Healthy self-confidence morphs into narcissism on “Reflection,” where we hear, “Ooh, where you from?/Must be heaven/You’d be rich if looking good was your profession/Think I’m in love, ’cause you so sexy/Boy, I ain’t talkin’ about you, I’m talking to my own reflection.” That desire for respect on “BO$$” gets diluted by profanity (“So yo a– better show me some respect”) and tired, go-to rap symbols for material excess (“I’m a Maybach and you’s a Volvo”). And lines could even be heard as advocating saving sex (or at the very least emotional intimacy) for the right person (“I know it sounds crazy/But I hope you save all you got for me”). “Everlasting Love” involves a patient, self-respecting woman waiting expectantly for an “exceptional, original” guy. “Suga Mama” tells a would-be boyfriend he needs to get a job (“Is you gon’ get a job/And make some of that green?/You tryna take me out/But you can’t pay for me”), then repeatedly affirms, “I can’t be your suga mama.” In a similar vein, “We Know” finds a woman confidently telling a wealthy, manipulative ex, “I know I’m better off without ya/ … I won’t believe a thing you say this time.” The song also brims with self-respect (“C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T/That’s me, I’m confident”) and praises hard work (“Working for the money/’Cause that’s what my momma taught me”). The girls sing, “Do you ever post your pics with no filter?/#I woke up like this too/ … That’s what we be like, yeah/Lovin’ this life ’cause we really don’t care.” “BO$$,” meanwhile, name-checks Michelle Obama as a positive role model worth imitating (“Use common sense, I’m on my Michelle Obama”). It begins, “Do my look fat (or not)?/Should I call him back (or not)?/Wear my hair like that (or not)?” The song celebrates women strong and authentic enough to be who they really are without succumbing to self-doubt stemming from what others think, largely in the social media realm. “Them Girls Be Like” is a girl-power anthem that critiques stereotypical female insecurities. The glamor-minded girls have since been traveling with Demi Lovato and Austin Mahone, polishing their sassy, sensual synthesis of pop, R&B and hip-hop. The ladies eventually placed third on the second season of the American version of the show, and Cowell gave their online fans a chance to choose the group’s current moniker: Fifth Harmony. Enter Cowell, who shepherded the five singers into a group initially known by the acronym LYLAS (Love You Like a Sister), then 1432 (text shorthand for “I love you too”). And now he hopes to replicate that chart-dominating success with the girl group Fifth Harmony.Īs was the case with One Direction, each of the five members of Fifth Harmony (Ally Brooke Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane Hansen, Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui) auditioned as soloists for X Factor but didn’t make it very far in the competition on their own. Cowell helped envision and launch the boy band One Direction, one of the biggest new acts to emerge from any of those reality singing competitions in recent years. But make no mistake: The sarcastic, black T-shirt wearing British music mogul is still influencing global pop culture in ways that extend far beyond his judging roles on the British and American versions of his Idol-like show X Factor. Simon Cowell no longer enjoys the kind of cultural power he wielded at the height of American Idol‘s popularity.
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