Why Ariana Grande’s ‘Problem’ is 2014’s song of the summer
By Josh Haggis
Ariana Grande released her debut album Yours Truly last year to almost universal critical acclaim. It propelled the singer to the top of the US charts – but if she was going to become a proper, globe-conquering popstar, she needed a breakout hit.
She’s found that hit with Problem. It feels as though the pop Gods have aligned for 21-year-old Grande, and the birth of a new popstar is happening before our eyes.
If I could compare the former Nickelodeon actress’s career so far to the beginnings of any other popstar, it would be none other than Britney Spears. It’s perhaps no coincidence, then, that the songwriter behind …Baby One More Time, Max Martin, had a hand in crafting Problem.
Britney shot to fame with her iconic hit …Baby and its notoriously controversial music video, where the singer straddled the line, knowingly, between innocent and risqué. Grande’s image at the moment owes an obvious debt to Britney back then. Only last year, the singer’s label pulled the original album cover of her debut, Yours Truly, after critics claimed it was “Lolita-esque” – even though she was 20 at the time.
Problem’s music video and accompanying live performances lean heavily on this “innorisqué” image too, with Grande pairing her doe-eyed expressions with thigh-high boots and unnervingly short baby-doll dresses. The late nineties and early noughties were the golden age of teen-pop, and Grande’s effort to hark back to that era with both her visuals and styling, all while adding a modern edge, is refreshing. Problem‘s music video also pays homage to Britney’s own Oops!… I Did It Again video – see below.
Problem racked up the fourth highest debut week sales for a female artist ever when it was released in the US back in May, and the track has sat firmly at number two there ever since. Some argue that Iggy Azalea’s Fancy, the song stopping Problem from hitting the top spot in the US, is the song of the summer – but I disagree.
From the moment Problem’s saxophone kicks in, it’s an irresistible three minute and 14 second sugar rush. The song’s construction is unusual, but stealthily effective: Grande belts the verses, raises the temperature to boiling point in the brilliantly-crafted bridge – but then drops out of the song altogether, leaving rapper Big Sean to whisper the chorus. At first listen, it can feel like you’ve just had amazing sex that suddenly got cut short, but Max Martin knows what he’s doing, and soon enough the whisper chorus will have set up camp in your brain. This is a song that you just have to hear over and over again.
Meanwhile, the track’s production nods to both Britney and Christina’s teen-pop hits of the late nineties and J.Lo’s sax-fuelled banger Get Right. Even the guest rap – courtesy of Aussie rhyme merchant Iggy Azalea – adds to the song, rather than detracting from it like most tacked-on rap verses.
It’s a real shame that 2014 is being called as Azalea’s year became Fancy has become such a smash across the Atlantic. If I had to place a bet on which of these two women will be having bigger hits in five years’ time, I know where I’d put my money. Grande looks like a perfect popstar and has an incredibly powerful voice that doesn’t seem like it should belong to a singer so young, and so tiny. She may have been criticised recently for lacking charisma on stage – Rihanna, we’re talking about you and your not-so-subtle sniggers – but it’s worth noting that Katy Perry’s first live performances were pretty lacklustre, and now she’s arguably the biggest popstar in the world.
Give Ariana time. Her lack of polish is endearing – she’s just your average (very pretty) girl-next-door who, much like Britney, has the potential to become a pop superstar.
[Update: Problem shot to Number One on iTunes less than an hour after it was released in the UK at midnight this morning (June 29) – and just you watch it stay there.]
Watch the Problem video below: