“I’d rather spoil all my friends with my riches,” Grande promises, midway through the song. She is telling me I’m successful and beautiful, neither of which is as true as it could be, but feels good to hear all the same. She is not stealing my personal information or fudging the tenets of democracy. The public good they purport to serve is almost always actually their own business interests, even when they’re boasting major charitable donations, and each time they speak we’re reminded only of the eyeball-popping tension between their enormous sense of self-importance and simultaneous refusal to accept responsibility for anything that results from their actions.Ī person like Ariana Grande, on the other hand, has been publicly put through the wringer for events that were in no way her fault and which caused her extreme personal pain, yet the sole objective of her career is to dole out three-minute reprieves to the rest of us. The tycoons and tech gods sure aren’t letting us have any fun with their money. (Heads up: You might be asked to sign in to Google first.) Become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube today.
Following a year of discussion about rich people hair maintenance, she leans into the joke: “You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it.” “Happiness is the same price as red-bottoms,” she explains patiently. “Look at my neck, look at my jet,” Grande orders. “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it,” goes the chorus, propped up by a list of specifics. She’s also, I hope, the only pop star who would dare to put a Barbie palace and an homage to Two Chainz’ pink trap house in the same video.īut more importantly: The plot of the song is Ariana shopping, for herself and for her friends - six of whom she gifted matching Tiffany diamond rings last fall. Part of the fun of “7 Rings” - which is based on The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things” - comes from the fact that Ariana Grande is perhaps the only person in the world who could credibly release a trap-infused rework of a Rodgers and Hammerstein joint. What could possibly make more sense this January than the princess of buoyant, life-affirming choruses bragging about Louboutins and borrowing her ad libs from Travis Scott? Vevo Or, most optimistically, we are all broke, but “7 Rings will fix the economy.”įive years after Lorde appeared on the scene co-opting the sonic textures of hip-hop while sneering at its wealth fascination, eight months after the first sugary rap-pop collaboration from Tiffany & Co, a few weeks after even the New York Times came to the realization that rap is popular culture and Cardi B’s Cinderella story will appear in future social studies textbooks, “7 Rings” is such a crystallization of its moment that it feels like the only logical first bop of 2019. They are broke, but they are ordering a fancier coffee today. They are broke, but they are going to spend their last dollar. Or they are broke, but they are going to pretend to be rich. Search the term on Twitter, and you’ll see what I mean: droves of people expressing that they are broke, but they are happy that Grande is rich. Ariana Grande’s new song “7 Rings,” and its accompanying video, both of which serve as a three-minute crash course on what it’s like to have endless money and no qualms about spending it, debuted to a fairly one-note response.
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