17 May 2019
Ed Sheeran spoke publicly in 2019 about suffering from social anxiety, the explicitly-stated theme of ‘I Don’t Care’. If the song helps you process or manage social anxiety too, or gets you through a challenging occasion, that’s fair enough. I won’t snark on you or this harmless track, in which the two biggest male pop stars of the decade join forces and fandoms to chart-topping effect.
Instead, I’ll just observe how the light dancehall of ‘I Don’t Care’ also played a major role in Sheeran and Bieber’s respective hits, like ‘Shape of You’ and ‘What Do You Mean?’, as they and the trop-pop style dominated our charts through the latter half of the ’10s. Would the imminent turn of the decade bring a new sound for them and for us? We’ll soon find out. Also, the green-screen cut n’ paste video (below) in which Sheeran and Bieber are together only by the magic of editing suggests ‘I Don’t Care’ as an ‘Ebony And Ivory’ for the Insta generation. Take that how you like.
