It’s not very often that we review a song that first came out almost a year ago. Unless, of course, the song was sung by Maroon 5, then remixed into a new version featuring rapper Cardi B.
So here we are.
Girls Like You was originally released on Maroon 5’s album Red Pill Blues. With the addition of Cardi B, the track has morphed from focusing on a guy who drops into town to work out issues with his significant other (read: between the sheets), to a song with a few new lyrics and a video that try—though not very successfully—to deliver a message about female empowerment.
Adam Levine kicks off the song by saying he wants more time with a lover than the few hours he actually has: “Spent 24 hours, I need more hours with you.” That’s because the two need to work out some issues (in and out of bed) that have emerged in his absence: “You spent the weekend getting even, ooh/… I spent last night on the last flight to you/ … We spent the late nights making things right between us.”
Now that they’ve had some alone time, “It’s all good, babe,” he says smoothly. So Levine suggests sharing some marijuana (“Roll that backwood, babe”) and cutting loose whenever he’s in town: “‘Cause girls like you run ’round with guys like me/ … When I come through/I need a girl like you.”
As for what that “running around” looks like? Well, it’s a long, continuous string of poor choices: “Maybe it’s 6:45/Maybe I’m barely alive/Maybe you’ve taken my s— for the last time, yeah/Maybe I know that I’m drunk/Maybe I know you’re the one/Maybe you’re thinking it’s better if you drive.”
Then Cardi B comes in with her bit, rapping about her former experience as an exotic dancer, alluding to sex and masturbation, then throwing in a line about protecting her heart.
So let’s just break this down: This song is about a guy who rolls into town occasionally and wants to move past arguing (or actual emotional connection) so that he and his lover can have sex and have fun … on his terms. Never mind that they have actual issues that they need to work out. Nah, none of that stuff. What he wants is an on-call lover to cater to his selfish desires and lousy life choices.
Strangely, though, this song has been given props for somehow being empowering to women, mostly because Cardi B got onboard with the remix, and because a bunch of big names (such as Jennifer Lopez, Gal Gadot and Ellen DeGeneres, among others) made cameos in the song’s video.
There, we also see a woman wearing an “Always Speak Your Truth” T-shirt (a perhaps well-intended message about being honest that still cloaks deep philosophical problems) and various women from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Some of the women’s outfits are fairly revealing as well.
But just because a diverse (and famous) group of women come together to dance in a video doesn’t mean that the core message of the song has changed. Or that anyone has been empowered. In fact, you could argue that they’re ironically being further exploited by Maroon 5 themselves, because there’s nothing empowering in the song itself.
No woman deserves to be an afterthought to be taken advantage of whenever it suits some narcissistic guy’s whims. And this video’s shallow veneer of faux empowerment can’t erase that message from this song.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
