“Uh huh, this is my shit
All the girls stomp your feet like this
A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Because I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl”
All the girls stomp your feet like this
A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Because I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl”
Hollaback Girl –
Gwen Stefani
Imagine fronting a hugely successful 1990’s rock band with a
number of hit singles. Imagine being the it music girl for a number of years. But
then, your band splits up and you launch into your solo career with earnest
because you could become the next big female musician. And then - you release
this song “I ain't no Hollaback girl”
I wouldn't go as far as to say this song ruined Gwen
Stefani’s career, but it came pretty close. You might say you love it and it’s
real cool and what not, but in comparison to her other songs, it was the bottom
of the heap. Gwen, along with No Doubt, bought out songs such as Just A Girl, Don’t Speak and It’s My Life, which in my opinion were
absolute gems. Don’t Speak peaked at
number one in charts in America, United Kingdom and Australia. In early 2004 No
Doubt went on a hiatus and Gwen Stefani, the cool chick she was, embarked on a
solo career. She came out with the funky song What You Waiting For? which
is about the fear of releasing an album.
Followed by ... Hollaback
Girl
What a disaster. Personally, I don’t like the song and I
don’t like that it’s Gwen Stefani. I get that’s a big middle finger to Courtney
Love, who said Stefani was little more than a cheerleader. But did Gwen really
need to rise to a jab by Courtney Love? And if Gwen did think she needed to
make a comeback, I wish she’d done it in a way which was a bit cleverer. A bit
more lyrical wisdom instead of spelling out bananas, and less running around
like a cheerleader, more empowering what Gwen Stefani really is – a successful
mother and business woman. I sincerely hope No Doubt’s recent comeback is going
to show a lot more musical gloriousness than Hollaback Girl did.]
I suppose musicians
want to take risks and change things up as their career goes on, even if they
do run the risk of ruining their career. Or it could go the other way, and a
musician could make a song so out of the way, like Gwen did, it becomes
popular. After all, Hollaback Girl
got more than one million downloads and was one of the biggest hits of 2005. I
call it bizarre, but few hundred thousand fans out there must have thought it
was a chance to tell the world they ain't no hollaback girl.
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