Now, often, I am dragged into retail therapy kicking and screaming. It’s a case of those around me making comfort buys and I, picking up the tab for it. When your Millennials are rapidly gaining in height, and have successfully staked their claim to the wifi password, what else can you expect? In my world, comfort buys are demanded for bizarre reasons. Here’s a sample: Eating their lunch at school without a leftover morsel in the box, three days on the trot. No kidding here, this has happened to me.
So, you can imagine my reaction to Ariana Grande's Billboard-topping song, ‘7 Rings’ from her recent album, ‘Thank U, Next’. This song is a paean to retail therapy and has a telling line — ‘I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (Yeah)’.
It's no surprise this song has been doing well on Billboard. It has a nice lilt to it and besides that, it is patterned in theme and melody on what I would call the all-time great retail therapy song, ‘My Favourite Things’ from ‘The Sound of Music’.
With the replayed sample from the Julie Andrews-sung ‘My Favourite Things’, the song seems to make a commentary that comfort buying is not a generational phenomenon and retail shopping has always been humanity’s escape route out of any existential distress.
‘High Hopes’ by Panic! At The Disco is another song that scaled Billboard heights in recent months.
This song stays on your lips much after you have heard it played. I have an added reason for why I think it is extremely likeable. It has to do with the video. The song is about bucking the trend and getting to the top, things that take intense effort. Through its picturisation, the song seems to have “walked the talk”. As we know, through special contraptions and a team, frontman-and-lead-vocalist Brendon Urie glided up the face of a tall building in Los Angeles.
For me, this is an equivalent of representational design. Okay, let me confess that I fall hook, line and sinker for well-executed representational design. The part of Chennai I live in, is replete with examples of it. Here are two examples: The building of a wind-energy company designed like a windmill and a leisure hotel shaped like a ship. These designs not only communicate a message loud and clear, but also suggest greater focus. Through its visuals, High Hopes seems to do something similar.
