Various Artists – Barbie: The Album
Mentioning the phrase “pop music” seems to illicit a lot of reactions, usually within the realms of “I love it” and “I hate it.” Most people either seem to love pop music, or at the very least, certain artists within it, or they loathe it. I wanted to preface this review with my own rather complicated history with pop, because pop music is a genre that I have a rather strange “relationship” with. I got into music during the early to mid-00s, when pop music was in an interesting place, thanks to house / dubstep music being huge, and a lot of well-established artists now were just getting started, such as Lady Gaga, Kesha, The Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and many more, but pop music was starting to become boring and bland. I was also much more into emo, pop-punk, and metalcore, although I would come to realize years later, a lot of the pop-punk that I listened to was merely pop-rock with an emo lens through it. Thirteen-year-old me thought I was the bee’s knees for listening to that edgier and darker kind of music (I did like some “classic rock” at the time, too), and I thought that was “real music,” as every preteen and teenager tends to think during adolescence. I just didn’t find anything to like when it came to “mainstream” music, but that all changed in the winter of 2012.
I remember it like yesterday, because it was one of those things you won’t forget. I was in FYE, and I had just discovered the magic of that store, but I was looking around for whatever I could find. I was always looking for anything at all, and I could spend hours in music stores, but I ended up finding a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Say what you will about Jackson as a person, as well as his legacy, but Thriller is one of the best albums ever made. Without going detail into it, it’s a record that I knew about without even knowing anything about pop music. It’s one of those albums that I knew I needed to hear, so I picked it up for a good price (they always had stuff on sale, too, and that really helped my decision picking it up), and I ended up falling head over heels for it. What was interesting, however, is that, despite being released in the 1980s, it changed my perception of what pop music is, let alone what it can be. Ever since then, I became a fan of pop music, and for years after, I enjoyed plenty of pop records, such as albums from Justin Timberlake, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Harry Styles’ solo material, just to name a few artists, but listening to that record opened up a whole new world for me.
Pop music, at its core, is escapism. Whether it’s from their own lives, or wanting to live through their favorite pop singers, they want to escape. The same can be said for all kinds of music, but pop music has always been “popular” for a reason. When people think of pop music, they think of catchy, accessible, and “safe” music that doesn’t push boundaries or offend anyone. When I listened to Thriller, that misconception was completely shattered. That was when I took pop music seriously, and every now and again, you can find a great pop record, but a lot of pop music is still relatively safe, tame, and bland. Not that it’s bad, but it doesn’t push any boundaries, although that’s not the point, since it’s to sell records and make money.
I’ve found myself not as interested in pop music over the years, thanks to own tastes shifting, and pop music as a whole changing. It just hasn’t appealed to me, minus a few artists, but every once in awhile, I’ll find something I like and that “something” right now is the Barbie movie soundtrack. This film, released just a few weeks ago, is the latest topic in the pop culture zeitgeist, alongside Oppenheimer, and alongside the film, a soundtrack was released that caught my curiosity by featuring some of the most popular names in pop, such as Lizzo, Khalid, the Kid Laroi, Dua Lipa, Karol G, and Billie Eilish, although one of the big songs from this record is the remix / interpolation of “Barbie Girl” by Aqua that features Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. That’s a very stacked list of artists, let alone the whole record being produced by Mark Ronson of “Uptown Funk” fame.
Despite not listening to a lot of pop music anymore, I was curious to see how this soundtrack would pan out, especially not having seen the film yet. You can talk about this album in two ways, the first being how it holds up on its own as a soundtrack, and the second as a soundtrack after seeing the film, but because I haven’t seen the movie yet, I thought I’d first talk about it on its own, and then talk about it again once I see the movie, or write a small companion piece to along with this. Soundtracks typically are companion pieces to the movie or show they accompany, and there is often an expectation that they need to be as good, if not better, than the work they’re apart of. I won’t comment on the film, as I haven’t seen it yet, but I will say that the soundtrack works quite well on its own. The soundtrack doesn’t say anything or do anything that pushes any kind of boundary, and it does what you’d expect a Barbie soundtrack to do, which is give you an album’s worth of catchy, fun, and summery jams, and that’s okay! I’ve talked about many times how not everything needs to be deep, and this is a perfect example of that.
The Barbie soundtrack is fun, lighthearted, catchy, and enjoyable from beginning to end. A lot of the songs are quite good, if not great, and it feels like a cohesive soundtrack, instead feeling like a random soundtrack, instead feeling like a random assortment of artists. I’m curious as to how these songs work in the film, but a lot of solid tracks are here, such as “Pink” by Lizzo, “Speed Drive” by Charlie XCX, “Silver Platter” by Khalid, or the “Barbie Girl” remix I mentioned earlier. It won’t blow your mind, or ultimately change the way you think about pop music, but it’s a fun ride through the world of Barbie. There are a few standouts, such as Billie Eilish’s “What Were We Made For,” which I guarantee is going to do some numbers in the coming weeks, but there are also a few songs that don’t add anything or do anything, such as the Tame Impala song “Journey To The Real World,” which seems to have a better purpose in the movie, but it’s only a minute long, so it doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Haim has a song, too, entitled “Home,” and it’s a good song, but it’s nothing really that special. I enjoy listening to it, but I wouldn’t pretend it’s one of my favorites. If anything at all, listen to the soundtrack and pick out your favorites, but I don’t think anything on here is worth outright skipping, although Gayle (who’s famous for “abcdefu” from a couple of years ago) does have a weird song that interpolates “Butterfly” by Crazy Town. It’s kind of fun, but also very weird and makes no sense, especially for the Barbie movie, so I don’t know how that song fits into the overall narrative, but it’s a decent song, nonetheless.
I’m interested to see how the songs from the soundtrack fit into the film, so when I go back and listen to the soundtrack after seeing it, I can picture the songs in my head. I’m very excited to see how “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the movie, fits into the film, because that’s one of the funniest songs here. Nonetheless, this is a soundtrack that works for what it is – a catchy and fun good time. You don’t need anything more sometimes, since not everything needs to be deep, challenging, or have an underlying message to it. Sometimes a song or album can be fun, and you can enjoy it merely on a surface level. Sometimes enjoying things at face value is all you need. Pop music is at an interesting place right now because there’s nothing happening within the genre. I mean, the top three songs in the country as of this moment are country songs, so there’s no trend or overall idea that’s getting traction, unless you look at the trends of artists interpolating songs (the “Barbie Girl” remix is a perfect example of that), or the influence of nostalgia, but pop music is at a crossroads right now, so it’ll be interesting to see how this soundtrack charts and the impact that is has, especially since the film itself is doing very well at the moment. If you’re a fan of pop music, it’s worth hearing, because it has some catchy and fun summer jams on it, even if it won’t necessarily change your life.
