10 February 2011
Tempting as it is to read social commentary into an Irish number one single of 2011 with the chorus “We don’t need no money, money, money”, ‘Price Tag’ isn’t your zeitgeist-capturing anthem of troika-era Ireland. Instead, it shares with ‘Imagine’ that timeless lack of self awareness in which a big-budget pop track disses conspicuous consumption in everything except you buying this particular big-budget pop track. Unless, of course, the entire record company was doing this pro bono for its annual ‘giving back’ charity day, or the big-name producer was doing it as community service.
Add to that its nod to the lazy, conservative retro of ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’: “We need to take it back in time / When music made us all unite”. (Rapper B.o.B. for his verses gets to be nostalgic about guitars.) Throw in also its Black Eyed Peas-style dumbed-down hip-hop-hooray: “Everybody look to their left / Everybody look to their right”. And then in the video (below) Jessie J does that passive-aggressive fake smile thing because “why is everybody so serious?” That’s a whole trolley-filling supermarket sweep of things normally guaranteed to have me shopping elsewhere.
And yet… I actually like ‘Price Tag’, a little. Any time I’ve heard it on radio or TV I’ve always listened to the end. In small doses Jessie J’s gauche, klutzy energy has its charm, which helps her sell the corny lyrical sentiment as a Saturday morning pop-up market stall of feelgood beats and big, goofy, catchy chorus. Think of ‘Price Tag’ as the heavily-discounted bargain rail item which, in that context, provides value for money.
