• NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    463·
    5 days ago

    Man, I fucking hate that song. “Happiness is the truth”, god, what pseudophilosophical bullshit. It really is the manifestation of all that thoughtless feel-good philosophy pushed by hyper-captitalist dickheads.

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
      73·
      5 days ago

      I’ve heard Pharrell agrees with this read. From what I’ve heard, he was contracted to write a song for something and the execs kept turning him down, so in his frustration he wrote the most shallow cheerful song he could. He thought they’d recognize that and reject it to, but they loved it.

      • A Basil Plant@lemmy.world
        40·
        5 days ago

        I was surprised by this because it sounds like one of those internet stories that isn’t true, or was morphed so many times after multiple retellings. But a quick search shows me that this is completely true:

        https://www.npr.org/2024/10/07/nx-s1-5001928/pharrell-says-his-hit-happy-came-from-a-sarcastic-place

        WILLIAMS: Well, after nine times of, you know, nine nos, like, nope, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, then I had to kind ask myself a rhetorical question. How do you write a song about someone that’s so happy that nothing can bring them down? I’m paraphrasing. And the song ended up being the sarcastic answer to that.

        TIL

        • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works
          5·
          4 days ago

          Kinda like how Sara Bareilles wrote “I’m not gonna write you a love song” in response to the execs asking her to write a love song and it was a hit. Now that I think of it, maybe this is a common excuse for artists who write corporate slop. They just blame the system and plead for “irony.”

        • /home/pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          5·
          4 days ago

          Well he didn’t mean for it to be sarcastic really

          Yeah, it’s sarcasm. But I didn’t realize that I was being sarcastic. It just was - like, that was just my sarcastic response to my rhetorical question. And it was just like, OK, let me just go with this. And before you knew it, it was that.

      • NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        3 days ago

        … man, that checks the fuck out. Actual artist versus corpo dipshits. Like, seriously, how are people of the ruling class such fucking losers?

        Thank you for this, I actually find this kinda hilarious.