Amid the ever-growing trend of the home video look taking hold of the content in pop culture that we have no choice but to watch (so it would seem by the bafflingly high viewership for Tiger King–incidentally, Carole Baskin was banned from appearing in this video), Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have brought us “Stuck With U.” Accompanied by a video that’s highly derivative of what Charli XCX accomplished with “Forever,” Grande and Bieber join forces to not only jibingly address how much couples can’t stand one another for the concentrated blocks of time that quarantine has sanctioned, but also pridefully reveal the banality of their fans’ existence. Because yes, what would a comment on the present state of the world be without a clip show of prosaicism detailing just how far humankind has toppled? To the point where they’ve surrendered not just to the idea of their world being too infected to bother with (ergo burying their head in the sand to watch Netflix), but also “settling” for the one they’re with.
Whether that means a recently acquired romance, a longtime one or just driving your domestic animal crazy with too much neediness is of no import. The point, as Grande and Bieber underscore, is: “Can’t fight this no more, it’s just you and me/And there’s nothin’ I, nothin’ I, I can do/I’m stuck with you.” What a fitting attitude of total capitulation to averageness. For dispensing with ideas that love can be extraordinary or possess the same level of passion–of yearning and longing–one only finds in books of the nineteenth century. No, here Grande and Bieber are admitting that about the best someone can hope for in matters of twenty-first century love is another husk to be comfortable with–to black out on binge watching and chill with.
Also copping to the trend of proceeds going to some corona-related endeavor (in this case benefitting the First Responders’ Children’s Foundation) à la Beyoncé and Megan thee Stallion, Grande and Bieber are sure to pander with the theme. Accordingly, as split screen images (inspired by the fact that Zoom is everyone’s platform of choice at the moment) showcase the sadness of human evisceration, Grande and Bieber seem to want to make it all come across as triumphant. As a testament to human endurance in the face of total bleakness. That’s not exactly what it feels like to watch high school students put on prom dresses to go nowhere or a cap and gown for a ceremony they’ll never attend. In between, Grande parades herself with her dog of choice (though she has a gaggle), Toulouse. While Bieber, instead, opts to advertise his nature walk with trophy wife, Hailey (oh Justin, don’t you know Selena could’ve loved you so much better?).
Wielding the selfie mode of video-taking, this visual accompaniment feels like a further lowering of standards in how we accept pop culture. Extenuating circumstances or not, well gone are the days of grandeur or any attempt at putting up a veneer of glitz. For when celebrities do that now it is deemed in poor taste (which is true, just ask Madonna). So basically, musicians of Grande and Bieber’s high profile are left with no choice but to cater to the plebes that built their empire (the one that makes quarantining for them far from an “insane” experience).
Thus, to feign relating to knowing what it’s like for their fans, the duo offers romance-of-the-present realism with lines such as, “So, go ahead and drive me insane/Baby, run your mouth, I still wouldn’t change/Being stuck with you” and “There’s nowhere we need to be/I’ma get to know you better/Kinda hope we’re here forever/There’s nobody on these streets/If you told me that the world’s endin’/Ain’t no other way that I can spend it.” Sounds pretty goddamn fatalistic. And despite its attempts at being “sweet” and “hopeful,” what the song really boils down to is: love the one you’re with, because you’ll probably never have a chance to meet someone new again. At least not without a mask placed atop your genitalia (haven’t you heard? COVID-19 can exist in semen, too).
Luckily for Grande, she already met real estate agent Dalton Gomez (which many have compared to a replica of Pete Davidson) before the lockdown, so maybe her serial monogamy ways will be forced away from serialized to consistent if she adheres to the message of “Stuck With U.”
