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Just when I thought we were not going to have a summer anthem for 2014, here comes Meghan Trainor with the empowering, viral pop hit called ‘All About That Bass’.
The song, which was heavily inspired by the 1950s, is a self-empowerment jam that encourages people to ignore society’s beauty standards and be comfortable in their own skin. She offers sharp criticism of the mainstream media with lyrics like ‘I see the magazines / Working that Photoshop / We know that shit ain’t real / Come on now, make it stop’, Trainor calls mainstream media to the carpet for creating these unrealistic standards. She then cheerfully goes on to tell listeners that they are perfect from the bottom to the top. When she asked about the song, Trainor said, ‘When writing the song, I was thinking about girls today and how, because of social media, there’s more pressure to be society’s version of perfect and the message of the song is to love your body no matter what.’
The video follows the same cheerful and uplifting sentiment. The background is brightly colored as the camera pans back and forth between Trainor and her black and white dancers as they twerk, charm boys, and revel in their beauty to the dismay of their ‘conventionally attractive’ counterparts. The video also features Vine sensation Sione Kelepi voguing and hitting splits.
Meghan Trainor is a 20-year-old singer and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. She signed her first publishing deal at 18 and has since written songs for famous artists and bands such as Rascal Flatts and Common Kings. Even before she signed her publishing deal, however, Trainor has been recognized for her work. Meghan Trainor received the Best Female Artist award at the 2009 International Acoustic Music Awards. The following year, Trainor received the highest honor at the 2010 New Orleans Songwriters Festival.
This success streak has continued with ‘All About That Bass’. Since its debut, the song has been viewed over 10 million times. The pop tune has also climbed to No. 2 on the United States iTunes chart. This is pretty good considering popular radio stations have not included the song in their playlists yet.
While this song stands to take over the rest of the summer in the United States, the song will not be officially released in the UK until 5 October and on Spotify starting mid-September. In the meantime, however, you can watch the music video below.
