Song #913: "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani

Date: May 7, 2005
Weeks: 4

I liked No Doubt when they were a ska band. "Just a Girl" is a great piece of feminist commentary and a solid song. Their later stuff like "Hey Baby" took me a while to warm up to, but I eventually came to like it. I'm not trying to hold Gwen Stefani's previous work up as some kind of standard she needs to live up to, I'm just trying to say that I wanted to like this song, but I couldn't.

For one thing, it strikes me as a song that was coldly calculated to appeal to high schoolers. There are lyrics referring to principals and bleachers, most of the music seems to be marching band-style brass and drums, and the "singing" is more like cheerleader-style shouting. And all of that imagery is in the video, so I don't think I'm far off the mark here. It's kind of pandering.

And the shouting is downright unpleasant. It's whiny. Gwen Stefani's never been a great singer, and I suppose she's always been whiny, but usually her voice matches the music and lyrics. With very little music in this song, there's not a lot to mask the whininess, and then she gets shouty and amps it up.

The music is just brass and drums. The song could be performed by a marching band, except they'd have to leave about half the band off the field to match the rather small amount of sound this song generates.

So that leaves the lyrics. I guess she hears somebody talking bad about her and threatens to beat them up behind the bleachers. Because she's going to stand up for herself. I gather (from the Internet, not from the context of the song) that a hollaback girl is a girl who doesn't stand up for herself. I suppose this is Gwen Stefani trying to be a good role model for teenage girls. But then there's a call-and-answer section about spelling the word "Bananas," and it's just kind of weird.

My verdict: Don't like it. I guess it's not awful, but it's not pleasant to listen to.