Because according to Mattel “Barbie Girl” m.in. sexualized the beloved doll of millions of girls and violated the company’s copyright. In fact, the text of the song is the most controversial and it’s easy to understand why instead of the original version for the film directed by Greta Gerwig, a new remake was added to the soundtrack.
The song “Barbie Girl” comes from the first studio album “Aquarium” of the Danish band Aqua and it was this song that made Universal decide to promote the group outside of its home country. Things went very quickly after that – “Something magical happened when the song came out. In one night our world exploded” – recalled from “Variety” singer of the group Lene Nystrom.
The single alone has sold over eight million copies worldwide and topped the charts on different continents. In Europe, the song went to number one in countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart and jumped to number one a week later, where it stayed for the next four weeks. “Babrie Girl” also went to number one in Australia and New Zealand. It peaked at number four in Canada and number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100. On the one hand, music critics praised the song for being “unearthly catchy” and “catchy”, and in the music video they appreciated the teasing message and criticism of misogyny. Others, in turn, pointed out that the song is “candy-sweet”, “kitschy” and were outraged by the ambiguous lyrics and the disturbing music video.
Origins of “Barbie Girl”. Where did the lyrics come from?
The song “Babrie Girl” was created after the musicians of the band Aqua saw an art exhibition in Copenhagen. “They took some Barbie dolls and made a planet out of them. It looked like a big round ball. That’s when I started thinking ‘Life in plastic, It’s fantastic’. I thought that was a great line and wrote ‘Come on, Barbie, let’s go party’,” he recalled in an interview with Soren Rasted for the song’s 25th anniversary. The rest of the lyrics were written by the band together.
Singer Lene Nystrom added in the same conversation: “I only remember a few brief moments in the recording studio, but we all knew we had something worth its weight in gold in our hands.” The musicians also admitted that they argued a bit about how to sing the song – Lene wanted to do it a tone lower, because in her opinion the vocals were set too high, which would sound funny live. However, she allowed herself to be appeased by her friends and sang according to their request. “Everybody thought we did it on the computer, but I really sang it,” she said.
In fact, although the whole looks and sounds very cheerful, the message of the song is a bit dark. The song, which is an exchange between Barbie and Ken, begins with the lines: “I’m Barbie. In Barbie’s world, plastic life is fantastic. You can comb me, undress me wherever you want. Fantasy, you can create life as you want” – theoretically, these are words aimed at children, but Barbie replies to Ken.
Then it gets even more embarrassing, because Barbie sings: “I’m a dumb blonde in a fantasy world, put me in tight clothes, I’m your doll.” And Ken, in addition to constantly proposing that they go to the party together, sings to her: “You are my doll, rock’n’roll, taste the charms of pink, kiss me here, touch me there, fiki miki.” Barbie also sings to Ken: “You can make me walk, talk, whatever you want. I can be like a star, I can beg on my knees.” Today, a song like this would hardly make it onto commercial radio stations.
What is the lyrics of “Barbie Girl” really about?
Rene Dif explained the controversial lyrics as follows: “The message is that it’s OK to be who you are, that you can look however you want and be confident. That you don’t necessarily need plastic surgery to be a better person. All the metaphors in the song were about taboo topics that you couldn’t normally talk about, so we came up with the idea of how to do it in spite of our song. It’s a pop track, but it’s also a song about being yourself and loving who you are.”
“It was, of course, a song about plastic surgery. The rest was actually about sex. When the Mattel lawsuit came along, the lawyers asked us not to say that. But we weren’t really trying to write a manifesto. We just wanted to compose a nice song,” adds Rasted.
Nystrom also emphasizes that it was primarily satire. “We made fun of Pamela Anderson’s image in Baywatch – the perfect blonde with silicone breasts. We wanted to make fun of that dream girl image, that was the main theme we talked about. We didn’t say it often, but it was the keynote.”
Nystrom flatly refused to dress up as Barbie for the music video, including wearing a wig or dyeing her hair blonde. Although she moves there like a doll, she wears pink clothes – as for a doll, she stayed with her dark hair color, which made the viewer feel a certain dissonance. “I don’t get angry often and I’m quite flexible. But I had my opinion on this. I didn’t want to look like Barbie – it was against the tone of the song. I went to the dressing room. Then there was a long and bitter argument. And thanks to her persistence, the clip actually had a deeper message.
A lawsuit from Mattel
Six months after the global release of the single, Mattel, the producer of the Barbie doll, decided to sue the label over the song. The corporation pointed out that the song infringed the Barbie trademark, and the music video illegally used the proprietary color “Barbie Pink”. What’s more, Barbie was supposed to be turned into a sex object by the song’s lyrics (due to the phrase “Bimbo Girl” appearing in the lyrics), and copyright infringement was also pointed out. Mattel also believed that the composition damaged the image of their flagship product and, in addition, contributed to the ruin of the company’s marketing plan. “They didn’t sue us, they sued our label. For a long time we couldn’t talk about it, even in interviews. There was a lot of fuss about it, but it was also hilarious. And it was actually free advertising for us and for Mattel,” noted the singer of the group after 25 years.
Lawyer Russell Frackman in an interview with Rolling Stone explained – “I felt their lawsuit was weak. I was confirmed in my belief when I learned more about Barbie’s origins. Barbie came from a German doll named Lilli. And Lilli was a toy for grown men, so her past was not crystal,” he noted. He also added that as part of the evidentiary proceedings, a whole lot of material was found that was much more critical of Barbie and even more sexually charged than this song.
The case dragged on for several years, eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2002, Judge Alex Kozinski ruled in favor of the artists: the song, as a parody, does not infringe trademarks, and under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, he also dismissed the libel suit. His words were significant: “It is recommended that both sides calm down.”
Mattel has changed tactics over the years. She licensed the song “Babrie Girl” in 2009 and used it in an advertising campaign with the words changed. It featured the lines “You can be a star no matter who you are” and “I’m a girl in my own world full of fashion and fun”. And Aqua got royalties for the use of the song. The musicians also now claim they fully understand why Greta Gerwig chose not to include their song in its original version in her movie “Barbie”. Instead, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice recorded their rap version with the melody of the original in the background. It’s not the same, but always something. Lene Nystrom emphasized in an interview with Totally understand why they didn’t use our version. But the film will still get us a lot of attention.” And Soren Rasted laughs: “We should even say that we turned them down. Ryan Gosling is not good enough!” However, the first reviews suggest that the performance of the Canadian actor is one of the production’s strengths.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
