Switched on Pop - Playing it Cool: How Tove Lo Aims High

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

On the surface, Tove Lo's new hit "Cool Girl" boasts a snappy, earworm chorus and an empowering message of self-reliance. Beneath its chill exterior, though, Lo's song burns with a passion bordering on rage, and sinister sonic undertones suggest an unreliable narrator who doesn't always mean what she says. The more layers one pulls back from this song, the more Lo's source material—the novel and film "Gone Girl"—comes to the fore, turning "Cool Girl" into the kind of pop smash that sticks in your head in more ways than one.  Featuring: Tove Lo - Cool Girl Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster Alessia Cara - Scars To Your Beautiful Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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app at eater app.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. So Nate, I have a new favorite song. It is seemingly about one thing, but actually about another. Nice. It's a Tovlo's cool girl. I'm a, I'm a cool girl. Yeah, exactly. It's written by Tovlo and also written and produced by a group called The Strut. I'm going to go out on a limb here. Are they Swedish by any chance? Very much so. Taking over pop music.

Yeah, this is a catchy number. This one is seared in my frontal cortex right now. I really love this song because of its dualism, its narrative twists and turns. Let's just jump right in and take a listen. Great. So I said, never wanted a future. So I said at the top that this song has many layers of meaning. And what I want to do together is work out what's happening at the surface and what's happening deeper in the song, both

narratively as well as musically. Right on. Because I think they link really well together. This song is like a sexy onion. Lots to unpeel here. Let's not take that metaphor too far. Okay. Might start crying.

Oh, yikes. Right. Jinks. Let's pretend that never happened. Never happened. On the surface, what is this song about? On the surface, this seems to be a song about a person expressing their coolness and And especially its form as kind of having a very less a fair relationship to relationships. Yes.

This protagonist is unruffled by maybe an open relationship, by not having a label on a relationship. Right. She says, let's not put a label on it. Let's keep it fun. Right. We both can run free. In some ways, I think the singer of the song is putting herself forward as a very sort of progressive, like doesn't want to be tied down, doesn't want to take things too seriously.

Yeah, what's the word for that? I don't know. A cool girl. Right, there we go. Right. I completely agree. This is definitely what the song is about on the surface. And I want to look at how it's being reinforced in the first half that we listen to.

So starting with the verse. Yeah. I think the verse is really almost drawing from the tradition of the musical. It's almost an I want song. Right. Right. Right. Very good, Charlie, with your musical theater knowledge there.

Thanks. I did just recently watch the PBS documentary about Hamilton. Ah, right. So you know well the place of the I Want song in the musical establishes the central characters, desire, and their eventual story arc. Exactly. Think of somewhere over the rainbow, for instance, is a paradigmatic example. Oh, yeah.

I want to escape into a nicer land. Exactly. The more beautiful place. Yeah. That sets up the entire Wizard of Oz. Right. You know, I never put that together because I haven't watched it in my adult life. Shame, shame.

Well, first of all, you have to rectify that. Second of all, you have to explain to me what you think Tov Lo wants in this song. What's her I want? Well, in the opening verse, she says that she's speaking my truth. She's saying to the other person in the relationship, you can run free. I won't hold it against you. You can run free. I won't hold it against you.

You do your thing. Then as she moves into the pre-chorus, I think we really get a sense of the I want message. She says, at the end of the pre-course, I want to be free like you. That's what she cares about. She wants to have freedom, like her partner in this relationship. Oh, interesting, yeah. Which reinforces this idea of potentially non-monogamous, open relationship. That's what it looks like this song is about.

Yeah, I totally see that. And also we have maybe that backed up by the music here too, which is like very washy and open and sort of full of possibility, I guess. So I described the music here as feeling immensely internal. If you look at the instrumentation, we have these sort of soft synth pads. We have really no rhythmic support by any drums. and her vocal style is in a low register and sung in almost a hushed way. Yes.

You can run free. I won't hold it against you. It feels internal. And I think that's why it's an I want segment of the song. I see. So we're sort of getting access to this character's interiority here. Yeah, exactly. And as we move out of the verse and into the pre-chorus, things, of course, naturally like a pop song, they build.

And I think they build in a way moving from the interior to the exterior. Which I have to imagine is the chorus. Exactly. And this is where we see the external imagery of Tovlo, the narrator of this song, at least upon first reading. So what are we getting in the chorus? Do you mean musically or lyrically or both? Hit me with both of them. Well, lyrically, we have this really relentless refrain.

I'm a cool girl. I'm a, I'm a cool girl. Yes. This repeats again and again. And at the same time, musically, the whole texture really tightens up. Yes. Becomes more percussive. It gives us this super funky synthesized baseline.

Yes. It's such a different world from the sort of internal musings of the verse, as you described it. Yes, I'd agree. It totally tightens up. The washiness of those synthesizers is supplanted by a very percussive in-your-face baseline along with drums that add in. And her voice jumps into a higher register. It feels like this is the mask. This is the cool girl mask.

This is what is being shown externally. Oh, I see. Okay. So what you're saying is that verse and pre-chorus are like her inner emotions. and she's almost trying to psych herself up or something or like trying to convince herself that she is a cool girl. Yes. And then in the chorus is her actually expressing that.

As you say, the mask, here I am. I'm a cool girl. Yes. I can do all these things that I said I can do in the verse and pre-chorus. Exactly. My freedom is expressed through this external mask that I put on. Yeah. Whoa.

Okay. Here comes the tears. The onion is about to be feel back. Okay. Exactly. Because there are a number of things that are happening from the beginning of the song that I think raised doubts about the authenticity of the message. Yeah. Of this first reading.

Yeah. Okay. Cool. So the first thing that I'm catching is at the very start, we hear this little synthesizer. Yeah. It wobbles. Huh. Right.

It starts off and goes like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes. Yes. And what starts as solid all of a sudden feels like it's a nerd. taken off balance. Yes, this like almost pure sinusoidal tone into this very unstable, shaky kind of sound. Yeah, exactly. The other thing that I caught was that the second time that we come around to the chorus.

Okay. Take a listen to this. So there's another clue that indicates that things aren't quite what they seem. Oh, okay. I mean, I guess I'm hearing, again, that there's something unsettled. Okay, yeah. That there's something kind of, I don't know, not quite right. There's some chink in the armor, some crack in the exterior.

You ever seen the show Battlestar Galactica? I haven't. I know vaguely that it's about people in space. And there are robots. Exactly. Maybe. There are robots. That look like people.

Exactly. There are robots that look like people. Right. Oh. Oh, I see where you're going with this. Her voice has this crazy robotic vocoder sound. Oh, yes, yes. Something that we are probably most familiar with in the songs of Daff Punk.

Yeah, totally. So basically what's going on here is that by using this robotic voice during the cool girl segment, it questions the authenticity of the message. Is the narrator really saying it or is there a cyborg? Oh, yes. Speaking to us, yeah. Right. Is this her programming, so to speak, that we're hearing?

And this roboticism is mirrored in the music of the chorus. Go on. So, Nate, do me a favor. Could you sing me the first half of the chorus? Gladly, it's all I've been doing for the past 48 hours. I'm a cool girl. I'm a, I'm a cool girl. What does that melody do?

It goes, let's see, it goes up. and then back down, kind of these three notes, repeated over and over. Repeated over and over. Yes, exactly. Just as she repeats her line, she also repeats the melody. Yeah.

What's happening underneath, though, is the chords are changing. Right. So as she sings, I'm a cool girl the first time you get one chord. Totally. She sings, I'm a cool girl again, in the exact same melody,

but the chords have changed. So the melody remains the same, but the harmony here is new. So for me, what this means is that the cool girl is all about a sort of emotional stasis. Even as things in the situation change musically, she stays the same. Oh, interesting, because she's a robot. She's a robot. This is further reinforced metrically because after she says, I'm a cool girl, she says, ice cold, I roll my eyes at you, boy.

Yeah. And when she says that, it's ice cold. Downbeat, downbeat. She is asserting metrically the message that she is ice cold. There is no question about it. There is a almost roboticism in the rhythm to this line. Whoa. Yeah.

I see that. Ice cold. I roll. Perfectly on beat. So then if the cool girl is actually a mask. Yes. Put on lyrically and musically. Then who is on?

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Right. Which is what we're about to find in the bridge of the song. I love this. The bridge is always where the singer reveals their true nature, I think. Ooh. The bridge is like the Catholic confessional or something. At least in this case, definitely. Oh, man, no, always.

The middle eight is always where the secrets. come out. Every, every Beatle's song. That's where it gets real. All right, Nate's rule of bridges. It does lead us from one point to the other and let's see where it takes us. Okay, Nate, at the beginning, we said this song is on the surface about open relationships and freedom expressed by this cool girl nature. But what is this bridge saying? Well, it's definitely not cool. I mean, literally, this is hot. Yes. We've got fever. Boiling blood, fire, and burning. Yes.

A shift in metaphor. So, yeah. So this is not really jiving with Tovlo's insistence in these choruses over and over again that she is a cool girl. In fact, this seems to suggest that she might be quite the opposite. She might be a hot girl? Wait, no. A fiery, a girl on fire. No, that's trademarked by The Hunger Game.

Right. Well, you know what I mean, Charlie. I think what you mean to say is that under the facade of coolness is someone with real emotions and feelings that they are eager to express. And if we look into the final line, that perhaps this message of, yeah, yeah, I'm cool. You can totally just be in an open relationship with anyone. Like, no big deal. Yeah. I think demonstrating the true desire, which is to be in a relationship. Interesting.

Okay, I think that is what I was trying to say. Sorry, I don't mean to have words in your mouth. No, no, no, no. I see that. Like, this is not the cool exterior. This is the passion and the true emotion and, like, emotional commitment that the singer wants to make here, revealed in the bridge. Exactly.

But then by that hypothesis, as quickly as she sort of lets on to her true feelings, they are just replaced by that almost mechanical repetition. of no, I'm a cool girl. I'm a cool girl because immediately the chorus returns and it repeats and that's the end of the song. So maybe the secondary reading that, well, really, the cool girl is simply a mask and the narrator here was really actually looking for a relationship. They've got underlying feelings. That's a fair reading. I think that it actually goes another level deeper though.

Whoa. Take me there. Let's go down. Well, this is really, for me, about the double standard. of sexuality between men and women. And she opens up saying that she wants to be free like you, speaking to her partner. Right. And she says, I roll my eyes at you, boy. I'm a cool girl. But really, she's looking for the same level of freedom of expression, ability to share those passionate feelings of fever highs.

And the song kind of says, well, yeah, that's not available to you. Right. I see. So it's like this figure of the cool girl is actually a construction. Yes. Is a figment that's a byproduct of the uneven sexual moors of like millennial society. And it certainly expands beyond just issues of sexuality. I think to larger issues of cultural expectations and freedoms which are not equal for men and women.

I have no doubt because I just read this great piece about Tovlo in New York Magazine. that deals at length with the kind of treatment she's gotten from record executives who haven't taken her seriously as an artist and a songwriter or been able to believe in her vision to music journalists who think it's okay to be kind of sexually crass with her because in her song she sings about sex and uses bad words. Right. So, yeah, I think this is definitely a valid interpretation based on her. on the kind of frustration. I've heard her express with her perceived unequal treatment in the music industry as a woman.

So, yeah. This is not a silly love song about expectations in a relationship. No, no, I think you're right. I think it's about a relationship between two individuals, but maybe also in a way, a relationship between female artists in general and a society and a music business that imposes these unfair standards on them. Wow, yeah. That's amazing.

I didn't realize the degree to which her own personal narrative is entering something which is seemingly innocuous. Yeah, I mean, and I'm sure you could talk to other performer songwriters who would feel the same way that they can be the cool girl but not be taken seriously or allowed to express themselves in other ways. As soon as they start to express themselves in ways that the male dominated industry finds objectionable, they're no longer cool. Right. And this actually goes obviously way beyond music into our larger culture. This song was actually inspired by the book and film Gone Girl. Yes. Oh, man.

In which the crux of this film about, well, man, it's just like the major spoiler. How do you talk about the spoiler without spoiling the entire thing? Why don't we just say, I started reading the book. So I'll just say there's a monologue in the book that is specifically about this concept. of the cool girl and does a really beautiful and aserbic job of dismantling it. Right. And I guess this is what inspired Tovlo to write this song. Yeah.

So here, I have the line right here. The narrator in Gone Girl says, being the cool girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes. Goes on to say, cool girls never get angry, the only smile in a chagrined, loving manner, and let their men do whatever they want.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they're fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. They're pretending to be a woman they want to be. This is the cool girl. Yeah, that's, I mean, this is kind of a stunning passage there. And yeah, and really, I think Flynn, Jillian Flynn, the author is finding fault not on women behaving any way.

like that obviously women should be able to do whatever pleases them, but that ultimately this specific construct is one that is dictated not by them, but in fact by their male counterparts. That would definitely be supported by the lyrical choices in this song, right? She says that I want to be free like you, speaking to her partner. Yeah. Based on her partner's expectations. Right.

And she sings rules you don't like, but you're still going to keep them. That also seems to speak to this, a certain double standard there. Right. Right. And to close out any doubt that the message of the song is that the cool girl is an artifice, it is simply a mask. Remember how we got that all robotic-y voice happening in the second chorus? Indeed. Final chorus, it's as if Tovlo has been replaced by both members of Daft Punk.

Her voice is completely manipulated. It is clear that the person's. saying, I'm a cool girl, ice cold, is doing it as an automaton. Yes, I know. It's kind of chilling. Not in the good sense of chill. No, no. In the sense of like, ooh, this got a little dark all of a sudden. Yeah. Yeah. Because the song, the first time I heard, I was like, look, this is fun. I want to remix it. It's got a great baseline. I just want to dance. But clearly, through the bridge,

she has taken us from one way of hearing a song into another. Yeah. And I love that it does it so subtly, right? In many ways, it just is the typical structure of a pop song. There's no innovation there. And yet there is real emotional movement in only a few short minutes. I think similar to how her voice stays the same and the chords change underneath, we are in this tension between what stays the same and what is changing.

And actually there's a lot changing underneath as we move through to get to the final part of this song. Yeah. And, you know, if I may be so bold, I'm hearing one aspect of this song that really lodged in my brain the first time I heard it, which is the repetition of just two words, I'm a, I'ma. Yeah. In some ways, that's like kind of what makes the whole hook of the song. Yeah. And it really, and I couldn't get it out of my head. It almost bothered me.

I was like, why this? So there's something very odd about. it. Something very funky, but something very odd about it. And now hearing your reading of this final chorus and its roboticness, is that maybe like a glitch or something? Right. She's like skipping a beat. Yeah. It's like, you know, something, an error in the coding of the cool girl automaton 3,000 Model 6 and it hasn't been debugged yet or something. And yeah, like maybe that's maybe her inclusion of that is in part another hint saying like I'm I don't really believe what I'm saying here I have to I have to say it but I don't I don't really feel it and I'm and I'm messing up almost as I

as I try to cool girl seemingly one thing actually another indeed wow charlie yeah I definitely won't hear that the same way either so thanks for breaking it down for me Now, before we go, I do want to acknowledge that, obviously, for a lot of people, the past couple of weeks have been a period of mixed feelings, mourning, and music has been there to serve as a catharsis for a lot of folks. Definitely has been for me. Yeah, I've certainly experienced those firsthand, and then I think more vicariously, I'm experiencing the certain terror and fear, like, very immediate and bodily that a lot of minority groups in this country are experiencing. So yeah, it is it is a troubled time. Yeah, I'm feeling really

strongly for a lot of people who are feeling unsafe. Also feeling a lot of solidarity for those who are speaking up and raising their voices. I wanted to end today just on a beautiful tune, which I think has a great message of catharsis and a message of personal growth. A handful of episodes ago, we did a piece about Alessia Kara. Oh, the yeah, the like, Like, what is she, 18-year-old kid phenom singer with the antisocial anthem here? Yeah. Yes, exactly. Totally.

Yeah, she's actually now 20, and she has the most gorgeous song called Scars to Your Beautiful. Scars to Your Beautiful is just brilliant. And I think similarly to Cool Girl is referencing all the ways in which mainstream culture is directly oppressive. to women and to all people struggling. And I think that she offers a really positive message of hope and does it in a way, which, again, I think, inverts the internal to the external. But rather than putting a mask on, I think, stepping out really proudly and showing one's face for what it really is. Yeah, I totally agree.

I mean, I think that that moment in the chorus where she sort of moves from lyrics to just wordless vocals is one of the few times that a wordless vocal is actually really warranted. and earned in a pop chorus. And it does feel like something that sort of transcends words into just pure feeling. And yeah, I agree. This is definitely a good song for the moment. Right.

When the wordless chorus sometimes obnoxiously invites us to sing along. Here it really says, join me in this movement, sing with me, demonstrate that the world can change its heart and that you are beautiful. Oof. So that is the beauty of music. That's all I've got.

And that's all we need, Charles. Thanks. All right. This episode of Switched On Pop was produced by me, Charlie Harding. And edited by me, Nate Sloan, and our amazing editor, Bill Lance. Our design is done by Luke Harris. You can listen to all our episodes and learn more about the show at www. www.switchedonpop.com, or you can reach out to us on Twitter at Switched on Pop.

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