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"Streets" is a song by American rapper and singer Doja Cat (pictured). Appearing on her second studio album Hot Pink (2019), it is an R&B ballad with lyrics about a desire to return to a former romantic partner. The song became a sleeper hit around 15 months after the album's release—specifically, it went viral on the video-sharing application TikTok. It appeared in over 300,000 TikTok videos as background music for the "Silhouette Challenge", an online challenge in which participants danced while illuminated from behind with red lighting. Driven primarily by streams and digital sales, the song peaked within the top 20 of many national record charts, including the US Billboard Hot 100, and received platinum certifications in eight countries. "Streets" was sent to US contemporary hit radio stations as Hot Pink's seventh and final single on February 16, 2021. A corresponding music video premiered the next month, depicting Doja Cat's own version of the Silhouette Challenge. (Full article...)
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"Wish You Were Gay" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and the fourth single from her debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019). A classic pop song, it incorporates an acoustic guitar, a sound of cracking knuckles as percussion, canned laughter, and an applause from an audience. In the lyrics, Eilish seeks a reason for why a male love interest does not like her back, so she hopes that he may be attracted only to men. Music critics and fans of Eilish had mixed opinions about its themes; some liked its relatability, and others deemed it insensitive and an act of queerbaiting. In response, she stated the lyrics were not intended to be offensive to the queer community. The song peaked at number 31 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and has received several certifications, including a platinum one from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The success of "Wish You Were Gay" helped to propel Eilish to mainstream fame. (Full article...)
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"Getting Older" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish (pictured) and the opening track of her second studio album Happier Than Ever (2021). Its instrumentation consists of pulsing synthesizers, a bass guitar, and a keyboard that plays staccato notes. The lyrics explore the positive and negative aspects of Eilish's transition into adulthood in the wake of her success that she first received as a teenager. Due to the subject matter, critics compared the song to Nirvana's "Serve the Servants", the opening track of their 1993 studio album In Utero. Many music critics deemed "Getting Older" a powerful opening track. They praised its introspective, mature point of view, and its ability to be relatable despite the difficulties of writing a song about fame that resonates with laypeople. They argued that this was achieved through references to universal, sympathetic experiences such as feeling burdened by large amounts of expectations and horrified by the loss of one's childhood. (Full article...)
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"Your Power" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and the third single from her second studio album, Happier Than Ever (2021). A folk ballad backed by an acoustic guitar, it narrates a damaging sexual relationship between a female high school student and an older man, exploring the topics of sexual harassment and statutory rape. The lyrics are a plea for powerful men to stop using their authority to exploit vulnerable women. Praised for the relevance of its lyrics to contemporary society, "Your Power" was named one of the best songs of 2021 in many publications and won Video for Good at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. Some critics placed it within the context of #MeToo, a social movement started by women to expose and counter sexual misconduct by men in positions of power. In June 2022, Eilish performed the song to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court, a landmark decision that removed abortion's status as a constitutional right in the country. (Full article...)
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Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles is a 2021 American concert film directed by Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osborne. It stars singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, who performs all 16 tracks from her second studio album Happier Than Ever (2021) at Los Angeles's Hollywood Bowl. The film blends live action with animation; its animated scenes incorporate motion capture footage of Eilish, with rotoscoping on top done by Osborne. Principal photography took place for one week, without a live audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a lack of a crowd, the crew recorded Eilish from very close distances, aiming to create a sense of intimacy between her and the viewers. The film—released exclusively to Disney+ on September 3, 2021—was praised by critics for its performances, animation style, and cinematography. It received nominations for multiple awards, such as Best Music Film at the 2022 Grammy Awards. (Full article...)
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"Smoking on My Ex Pack" is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA (pictured) from her second studio album, SOS (2022). It is one of the album's three rap tracks, built around hard-hitting drums and a sped-up sample of a 1980s ballad. Before the album's release, media wrote of SZA as an R&B artist who made music for "sad girls", melancholic music that catered to a female audience. Disillusioned, she conceived "Smoking on My Ex Pack", among other songs, in an effort to combat such narratives, which she believed was stereotyping of her as a Black woman. With the track, she experimented with more aggressive music and made her foray into hip hop. Critics were positive about the new sound, and they deemed the lyrics candid and sufficiently scathing. "Smoking on My Ex Pack" speaks positively of her sex appeal and negatively of her ex-lovers, reveling in SZA's braggadocious, taunting persona; one lover has his penis targeted. Some critics wrote SZA had the potential to be a fully fledged rapper. (Full article...)
== Background == for Kiss Me More
Doja Cat released her second studio album, Hot Pink, in November 2019. The album spawned multiple singles that achieved viral popularity on the video-hosting application TikTok, including "Juicy", "Say So", and "Streets". "Juicy" gave Doja Cat her first entry into Billboard's Hot 100 chart. It served as background music for an Internet dance challenge in Tiktok thereafter. Aided by their popularity in the application, "Say So" and "Streets" became her first songs to top the Hot 100 and reach the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200, respectively. Looking back at the success of Hot Pink, staff writers at Billboard observed that Doja Cat had the "innate ability" to produce hit singles, and argued that she was becoming the "quintessential [Generation] Z pop star". After the album had performed well on the charts, the senior staff at Doja Cat's record label, RCA, believed that they needed to release a good follow-up song that would attain Internet-driven commercial success just like her previous singles. Such a song turned out to be "Kiss Me More", featuring American singer SZA.