22 March 2012
I was surprised to discover that ‘Call Me Maybe’, which went to number one in Carly Rae Jepsen’s native Canada in February 2012, Ireland in March 2012, the UK in April 2012 and the US in June 2012, had actually been released in Canada in September 2011. That’s a whole five-to-six months of quiet, undisturbed slumber before it took over the world. So, how come the good people of Q4 2011 didn’t get it? Maybe they were like: “Yeah, I suppose it’s sorta alright, though it’s no Flo Rida – David Guetta collab!” Or did they feel it was really more of a 2012 thing? Anyway, that means ‘Call Me Maybe’ is actually, however improbable, a slow-burner. (Magnanimous mentions on social media by fellow Canuck Justin Bieber in December 2011 were what eventually jump-started the ‘Call Me Maybe’ juggernaut.)
Then I realised that I shouldn’t have been so surprised: after all, hadn’t the exact same thing happened before? Released in September 1998, it wasn’t until February 1999—a remarkably similar time-lag to ‘Call Me Maybe’—that we finally got at number one in the US, UK and Ireland ‘…Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears. Again, you’d have to wonder which pop fans heard that track in November or December 1998 and simply shrugged.
Anyway, I’m confident you know ‘Call Me Maybe’ by now. I don’t feel it’s an overstatement to say it’s still one of the most famous pop songs in the world. Since its 2012 chart-topping reign it has remained in our ambient noise, collective consciousness and pop culture; at the time of writing it’s being used in a TV commercial for chewing gum. Ubiquity is no friend to the chart pop mega-hit, though, and I’m aware that many people feel they never need to hear ‘Call Me Maybe’ again. I’m not one of those people. I have albums by Carly Rae Jepsen, I saw her live on her most recent tour, and I think ‘Call Me Maybe’ is the best pop single of the 21st century.
One of the reasons I love ‘Call Me Maybe’ is because it’s so remorseless in piling on the pop thrills. Compared to the showiness of its EDM chart peers, its sparse arrangement (pizzicato verses, synth-stab chorus) is startlingly direct. The verse lyrics go for quick, snappy triple rhymes—normally a pre-chorus move—and the actual pre-chorus builds up even more intensity with a quadruple rhyme. Then it all explodes into a gargantuan chorus which immediately gets repeated because if you had a chorus that joyously catchy you’d repeat it too. And don’t forget the triumphant mid-section which bursts open like a glitter cannon.
I also love ‘Call Me Maybe’ for its sense of confidence, playfulness and fun. If you’ve also seen Jepsen live and listened to her albums, you’ll know that the wit and swagger of ‘Call Me Maybe’ has become her signature style; if you haven’t, there’s a whole catalogue of smart, catchy dance-pop for you to discover. ‘Call Me Maybe’ has a perfect distillation of this in its glorious pre-chorus set-up line of “where you think you’re going, baby?” – after a decade of ’00s misery inflicted upon female pop stars in pained, passive song lyrics and aggressive tabloid hounding, ‘Call Me Maybe’ showcases a young woman exuding sass, confidence and agency. The song itself, as I’ve said elsewhere, feels like a wittier, giddier reboot of ‘…Baby One More Time’, but with Jepsen herself leaping over Britney to evoke the effervescence and agency of ’80s Madonna. It’s a fascinating storyline in the evolution of chart pop and its female stars.
Carly Rae Jepsen didn’t become a Britney-style pop megastar. The immense shadow cast by ‘Call Me Maybe’ had people quickly write her off as a one-hit wonder, which gave her the space to forge her own sound and make those fine subsequent albums. At that live show I saw, ‘Call Me Maybe’ wasn’t held back for a grandstanding encore but delivered mid-set, which suggests a singer determined to do things their way. Jepsen seemed to enjoy performing it—career albatross or not—as much as the full-house crowd enjoyed roaring along joyously to it, and I can confirm that everyone roared along just as much to her other tracks. Perhaps ‘Call Me Maybe’ has created a space to leave behind the dreadful misogyny and bullying of the ’00s showbiz ecosystem, and instead return to more fundamental pop values: swagger, smarts, self-expression, and fun.
