According to Shallow.com, aka The New Yorker, Constantly Repeating “I’m so f---in’ grateful for my ex” Makes Ariana Grande a “pop auteur” (Language Alert)

 

“In her new song ‘thank u, next,’ Ariana Grande suggests that, if the ache of a breakup is going to be out there online anyway, why not lay it bare for people to see and hear and meme?”
 

By Nicholas Stix

Once every year or three, I try reading one of the things printed in The New Yorker--you know, the magazine that used to publish elegant essays by E.B. White?--and am again reminded that I haven’t been missing anything.

Once upon a time, I would send the magazine poems and little essays, and post the rejection slips (along with the ones from other publications) to my master bedroom’s double doors. I was particularly proud of the occasional signed, personalized rejection. But now, why would I want to submit work to a rag that publishes DNC talking points non-stop, and things by the likes of Paula Mejia?

Mejia’s language is hyperbole mixed with inappropriate word choices. How is Grande a “pop auteur”? How is her new song “twinkling”?

“Shortly after its release, scores of memes riffing on the pre-chorus—'one taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain’—”

I don’t hear any of this. The only thing I can make out through all the noise is the constant f-word refrain.

The noise is a loud, disco house mix. I once went to a disco in West Germany in September, 1980. A beautiful Turkish girl from my language institute had asked me out. I couldn’t hear a word she said, and then the date was interrupted by a knife-wielding, Turkish guest worker who had no relation to her, but who had decided that because they were both Turkish, he owned her.

I was going to deal with the mope, but she insisted I go home, and that she would deal with him. Thank goodness, she got out of it alright.

We never went out on another date, and I don’t believe I ever patronized another disco.

Back to the great Paula Mejia:

“It’s telling that Grande released her breakup jam shortly before the airing of an episode of “Saturday Night Live”—the show in which her ex-fiancé, the comedian Pete Davidson, is a cast member.”

Since SNL airs every week, every day is “shortly before the airing of an episode.”

“She belts” out the f-line, according to Mejia, but that’s false. She sings it nice and easy.

“Her breezy tone makes the inherent punch line that much sweeter:”

What punch line? What sweetness? And what happened to her "belt[ing]" out the line?

“Grande is not losing any sleep over Sean or Ricky, and these past ruptures have now landed her a No. 1 track. (‘God forbid something happens, least this song is a smash,’ she notes, in a moment of pop premonition.) ‘I’ve learned from the pain,’ she sings. ‘I turned out amazing.’”

[N.S.: She suffers from toxically high self-esteem, but for Mejia, this is a good thing.]

“With ‘thank u, next,’ Grande suggests that, if this ache is going to be out there online anyway—especially for her, as one of the biggest pop stars in the world—why not lay it bare for people to see and hear and meme?”

What “pain” What “ache”? Mejia just told us that Grande feels nothing over these breakups. Grande’s own words celebrate her narcissism and shallowness.

The New Yorker, Paula Mejia, and Ariana Grande—perfect go-togethers for an age of social media.

The funny thing is that the pandering isn’t going to get The New Yorker many Ariana Grande fans, who are just not into rags with literary pretensions.

 

 

Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” Is the Breakup Song for the Social-Media Age
By Paula Mejía
November 15, 2018
The New Yorker

Just before midnight on Saturday, November 3rd, the pop auteur Ariana Grande unexpectedly released a new single, the twinkling “thank u, next.” Unannounced song drops are less surprising than inevitable in pop music these days, and not all of them stick the landing. Grande’s track found immediate resonance. Shortly after its release, scores of memes riffing on the pre-chorus—“one taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain”—featuring, say, photos of the Jonas brothers or three different Shreks, cropped up on Twitter. The song even found its way to the experimental composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ears.

It’s telling that Grande released her breakup jam shortly before the airing of an episode of “Saturday Night Live”—the show in which her ex-fiancé, the comedian Pete Davidson, is a cast member. The minutiae of Grande and Davidson’s breathless courtship, from matching tattoos to upstate jaunts, has unfurled in the media since they started dating, back in May. The same can be said for their engagement, which they dissolved a month ago. Leading up to Saturday’s show, Davidson cracked wise on TV about fast proposals. Grande took a notably different approach: “Even almost got married / And for Pete I’m so thankful,” she sings in “thank u, next.”

In the song, Grande pages through her ex-boyfriends before expressing gratitude for them and what they taught her: “I’m so fuckin’ grateful for my ex,” she belts. Her breezy tone makes the inherent punch line that much sweeter: Grande is not losing any sleep over Sean or Ricky, and these past ruptures have now landed her a No. 1 track. (“God forbid something happens, least this song is a smash,” she notes, in a moment of pop premonition.) “I’ve learned from the pain,” she sings. “I turned out amazing.” After her split with Davidson and the death of another ex-boyfriend, the rapper Mac Miller, from an accidental overdose, in September, the lyric is a remarkable affirmation....

[Just so we’re clear, the “lyric” Paula Mejia is referring to, is “I’m so f---in’ grateful for my ex.”

There’s more here—much more—if you’re a glutton for punishment.]