#**5h

[aimmyarrowshigh]

f*f*h h*r*o*y are so fucking hot and i want them to have all the success in the world but 97% of their songs are. bad.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

do you think normani and john met at the variety party

do you think they flirted a lil and thought each other was charming and exchanged numbers 

i hope they did

[aimmyarrowshigh]

V, I am so ANGRY about Power. What's even the point of the guy. This is a song about GIRLS goddamn it.

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF A GUY ON “HAIR”???? OR “SECRET LOVE SONG”??? OR “NO MORE SAD SONGS”???

OR FOR THAT MATTER, “WORTH IT”???? OR “WORK FROM HOME”??? OR “DOWN”???

WHAT IS THE POINT OF GUYS EVER BEING ON GIRL GROUP SONGS THEY DO NOT BELONG THERE THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF IT BEING A GROUP OF GIRLS GODDAMMIT

But no, right? I’m surprised at this point that LM didn’t put a dude on “Salute.” What to heck.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

why is lauren always like, BARELY in 5h’s videos idgi

[aimmyarrowshigh]

The more I think about how 5H’s team used feminism as a branding label to make the group popular/connect with girls only until they had all turned 18 and could be pushed towards men, the angrier I get. Every part of that is gross.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

you can totally ignore this ask if it seems like too much work, but Im coming to you for girl group advice. specifically: I really want to like fifth harmony. I love girl groups in general and little mix in particular, but fifth harmony feels really ~~ to me. I've heard a handful of their songs, but havent loved any. do you have any advice on what will win me over? especially good songs? or especially endearing interviews?

Ooh, that is a good question.

I mean, I’m gonna be totally honest: I like 5H more out of principle than out of actually thinking their music is that great, for the most part. Like, PURELY based on music alone, they’re the 3rd or 4th best current English-language girl group, IMO, after Little Mix, TP4Y, and maaaybe The Janes if their original stuff continues more in the vein of “Can’t Let Go” than awful “She’s Crazy.” So. I mean, I will defend and support 5H because I will defend and support all girl groups that aren’t Literally Evil. (Like, when I was in HS, there was a rash of news stories about neo-Nazi record labels putting out girl groups/duos, and I would not support that. Or whatever. YKWIM.)

BUT! I will say that 7/27 is way, way, way better of a girl group album than Reflection was. It’s no Salute or Get Weird or The Writing’s On the Wall, but it IS probably as good as DNA, and 5H’s vibe is distinctly Modern Pussycat Dolls Club Music-y kinda stuff, so if that’s what you’re into, it’s worth a purchase. Also to Support All Girl Groups, it’s worth a purchase.

(Although if you’re going to buy only one girl group album from 2016 so far, make it Kisses by TP4Y. Just saying. It’s phenomenal.)

I think my top five 5H songs are:

Big Bad Wolf – If they continue on with this kind of vibe, I would love it, and I feel like it’s one of their most creative songs.

Miss Movin’ On – I KNOW IT’S VANILLA AS HELL BUT SO AM I TBH AND I LIKE THIS SONG

Bo$$ – Catchy af; name-checks powerful black women, they all sound good singing it, soundtrack of my summer 2014.

This Is The Life – Also catchy af; I enjoy songs with lyrics that are a lil dumb to fit the rhyme scheme and “eatin’ good/gettin’ lit” is… that.

Scared of Happy – I read a 7/27 review that said this song feels “dated to 2012,” and I can see that because of the ~BASS DROPpppp~ but I also jam out to this twice a day in my car, so. I like it.

Beyond that, it’s like… I love Normani and I love Lauren? And I feel badly for Ally and Dinah being the best voices in the group but constantly denied attention or a center position in the group because they’re, well, not Normani, Lauren, or Camila.

IDK, I just have a lot of super protective feelings about all women in the entertainment industry all the time ever unless they’re like, literally murderers or abusers (or… Kardashians… whom I just can’t seem to get behind I JUST CAN’T???) so. IDK. Protect All Girl Groups; Stop Rich White Men From Perverting Feminism/Sex-Positivity/Body Positivity So That They Can Manipulate Young Women Into Making Their Sexuality The Provenance Of Men And Money While Calling It Empowerment; Stop Calling Harmful Abusive Practices Nurturing/Nutritional/Necessary; etc. Whatever. I just have constant feelings about the role of media exploitation of women like literally all the time. So. SUPPORT ALL GIRL GROUPS, is what I’m saying. I like the (rare, but real) instances of both Lauren and Normani in particular standing up against how they’ve been treated in the music industry/media as women and as WoC – of course, very differently, since Lauren is white-passing Latina and Normani is a dark-skinned Black woman, but also differently because of their personal sexualities and boundaries and how those have an impact on, and make an impact on, the way they’re treated as WoC and as professionals, and just. I like that occasionally they’ll say something genuine that should be really listened to about that, and of course, they never are.

But like, girl groups are a category more than a genre, I feel? So 5H is just a genre within that category that is more synthesizer-driven, clubby music, and I don’t necessarily think that you have to love all girl groups’ MUSIC equally to give them all support and validation. YK?

THAT SAID: 5H, through Camila and Dinah, have had more than one instance of anti-Black racism come out to the public and afaik, neither of them has ever explicitly apologized (or even acknowledged that they said what they said?) and that is a perfectly fair and absolutely important, valid line in the sand to have to just be anti-5H as a whole as a result. I’m wary of both of them, and very disappointed that they haven’t apologized, but I am white, and I have the luxury and privilege of being able to be upset about it without being personally attacked by their use of the N-word. They both have two “strikes” with me, even though MAKING THE CHOICE TO USE THAT WORD ONE TIME IS TOO MANY, because I DO tend to give women more leeway than men with Being Problematic which might be a YFIP: Me trait and I’m aware of that, but again, that is entirely because I have white privilege and can see/listen to them without being exposed to personal, pointed, targeted pain because of their flippant use of that kind of language; I just keep hoping that they’re listening and learning and will not repeat their choice, the way that they listened and learned after being called out for homophobic language when they were first starting out? But. Again: 1000% a thing that SHOULD be taken into consideration about them as a group, and a totally valid reason to just… not like them until/even if they do apologize.

I don’t condone their words or actions, and I do think that they absolutely need to actually, explicitly, verbally apologize. And that is another reason that, for me, I find 5H to be 3rd or 4th tier of the current English-language girl groups, and I can’t be like, “OH THEY’RE MY FAVE” as people, either. No one, no matter how big a fan they are, should be defending those instances or trying to prove people hurt by their racism “wrong” for not “getting over it.”

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Best Songs on 7/27:

Big Bad Wolf*********

Not That Kinda Girl

The Life

Squeeze

Work from Home (purely on catchiness, the lyrics make me :\ )

Scared of Happy, maybe? Or Dope, but I feel like the lyrics to Dope are really dumb. But it’s catchy.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

what are your opinions (if you have any) on the difference in marketing/promo between little mix & fifth harmony? for example, with little mix being unable to sweat in songs due to management, yet fifth harmony constantly releasing over sexualised songs and videos? as well as this, with how camila is often presented as the leader of fifth harmony, whereas there's no clear 'it girl' in little mix..

I think part of that is that 5H are marketed primarily in/for America and Little Mix have been very excluded from the US market foR SOME REASON THAT IS RIDICULOUS AND NOT ONE THAT I UNDERSTAND AT LITERALLY ALL.

::cough::

Anyway, I feel like traditionally in the schema of girl groups, American girl groups are marketed very Male Gaze Sexually on a totally, ridiculously overt level, where British girl groups are marketed, I mean, still toward the male gaze, but in a more… kitsch way, maybe? (And Swedish girl groups are literally marketed as children, which is a whole thing I don’t even want to get into. Swedes, explain this, please.)

Like American girl groups are almost marketed as softcore that you can put in your school locker and tween magazines, and I’m not sure I quuuuiiiiiiite get that vibe from British marketing of girl groups? But again, I’m American, so I wasn’t around to see exactly how Girls Aloud were being marketed in the UK or w/e, so I may be totally wrong. I’m definitely viewing this from a biased lens, being American.

But yeah, no, it’s very strange, since Get Weird is a SUPER sexual album (“A.D.I.D.A.S.,” anyone? Like. REALLY.) and their stage performances do tend to be very sexy/sexual. (And they’re older than 5H, so it’s less… that.)

So I don’t think that it’s that they “aren’t allowed to sweat due to mgmt,” it’s just that their video direction for this album/era has been fucking embarrassingly bad. I don’t understand at ALL why they haven’t done a simple dance video again like “Move,” because “Move” is their best video BY FAR and their choreography for everything on GW is phenomenal.

It’s also strange to me that they’re marketing such a sexual album with such childish videos??? But far be it from me, I am not a grown man whose job is to decide what teen girls will buy grown women doing and thus rely on my own predatory need to infantilize said grown women for no reason other than my disgusting boner for high school AUs that are totally awkward for non-Male-Gaze-boner-guided humans because LM are in their mid-20s. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(THAT SAID, LIKE. HAVE YOU SEEN ALMOST ANY TELEVISED PERFORMANCE THEY’VE DONE OF BLACK MAGIC AND/OR LMLY? THEY’RE ON FIRE. JUST FILM THAT AND RELEASE IT AS A VIDEO, FOR PETE’S SAKE. COME ON. THEY ARE ADULT WOMEN WHO ARE SEXUAL IN AN ADULT WOMAN WAY WHEN THEY CHOOSE TO BE AND THAT’S FINE AND GOOD AND GREAT AND JUST. ARGH.

STOP TRYING TO PRETEND LIKE FOUR WOMEN IN THEIR MID-20s ARE UNPOPULAR HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS; IT’S WEIRD AND KIND OF LIKE LOW-BUDGET ‘90s PORN. Just let them be! The entire rest of! Their image!!! It’s very strange!!!!)

…I also have a Lot of feelings about 5H being marketed the way they have been since well before Camila and Dinah were eighteen, and were, in fact, in their VERY YOUNG TEENS, but all of those feelings are INCOHERENT RAGE YELLING IN HUMONGOUS RED TEXT THAT MELTS ACROSS THE SCREEN LIKE THE PITS OF TARTARUS, so. There’s… that.

Also, I just want to say that it bothers me more than strictly rational that 5H’s singles went from “Bo$$” to “baby, you’re the boss at home,” and they were made purely objects of the male gaze for WFH – there is no feminist reading of that video, IMO, but if you’ve seen good (actually good, please) writing to the contrary send it my way – and. yeah. That bothers me. Because I really dislike when brands use feminism as a trend – and I do NOT blame 5H for that, at all, because they are not in charge of their videos. I blame the people who marketed them as being in charge and then went, “wait, all five are Legal Now? Time to turn them into objects and stop giving any illusion of their being in charge of anything! Muahaha. Let’s grab men in their mid-to-late ‘30s and have them be the strong ones now!” Like, they go from LITERALLY BEING THE BOSSES in “Worth It,” and they’re taking it ‘cause they’re worth it, to being the nude wives at home waiting for their man-bosses to give it to them in WFH. :|

:\

Again, I don’t blame them, or even think that anyone put as much thought into that arc as it reads to me – I don’t think marketers are that smart, tbh, which is why I tend to dismiss A LOT of mgmt~ conspiracies in general across the board. They just aren’t that deep. But cultural impact is, and fandom is, so it still matters, and therefore it Bugs Me.

I don’t really have feelings on Camila being promoted as the leader of 5H, honestly. I think she has great stage presence and is fun to watch, and that makes it easy to see her as a lead member even if she doesn’t have the strongest voice in the group/etc. I think with Little Mix, Perrie IS definitely marketed as the lead member, particularly in the British press, but it isn’t as overt because of how they present themselves in interviews and the way the choreo works onstage since she’s the weakest dancer and isn’t usually up front and center.

I like both groups but I like them very differently because they are fundamentally different groups. There’s room for both to coexist in the US market, and internationally, and I think it’s a shame that Sony doesn’t see that. I have a vague preference for LM because I think they’re more interesting vocally and their style of music on their albums is more my jam, but I also like 5H and I really want both groups to succeed on a high level and I adore them all and will Fight For Girl Groups In General really.