Perhaps if Patrick Bateman hadn’t given a chapter-long discourse on Whitney Houston’s career trajectory in American Psycho, he would have opted instead to do so for Janet Jackson’s. Both women rose to bona fide prominence around the same year, with Houston’s self-titled debut being released in 1985 and Jackson’s career-making third album, Control, coming out in 1986. Bateman possibly saw something more “clean-cut” about Whitney (before the drug and lesbian rumors came to roost), therefore decided to home in on her as part of his discourse on “great” music that also included the likes of, yes, Phil Collins and Huey Lewis & the News. It was the mention of the former that prompted co-screenwriters Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner to add in a scene to the film version during which Bateman proceeds to fuck someone to the tune of “Sussidio.”
But maybe if “Pat” had included a separate monologue about Janet and her breakout record, featuring such hits as “Nasty,” “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and “The Pleasure Principle,” it would have created an additional, more stylized scene in the film version of American Psycho as well. “Luckily,” one supposes, it seems Charli XCX, unapologetically influenced by Janet at the moment, has decided to create her own addendum to Bret Easton Ellis’ masterwork by way of the video for “Baby,” wherein she effortlessly channels the persona of Bateman all too well, at least from a leather bikini-clad female perspective.
What’s more, as the approach of her fifth record, Crash, looms ever closer, the parallel release of further music videos becomes increasingly important for promotion. Yet, with each successive video since “Good Ones,” Charli’s visuals have transitioned to more simplistic concepts (though still laden with complex choreo), starting from the lo-fi, 80s-tinged aesthetic of “New Shapes” and continuing with the secretly PG&E-shading “Beg For You.”
Her follow-up to these, “Baby” (not to be confused with the Clean Bandit song of the same name), proves to be her most uncomplicated video to tout a single from Crash. Unless, that is, one sees the focal apartment tableau as rife with similarities to the interior design of Patrick Bateman’s. Being that Charli’s influences for this album were entirely 80s-inspired (with especial emphasis on Janet), it’s easy to understand why she would present us with a space that seems plucked from a Patrick Nagel mood board. And, with direction by Imogene Strauss and Luke Orlando, Charli owns her decided Bateman-ness not through literal slaying, but slaying on the dance floor that is her living room.
Flanked by two backup dancers (also a very 80s choice), Madina Beisekeyeva and Reshma Gajjar, Charli transforms the apartment into her own exclusive nightclub—complete with the lighting effects to match (rounded out by a Bat-Signalesque one that shines through the window and into Charli’s darkened apartment at one point). In this regard, Charli subconsciously sustains the quarantine theme of her 2020 album, How I’m Feeling Now. And, after all, she’s right to continue broadcasting the notion of having more fun in her apartment than she would at the actual club. Because it seems one’s abode remains the safest place to be… even as governments trumpet “the end” of corona (but even if it was “the end,” it’s inevitable that the next pandemic is just around the corner, and with it, the dredging up of the mantra, “Stay home, stay safe”).
Although Charli starts out sounding “sweet” enough with lyrics that commence, “I’ma love you real, I’ma love you raw/I’ma love you in the kitchen,” it quickly devolves into the tone of someone with succubus-like tendencies as she continues, “I’ma put you on the floor/Leave you wanting more/I’ma love you real, you might lose it all/I’ma make you my decision/I’ma put you on the floor/Leave you wanting.” Just as Bateman would after draping said floor in newspapers before the kill (RIP Paul). For Charli, that kill is symbolized through murdering hearts as she invites, “I can see it in your eyes/You’re nervous, but you know just what you want/If you’re feeling scared, that’s fine/I’ve got no problem taking full control, baby.” Again, “control” makes another pronounced allusion to Janet.
Her sentiments directed at an ephemeral object of “affection” (or rather, object of sexual appetite) are in the vein of Bateman’s own when it comes to racking up a body count. All ironically mirrored by the trappings of yuppie wealth. Because, speaking quite frankly, nothing racks up a higher body count than capitalism. Even if it does make your apartment look “endlessly chic and modern.” Just as Charli’s does, complete with “graceful” carpeting, a sparse plant in the corner, a sculpture of a muscular beast (in another century—this one—it could have easily been a robotic dog à la Black Mirror’s “Metalhead” canine)… and some high heels placed strategically next to the fireplace.
The decor takes a backseat at the one-minute, five second mark when the dance floor-tailored lighting materializes, as though Charli’s fierce moves just had to spontaneously conjure it. At the same time, one could envision Bateman having this as a lighting option in his own apartment. Along with the generic “modern” sculpture also placed in the corner of the room near the plant. As for the lone window that frames a generic cityscape at the center of the living room, its decided “every city” quality also emphasizes the idea that a place “reminiscent of” New York makes it all the more facile to reel in a body for murdering or fucking (or both, as Looking for Mr. Goodbar taught us) from one of the abyssal crowds on the streets.
That’s likely why Charli comes completely clean in the bridge with her intentions by confessing outright, “You know I’ll break your heart/Tear it into tiny pieces/One more falling star/I’ll shut you away, but you wanna stay/I just wanna say/Baby/I’ma fuck you up, I’ma fuck you up/I’ma fuck you up, I’ma fuck you up (baby).” Duly noted. Yet she had phrased it so much more gently when she said at the beginning, “I’ma make you my, I’ma make you my (baby).” Alas, like Bateman, she’s just as effective at attracting innocent souls into her “Duran Duran lair.” Or so she makes it seem…
