In a time when being afraid of everything seems inevitable, luckily, we have pop music to make us believe it’s all “just fine.” This includes the music videos that singers like Tove Lo still put their heart and soul into when it comes to aesthetics. Something she already did on a more minimalistic level with her dildo-in-the-desert wanderings version of “2 Die 4.” But that was just a little tease in preparation for the “real” video. Since “nowadays,” it’s all about dragging on promotion for the same song in order to sustain the interest of the ADHD-leaning masses. Repetition is key to reminding them that a “product” exists, lest they move on to the next two-minute single. So it is that Tove Lo has brought us a sultry new take on an already familiar track (due to the sample from Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” by way of repurposing the 1969 instrumental from Gershon Kingsley).
Directed by Anna Himma, the video likely also seems familiar not just because of its overall Y2K aesthetic, but because Jennifer Lopez evoked a very similar feel in the 1999 video for “Waiting for Tonight,” which centered on the premise of a rave in the jungle (a.k.a. the Los Angeles County Arboretum). Granted, Tove Lo doesn’t use green laser beams to get her fun-loving, partying point across (but she does use white lights that project over the pool), instead opting for something more presently controversial: water play. And with polio fears being stoked anew, so, too, is the old (maybe sometimes accurate) myth about how you can catch it from a communal pool.
But even before the swimming pool became yet another source of terror, it was a luxurious backdrop surprisingly not all that used in the ’99-and-beyond era for music videos (though Janet Jackson did offer us “Go Deep” in 1997). And yet, Tove Lo stated of the “2 Die 4” video, “We wanted to make a pop bitch Y2K experience. With all the choreo, the outfits, the wetness. I think we more than delivered.” That’s certainly true. But the thing about Y2K “wetness” was that it never appeared to stem from actually being in a pool—it was somehow just a natural state for pop stars like Britney and Christina to appear “dewy” (though the former did once get a “wet look” from trying to drown herself in the bathtub in the video for “Everytime”).
The “generic techno” intro to “2 Die 4” is the first aspect that smacks of “Waiting For Tonight,” followed by Tove Lo showing us her best 00s look as interpreted by the Shein mood board. This means a lime green tube top with “strings” at the stomach that draw our eye down to what also amounts to her tube “bottom.” Lopez has a variation on that style in black as she enters the club in search of her “true love” (for the night—it is, after all, supposed to be New Year’s Eve).
There is, indeed, a watery moment in J. Lo’s “Waiting For Tonight” as well, after the bartender splashes some champagne onto the crowd and it transitions somehow into J. Lo being in a stream with a waterfall. Because, for no apparent reason, there simply has to be a bathing suit scene—though most of her wardrobe throughout the video is even skimpier than that. The same goes for Tove Lo, who also serves up other “dainty” (read: barely-there) wardrobe choices, like the frilly pink see-through top she wears as she stares at herself, like J. Lo, in the vanity mirror while another person sits on the toilet—which is also, weirdly enough, a scene that transpires in “Waiting For Tonight” in the hotel room. A whole host of other friends show up to the bathroom as well, just before the orgiastic club scene that updates what happens in J. Lo’s music video realm.
A close-up on Tove Lo amid writhing bodies still allows us to see a pool in the background before the pan-out that reveals the full extent of the “setup.” In truth, it’s shallow water, like the “pool” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion favored for executing select choreo during a scene in “WAP.” Nonetheless, it’s effective for lending the freeing, “born again” qualities water is meant to (when it’s not laced with polio), with the dancers surrounding Tove Lo losing all their inhibitions.
There is, however, one costuming detail that makes the viewer suspicious about how “liberated” Tove Lo and company truly feel in that the former is wearing blue plastic gloves that look positively surgical—as though, rather than being a “style statement,” the fact is, she doesn’t really want to touch anyone. Maybe that’s why, after her synchronized swimming moves, she segues into performing as something of a Vegas showgirl in a giant martini glass where she can be isolated from the others—her flower head also providing an ample barrier. It’s here, from this vantage point, that the pool looks Olympic-sized rather than “dip your toe in” depth.
Tove Lo sets the new mood at center-“stage,” her martini glass acting as J. Lo’s elevated platform in “Waiting For Tonight.” This is followed by a barrage of cuts to scenes showing us Y2K style at its peak: tube tops, handkerchief tops, low-rise pants, metallic-y “club dresses” and, of course, what is now known as “Euphoria makeup.” A “vibe” Kevyn Aucoin (RIP) gives to J. Lo for one of her solo sequences in the arboretum (as we see in the majestic MTV show that was Making the Video), complete with rhinestones all over her body. Because, yes, beauty is pain… and painstaking. Something Gen Z doesn’t want to believe in their bid to find a “hack” for everything via TikTok, and also because they merely want to exist “au naturel” (or so it is claimed).
Although “2 Die 4” harkens back to a simpler, more playful era that has become easy to romanticize (unless we’re talking about the plot to Senior Year), there’s no denying that the person who can’t be “taken out of the present” will keep fearing for everyone’s safety while watching Tove Lo and her fellow revelers splash about like it’s 1999-turning-2000.
