Big news: Ariana Grande’s in love. She’s also really, really in the mood. This intel does not come from an anonymous source close to the singer. It’s broadcasted all throughout her sixth studio album, Positions, a record that boasts the happiest music we’ve heard from Grande in a while and the naughtiest lyrics we’ve heard her angelic voice sing, well, ever. Two tracks in, on “34+35” (do the maths), she sings, “Can you stay up all night? Fuck me ‘til the daylight”, setting the tone for more subsequent filth on tracks such as “Nasty”. Grande’s desire is spelled out in explicit, occasionally eye-popping terms – in the best way possible – putting a popped cherry on top of a very sexy year for women in music.
It’s not like the realm of sex is new territory for Grande. Don’t pretend you thought “Side To Side” was a song about riding bikes. But now, she’s moved on from the creative euphemisms and is following Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s lead, singing “pussy”, “dick” and “fuck” like a kinky lullaby. It’s not like this is new territory for female artists in 2020 either. Remember when Dua Lipa sang, “When you’re going down I get so up” on “Good In Bed” at the start of the year? Or when she begged for someone to put their hands on her in “Pretty Please”? Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about “WAP” and the subsequent debate it sparked as to whether it’s appropriate for women to talk about what they want from sex in music. If you’re still looking for some clarity on that debate, the answer is: yes, it is.
While conservative commentators may feign shock at this development in mainstream music, as one of life’s most basic pleasures, people have made music about sex for much longer than you might expect. Now finding new viral fame on TikTok, blues singer Lucille Bogan was singing lyrics that wouldn't seem out of place as extra verses in “WAP” in the 1930s. Take this gem from “Till The Cows Come Home” for example: “If you suck my pussy, Baby I'll suck your dick”. In 1975, Donna Summer faked 22 orgasms on “Love To Love You Baby”. In 1981, Grace Jones asked a man to “Pull Up To The Bumper" and put a “long black limousine” in places automobiles have no business being. Then Madonna felt “Like A Virgin”, before releasing the suitably named Erotica and the even sexier Bedtime Stories. In the midst of Madonna’s sexual awakening, Salt-N-Pepa straight up said, “Let’s Talk About Sex”. Two became one with the Spice Girls in 1996. In 2002, Khia gave in depth instructions for oral sex in “My Neck, My Back”.
The list goes on, and that’s only covering the women who have sung horny lyrics. Surprise! Those women are vastly outnumbered by men who have done exactly the same thing. There are the obvious tracks such as Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You”, but for a more direct comparison to today’s eXXXtra explicit lyrics mainstream, N.W.A.’s now infamous album Niggaz4Life is a masterclass in misogynistic approaches to sex. It is incredibly vulgar and, at many points, down right offensive to women, who are merely seen as disposable objects for male pleasure, epitomised by the reprehensible interlude “To Kill A Hooker”. The sex talk on this album isn’t fun because it only pleases one party, while the other is degraded and, essentially, abused. MC Ren raps about a 14-year-old girl on “She Swallowed It”. See, Cardi B asking you to “park that big Mack truck right in this little garage” isn’t so bad after all, is it?
Those are the ghosts of music’s raunchy past, but let’s circle back to Grande’s foray into dirty talk. And Cardi B and Megan’s. And Dua Lipa’s. And Doja Cat’s. There have arguably been more songs from women talking vividly about sex in the charts than ever before in 2020, with the concept evolving from what was once a titillating novelty to a part of everyday discourse. The most obvious explanation for the rise in female pleasure in music, and the increased demand for it, is that recent conversations around equality and sex positivity have simply loosened up taboos. From Lily Allen launching a range of sex toys to Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty line of underwear, more women are taking ownership of their sexuality, which means more women want to talk about it and listen to other women talk about it. The onus is no longer on performing sexy for the male gaze; it’s about genuinely feeling sexy for personal empowerment and pleasure.
Who this music is written by and for is also crucial: “Like A Virgin” was written by two men. While Summer is credited as a songwriter on “Love To Love You Baby”, it was actually only the title that she came up with – Giorgio Moroder wrote the full song and, at first, it was so explicit that she only agreed to record it as a demo for someone else. Even Rihanna’s recent tracks “Birthday Cake” and “Sex With Me” were written by teams comprised practically entirely of men, bar Fenty herself.
Look at the songwriting credits on Grande’s Positions and you’ll see that representation is much more balanced. Grande is credited as the lead songwriter on almost every track and, on the particularly cheeky songs such as “34+35” and “Nasty”, she’s joined by her longtime collaborators Victoria Monét (who also got pretty raunchy on her debut album Jaguar this summer) and, on the former, Tayla Parx. As David Levesley notes, Dua Lipa made a concerted effort to involve as many women as possible in the creation of Future Nostalgia, which gave us “Good In Bed” and “Pretty Please”. We’re not just hearing women sing about sex more frequently in music, we’re specifically hearing it from their perspective, rather than that of a horny man ventriloquising the imagined desires of women.
Perhaps that’s what’s most shocking about this new wave of sexually empowered pop: not the content itself, but rather the fact that the men aren’t in control of it. Were some men outraged by “WAP” because they feared it would turn young girls into nymphomaniacs with no self-respect, or were they simply offended to hear that their own sexual desires weren’t being prioritised? Is it fair to be angry at women using words like “pussy” in reference to their own bodies, when men have been using it derogatorily for decades? Some food for thought. Listen to Grande’s new album while you mull it over. You might even pick up some tips.
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