Not to overhype the crusade against participation trophies, but Taylor Swift’s new single sounds like one in musical form, and it’s bad. Listening to “ME!” is like finding a gold medal that says, “If you had fun, you won!”
After much anticipation, Swift dropped her new song last week, quickly breaking music video records on Vevo and YouTube. She’s been country; she’s been pop; now she’s full-on pastel and … Kidz Bop?
“Hey, kids!” Swift shouts during the bridge, “Spelling is fun!” As if the aesthetics of its music video weren’t elementary school enough, the song offers a collaboration with Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco, the band of choice for angsty youth everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with adopting a childlike aesthetic or listening to Panic! at the Disco — many years past my angsty teenage phase, I still consider “This is Gospel” a musical treasure. But from the woman who seamlessly transcends musical genres, has won 10 Grammys, and made Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2019, I expect a little more.
[Related: RIP apolitical Taylor Swift]
As she has done for years now, Swift leans in to self-aware references to her persona. “I know that I went psycho on the phone,” she sings. In the music video, butterflies erupt from a snake, the moniker Kim Kardashian West gave Swift during a celebrity feud a few years back. Swift isn’t afraid to call out the complaints that have been lodged against her, but in “ME!,” the result is disappointingly juvenile.
Urie enters “ME!” with the line, “I know I tend to make it about me.” Throughout the song, each singer tries to convince the other that he or she is worth staying with, despite an apparent smattering of narcissism. They may be a little self-absorbed, but by gosh, they’re one of a kind.
Spelling is fun, as Swift says, if you realize that “you can’t spell awesome without me.” Blech.
“ME!” is blandly catchy, fun to listen to three or four times, until you realize the tedious chorus is stuck in your head. It’s a disappointing result from an unlikely collaboration, and the reason is simple. Not many pop artists really know how to sing about love.
If essentially saying “I kind of suck, but at least I’m me” is the best you have to offer a romantic partner, you might need to reconsider some things. “Nobody’s gonna love you like me,” Swift and Urie sing. But when the only proof to back it up is their uniqueness, the song ends up feeling incredibly unspecial. The result is a feeling of mass-produced fluff, something like a participation trophy.
