Why Can’t Popstars be “Woke”?

Hello, I’m MusiCommentator, and I wrote this post about a month and a half ago, but I never released it because I had other things I wanted to post.  However, I did not have much time to make something for this week, nor will I have any time over the weekend.  Just so you all do not have a MusiCommentator withdrawl, I’ll release this now, and I’ll get back to reviews and my normal posts next week.

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Hello, I’m MusiCommentator, and my music thinkpieces on this site are probably my least viewed posts, so I’m going to make another one.  Hope you all like it!

So, ever since I did my “Man Of The Woods” Review, I’ve had this question on my head.  It was mainly brought about by the song “Supplies”.  If you read the review, then you’ll remember that “Supplies” was not a song that I liked on the album (even if I did not like most of the songs on the album), but I’m not talking about the song itself.  I’m talking about the music video.  If you have not seen it, I’d suggest you watch it so you know what I’m talking about, even though that music video needs no more views than it already has.

The music video is definitely trying to convey a lot.  Right from the beginning, the video slaps you with insufferable amounts of imagery, as it shows Justin watching hundreds of news channels all at once, fighting a bunch of stuffy men dressed in awkwardly white clothes, destroying an Illuminati pyramid, and literally surviving an apocalypse.  My favorite part is probably at the end where some little kid starts yelling at the audience, telling them they’re “still asleep”.

If this video sounds like a complete mess, that’s because it is.  It tries to shove so much symbolism down your faces that it falls completely flat.  This is because it is trying to be “woke”.

If you don’t know, “woke” is a slang term that means being conscious and aware about current affairs or some kind of controversial truth.  By now, I think that most people use the term ironically (it’s even used in Pink Guy’s song “Flex Like David Icke”), but there have been many popstars that have recently tried to transcend into “wokeness” and tell the public an important message.  However, for most of the stars that have tried this, it has failed.  So, I’m asking why can’t popstars be woke?

One of the most popular recent examples of a popstar trying to be “woke” is Katy Perry.  I reviewed her latest album, “Witness”, a while ago.  This album was Katy’s attempt to be “woke”, and in retrospect, I probably should have given it a 5 or 5.5 out of 10.  There were a lot of songs that were not trying to be conscious.  Some were just simple love ballads, but all the ones that shot for more were cringe-inducing.  “Hey Hey Hey” is Katy trying to say she’s more than a popstar through terrible similes, “Power” is an empowerment anthem that probably couldn’t power a night light, “Bigger Than Me” talks about a higher power without actually getting into what could be the higher power, and “Pendulum” is the most generic inspirational track that anyone could come up with.  Many of the problems that lie within these songs is that they do not go deep enough.  They merely scratch the surface of being conscious, but you cannot be conscious if you do not dig deep.  Imagine if Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” did the same thing.  It would have probably destroyed Kendrick’s career.

See, there’s a reason that artists who aren’t popstars can be “woke”.  “To Pimp A Butterfly”, “Lemonade”, and “4:44” can all be conscious because they were not trying to get radio play.  They were albums that had music not pandering to the mainstream.  They were cutting-edge, and that is why they broke boundaries and became popular in their own rights.  With popstars, the music is trying to be edgy and unique, but not so much as to not be friendly to radio.  The problem lies in the fact that one cannot be mainstream and conscious at the same time.

So, that is why Justin’s “Supplies” video was such a mess.  Justin was trying to be “woke”, but the fact that the video was still trying to be audience-friendly made it flop.  I mean, the song lyrics have nothing to do with the video.  Was Justin expecting not to get flack?  Well, that video was a mess, and I hope that more popstars don’t try to be “woke”, because it’s a recipe for disaster.

Thank you for reading my “wokeness” analysis. If you liked this post, make sure to follow my website, Twitter, and Instagram, like this post, and be sure to check in to read my future content. Also, if you have something you want to see me review, tell me in the comments. Until then, keep on listening to good music! I know I will.