ALICE JONES, FLUTIST
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Pop music romance and the male ego

7/28/2017

1 Comment

 
​TI, “Whatever You Like” (2007)
Bruno Mars, “That’s What I Like” (2016) ​

Desire is front and center in both of these songs. TI and Mars paint alluring pictures of social status-driven fantasies—“Oh, what a jealousy-inducing life we’ll lead!”—designed to tempt and charm their female conversation partners, as if they had no other desire than to fulfill the women’s every wish.
Released nearly a decade apart, these songs also display an evolution in how popular culture frames what men think that women want, using that frame as a way to mask their own desires. TI’s position is coy: “I mean, if that's what you're into, sure OK” (even though he, too, clearly wants everything he names), but Mars’s is one of candid relief: “Finally I can openly admit this is actually what I wanted all along.”
 
However, each man’s sexual prowess (the great late-night sex nestled into each chorus) exists only in the context of him having the economic means to afford other symbols of wealth (jewels, alcohol, exotic vacations or locales):
TI

​Chorus:
Stacks on deck, Patrón on ice
And we can pop bottles all night
Baby, you could have whatever you like
I said, you could have whatever you like

Yeah, late night sex so wet, it’s so tight
Gas up the jet for you tonight
Baby, you could go wherever you like
I said you could go wherever you like, yeah

Mars

​Pre-chorus:
Jump in the Cadillac
(Girl, let’s put some miles on it)
Anything you want
(Just to put a smile on you)
You deserve it baby, you deserve it all
And I'm gonna give it to you

Chorus:
Cool jewelry shining so bright
Strawberry champagne on ice
Lucky for you, that's what I like, that’s what I like
Lucky for you, that's what I like, that’s what I like
Sex by the fire at night
Silk sheets and diamonds all white
Lucky for you, that's what I like, that’s what I like
Lucky for you, that's what I like, that’s what I like
​Throughout, each man repeatedly insists that he doesn’t have to think about money—anything his lady wants takes precedence over worrying about costs, and his role as a provider is what makes him attractive. This compulsion to reaffirm their social status is multi-faceted: it points to the exceptionality of being in that financial position in the first place; it also suggests a degree of disbelief that each man is experiencing with regard his good fortune; and it’s a manifestation of hope, in that repeating an idea often enough out loud will make it true, like a character in a fairytale (extending the fantasy/storytelling metaphor) or, in a more practical way, the politics of self-promotion:
TI

​Verse 1:
Anytime you want to pick up the telephone
You know it ain’t nothin’ to drop a couple stacks on you
Wanted you could get it my dear
Five million dollar home, drop Bentleys, I swear 
 
Verse 2:
Ya need to never ever gotta go to yo wallet
Long as I got rubber band banks in my pocket
Five six, adds with rims and a pocket kit
Ya ain’t gotta downgrade, you can get what I get
Mars

​​Verse 1:
I'll rent a beach house in Miami
Wake up with no jammies (nope)
Lobster tail for dinner
Julio, serve that scampi
You got it if you want it, got, got it if you want it
Said you got it if you want it, take my wallet if you want it, now 
 
Bridge:
You say you want a good time
Well here I am, baby, here I am, baby
Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me
Talk to me, tell me what's on your mind
What's on your mind
If you want it, girl, come and get it
All this is here for you
Tell me baby, tell me, tell me baby
What you tryna do 
​Each paints himself as being desirable precisely because he has no financial burden, no restraints. This freedom allows his desires (both sexual and social status) to be unconstrained in an S&M-like liberation fantasy for those coming from the repressive reality of previously lacking money. Their confident swagger is made possible by a financial cushion and emerges in the range of masculine identities in their delivery styles—TI punches the consonants and clips his words in the verses, aggressively commanding the beat, and then indulges in the slow delivery of his chorus with its softer consonants; and Mars begins his verses like a boastful catcall before he luxuriates in the buttery, undulating melody of the chorus and bridge. Each song suggests a cause-effect relationship, that having achieved financial success makes the man more masculine and also puts him in a position to invite the (most attractive) woman along for the ride to cement his social status:
TI

​Pre-chorus:
Yeah, I want'cho body, I need yo body
Long as you got me you won't need nobody
You want it I got it, go, get it, I buy it
Tell 'em other broke niggas be quiet 
 
Verse 2:
Shawty, you da hottest of the way you drop it
Brain so good
(Good)
School you went to college
Hundred deposit, vacations hit the tropics
‘Cause errbody know it ain’t trickin’ if ya got it 
Mars

​Verse 1:
I got a condo in Manhattan
Baby girl, what's happenin’?
You and your ass invited
So gon' and get to clappin’
Go pop it for a player, pop-pop it for me
Turn around and drop it for a player, drop-drop it for me
But why is there an if-then relationship between wealth and satisfaction? It’s as if TI and Mars can’t have sexual desires, or act on them by inviting a woman to join them, until they have money, as if their sexual potency is synonymous with financial potency. In a version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s as if a certain degree of wealth and material status is necessary before one gets to be a whole person who is allowed to experience sexual joy or satisfaction. It speaks to an implicit broader class-based and self-punishing notion of personal responsibility in which only people who are economically sufficient have permission to enjoy life.

The fantasy-worlds of these songs are undercut not only by equating wealth and self-worth but also by their central premise of who is doing the titular “liking.” Both songs suggest a high degree of joy for the woman involved. TI’s lady gets the satisfaction (as does he) of “Tell[ing] ‘em other broke niggas be quiet,” Mars’s girl gets to ride off into the sunset in a Cadillac, a huge smile on her face, and both are, as the chorus reminds us, having great sex. Yet there's no woman present in either track affirming what, if anything, she really wants. She's given instructions for how to dance and show off her body (affirming the singer’s masculinity), but she has no voice of her own, and therefore, ironically for songs about female desires, no actionable desires of her own.
 
These songs are framed as a kind of modern-day chivalry, where each man focuses on the wants of his partner and finds his joy or purpose in fulfilling those desires. The fact that the desires of the silent female partner are non-existent doesn’t undermine that male joy, however. On the contrary, his desires are still extant and fulfilled: the female framing device was simply a ruse all along, an empty nod to the fashionable notion of equality of the sexes. There is no evolution from TI to Mars, only a different kind of wool pulled over the eyes of female agency.
 
The male gaze affirms the power dynamic of their relationships, even more so than the fact that each man is monetarily providing whatever his woman “wants.” By omitting any female voice, the man is humanized; all listeners are put in a position to empathize with his experience, because it’s the only one articulated. She remains an object, just material proof of his success to be added to the list alongside jet-setting, diamonds, and booze.[1] ​

A footnote-like aside:
[1] For all their similarities, it’s interesting to note the differences in each man’s bravado. TI’s fantasy is presented more fragilely, as a conditional (“You could have whatever you like”); he is storytelling for both himself and his female companion, imagining a future that may never come, underscoring the gulf between reality and fantasy. Mars’s grammar, on the other hand, is a cockier fait accompli (“Lucky for you, that’s what a like, that’s what I like. / You say you want a good time / Well here I am, baby, here I am, baby.”). Mars has already achieved success and is assuming the role of carnival barker with a “Come and get it” attitude; his lavish life is a take-it-or-leave-it opportunity for the enterprising woman. Yet, it’s Mars who seems to care what his partner is thinking (“Talk to me, tell me what’s on your mind”) when TI can only focus on the sensual details of how good the sex will be (“Get so wet, ya hit so right / Let me put this big boy in yo’ life.”)
1 Comment
Elliot Keller link
12/28/2020 12:36:02 pm

Great blog yyou have

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  • #tinyefforts2022
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