion, since not only do they have the impeccably simple formula of a boy band turned group of grown men under their belts, but they also have another angle that the fandoms of ‘NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys lack: Disney Channel nostalgia from their post-millennial fanbase.

The reunited Jonas Brothers on The Late Late Show with James Corden in March 2019 (Source: Getty Images/CBS)

Let’s get one thing straight: the Jonas Brothers have always been talented, and they have always been very handsome, with all three managing to maintain and improve upon their charm and good looks as they grew older. But what makes their 2019 reunion seem all the more calculated and playing to our patriarchal culture is that it didn’t feel like they even had to do much at all to be successful the second time around. I don’t intend to devalue the long hours of work in the studio recording new material, the long hours spent planning music videos and promotional press tours, or anything else that goes into an artist’s mainstream release. But when the Jonas Brothers were here the first time, on Disney Channel, they weren’t soaring to the top of charts. Their work performed modestly at best, and chart performance didn’t really need to matter to their management or label since they knew they had already soared into the hearts of millions of teenage girls and young women across the world. They didn’t need to worry about numbers on charts as much as they needed to worry more about moral clauses and messages they would be sending to their young fanbase. As some may recall, during their time as Disney stars, the Jonas Brothers prominently wore purity rings to symbolize and emphasize good values and establish themselves as good role models. This time around, as numerous publications have already reported, the Jonas Brothers are discussing the details of their time on Disney Channel more openly since they are no longer tied to the conglomerate (they have signed with Republic Records and Universal Music Group for their new releases this year).

When the reunited group appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden in March, Nick stated that he took pride in wearing the ring until he watched old interviews years later and lamented that he sounded like a robot. Joe stated that it was easy for them to say and think they believed those things when they were 12, since they were regular churchgoers and their father was a pastor, but by the time they were older and on Disney Channel, it was too late for them to take any of it back, and it was a firm part of their image. Joe also explained in an essay for New York magazine in 2013 that it felt like they were “in some cult and that we’re these little staged Mickey Mouse kids,” which upset him at the time because that’s never what they believed the group was about. It’s indeed easy to agree that it’s unrealistic and incredibly conservative to ask young teenagers their stance on premarital sex and expect them to maintain that attitude until adulthood. Perhaps it is for these reasons that, during Nick’s attempt at a solo career just a few years ago, he quickly became labelled a sex symbol, and stated in 2015 that he doesn’t see himself as such but it’s fine if others do since his only goal was to “make sexy music and push the envelope a bit.” Even Joe—whose own solo career was significantly less successful in comparison to Nick’s—achieved a top 10 hit with his funk-pop band DNCE in 2015, “Cake by the Ocean,” whose lyrics were definitely suggestive and laced with double entendre. True, maybe we can see that the Jonas Brothers have “worked hard to shed their once-wholesome image,” as W magazine puts it. But if we can speak fairly and realistically for just a moment—it really didn’t take much at all for the group to shed their wholesome image from Disney Channel. At least not nearly as much as Miley Cyrus, whose own sorted history speaks for itself at this point, or even other Disney stars from the same and prior eras as the Jonas’: Hilary Duff, Ashley Tisdale, or even Selena Gomez—who, just the same as any of the aforementioned women, is still trying to find her footing as an adult artist. If we compare on even the smallest of scales, how hard was it for the Jonas Brothers to find adult success, since they all managed to age wonderfully and beautifully into handsome, grown men? Purity rings and wholesomeness aside, did it really take much for them to find continued success as adults? Was it as hard for them to leave their Disney Channel image behind as it was for Miley Cyrus to break free of Hannah Montana? Did we cringe and spew hatred at Nick Jonas when he posed provocatively and sang that he still gets jealous, in the same way that we did when Miley Cyrus said she can’t be tamed or started licking sledgehammers? The answer to all of these questions is an overwhelming no, merely because they are still handsome, marketable men in a patriarchal industry—which makes them just as marketable in 2019 as they were in 2009, an advantage that is simply unavailable to most female teen stars, since that very industry that allows men to prosper no matter what still refuses to let young women age. Hilary Duff, who was undeniably a much bigger star in the early to mid 2000s than the Jonas Brothers ever were, has not been allowed the same level of comeback success, simply because she’s a woman. Why did “Sucker”—the Jonas’ comeback single—hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart but any number of Duff’s attempts at a comeback single, from “All About You” to “Sparks,” flop miserably? Management and promotion certainly plays a part in this, but cultural reactions and interpretations matter more. Did entertainment news outlets and popular culture react with the same level of disdain for the Jonas Brothers losing their purity rings merely because it was unrealistic as they did when Miley Cyrus acted outrageously as she could for years, all to prove to anyone who would listen that she’s not Hannah Montana anymore? So when we say that the Jonas Brothers have “worked hard” to shed their once-wholesome image, did they really? The answer, again, is no.

New promotional image of the reunited Jonas Brothers, 2019 (Source: Peggy Sirota/Rolling Stone)

Aside from the fact that “Sucker” and “Cool”—the Jonas Brothers’ two new singles—are catchy, they don’t appear progressive whatsoever. Without the appearances from their respective wives and fiancées in the latter’s music video, with a bit less glitzy production and “adult” lyrics, and maybe with Nick and Joe showing a bit less chest hair, they could have easily been songs from their original run. Even the Backstreet Boys, who have successfully managed the transition from boy band to group of grown men, understand the importance of progressing and trying new things. “Sucker” and “Cool” don’t appear to show any real depth beyond displaying the rugged good looks of its members (Nick in particular, let’s just be honest), and again, clearly they don’t have to. The Jonas Brothers don’t need to display depth or growth with their reunion because they’ve proved that they still fit the same formula that applied to them when they were a boy band, and that will undoubtedly ensure their success because they’re men and they’re pretty. Not to say that all pop music has to have a darker, more mature side—sometimes you just need a happy-go-lucky song you can dance to—but one would think if you are given such a platform with a formula for instant success, perhaps you could do more with it. Yes, maybe more is coming; we don’t know yet. But in the current pop music landscape where women have to fight to be heard and prove themselves worthy of whatever it is they are after; the Jonas Brothers’ commercially successful reunion just feels patriarchal. Not because they are untalented, but because the same level of commitment, resilience, and versatility that is demanded of female pop stars is not asked of them in the least. Even if they weren’t extremely nice to look at, both as teenagers and grown men, they still would find renewed success so much easier than any number of female pop stars of the same caliber. The same can be said if we compare other boy bands to girl groups. When Zayn Malik left One Direction, I seem to remember tears were shed and hearts were broken, but supporting both Zayn as a solo artist and One Direction for their last album without him did not appear like that much of a conundrum. But when Camila Cabello left Fifth Harmony, battle lines were drawn within the group and the fandom, vicious and bitter statements were made, and claws came out. Why is it that female pop stars are not allowed the same freedom and platform for success as male pop stars? Why is it that the Jonas Brothers can get their first number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 without even trying that hard but Hilary Duff—who again, at her peak, was a much bigger star that any Jonas Brother ever was—couldn’t find the same renewed success with her 2015 comeback album Breathe In. Breathe Out.? It’s because mainstream media still caters largely to our patriarchal culture, making it easy for male pop stars to do the bare minimum and still have thousands of screaming fans at his feet, but simultaneously making it unnecessarily hard for female pop stars to do the bare minimum and expect the same results.

Maybe it’s because kids who grew up watching Hilary Duff on Disney Channel were conditioned to believe that she was just a teen pop star whom everyone would outgrow, while fascination with the Jonas Brothers as they grew up never withered. Their reunion could not have come as a shock to even the most culturally ignorant of people, as fans have campaigned for their reunion for years. Yet when female pop stars from similar eras release comeback albums, like Hilary Duff or even most recently Ashley Tisdale, it feels as though their new music is tossed aside and does not see nearly as much mainstream commercial success as it should. Tisdale, just like the Jonas Brothers, is also gearing up to release her first studio album in ten years. Titled Symptoms, the album is said to lyrically explore the symptoms of anxiety and depression, bringing such a relevant and lively angle to pop music. But despite the fact that the album is being released by an independent label (Tisdale actually has more social media followers than her label does), it’s easily predictable that Symptoms won’t see nearly as much commercial success as the handsome Jonas Brothers singing they’re a sucker for you. I don’t wish the Jonas Brothers themselves any ill will; they are talented and they are handsome. They are also planning to release a documentary with Amazon Studios chronicling the road to their reunion. I just wish we could ask more of male pop stars like them so that everyone else wouldn’t have to try as hard to get not nearly as far as they have.