Ariana Grande has recently been through a lot. She’s always in the news because of some startling drama, and the producers are extremely aware of that. It is because of this controversy that I believe the writers of this song made it so unbelievably repetitive and borderline boring. This song is more of a diary than an actual piece of well-written music, and the producers have done everything they can to draw attention to that fact.
The song starts of with an introduction to the basic rhythmic motif that follows Ariana throughout the song. We hear one high, slightly syncopated instrument that blurs together each note it plays and one baseline that isn’t nearly low enough to provide much support to Ariana’s vocals. Then, before any other more interesting layers are introduced, Ariana enters with a very prominent melody. The background texture begins to utilize some faded percussion, but the emphasis is definitely on the vocals.
Coincidentally, when Ariana sings her most controversial line, “even almost got married, and for Pete I’m so thankful,” the song crescendos. Additions such as a strong, sliding baseline and some clapping noises definitely grab the attention of the listeners. I tip my hat to the producers that came up with this, because after all, this noticeable change will only add drama to this already powerful lyric.
Now, since the producers just added something actually musically intelligent into the score, they’ve got to back off and not make any sudden changes. Again, they wouldn’t want to risk shifting the focus away from Ariana’s touching story. So, the background texture remains the same so as to not distract from the very loud and very repetitive lyrics.
Suddenly, the high instrument from the introduction cuts out right around 0:35. This baffled me a bit. Usually right before a chorus is where we start to hear a build; producers want listeners on the edge of their seats. The song deviates strongly from the norm, and I see two possible explanations.
The first possibility: The producers thinned out the texture because they need some sort of crescendo or climax into the actual chorus. The very first chorus, however, can’t be too complicated, so they had to scale back before they could grow again. The second possibility: The change in texture mirrors the change in lyrics. At this point, Ariana goes from describing specific parts of her life that affected her to an overall analysis of how she’s grown (“I’ve loved and I’ve lost, but that not what I see”). This more introspective point of view is reinforced by a calmer backing. I’m not sure which of these possibilities motivated the producers more, but my best guess is that it was a combination of the two.
After stripping the texture just a bit more to add some tension, the chorus hits. I expected either a big explosion of new rhythms and instruments, or a purposeful let down, which can be equally as exciting and surprising. What I got, though, was right in the middle. The background instruments barely changed from what we heard in the verses, Ariana only added a higher voice that reiterates the original motif that we heard in the very introduction. This confused me a tad, so I started thinking about explanations, but honestly, I’m still a little dumbfounded. My first intuition is that the producers, again, don’t want to distract the listeners from some sort of profound lyrics or important vocals, but the chorus is literally just three words over and over, with a little bit of flare when Ariana sings “I’m so f***in’ grateful for my ex.” Maybe the writers thought that this line would be so iconic by itself, it wouldn’t need a ton of instrumental support. Beats me.
Overall, my disappointment with this piece stems from the producers’ focus on the economic value of it, rather than the musicianship. I think that they could have reworked the instrumentation to have a more profound effect on the audience, but because of Ariana Grande’s important leverage in pop culture, it was possible to skate their way into the top 40 using the dramatic lyrics instead of the genuine catchiness of the song. It’s an interesting tactic, and it definitely earned the song plenty of attention, all thanks to Ariana Grande’s fearless style.
It was refreshing hearing why you thought the song was lacking. I share a similar feeling towards it (though it does have some undeniably iconic lines), but hearing your thoughts as to why the producers chose the tone they did really made me view the song in a new light
I usually don’t put that much thought into how an artist’s persona/presence on social media affects their music, but it certainly does. What I find more interesting, though, is that her producers are so attuned to how this can affect the delivery of a performance.