Good Girls Go Bad
Good Girls Go Bad feat. Leighton Meester
Cobra Starship
March 11, 2009
Hot Mess
Atlantic Records
Fueled by Ramen
Decaydance Records
Billboard Hot 100 Peak: #24
It’s sad when a good song is overshadowed by the burgeoning celebrity of its featured artist. I can’t think of when that’s happened before, but I’m sure it has… maybe not. In this time of instant celebrity and even quicker demotions to oblivion (unless you try to drag it out with arrests, rehab, and/or a sex tape), one can see how music would be a way to stay legitimate in Hollywood (cause it worked so well for Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan). Well, Leighton Meester is exactly everything I’ve just described. Not to say that the girl didn’t work to get where she is but her biggest role to date is a CW show, which you may or not have heard of depending on whether or not you’ve had your head buried under a rock on a deserted island for the past two years, called Gossip Girl. I’ve never watched it but I hear that it’s addictive and fun and pretty and mostly shallow. All the things we’ve come to expect from pop culture for the last decade. Not that I’m complaining, I’m kind of enjoying not having to over think my leisure time, so sue me.
Anyway, (see this is what I’m talking about, I’m not even talking about the damn song), [Good Girls Go Bad], (I guess, since Rihanna has stopped releasing singles from her multi-platinum 2007 album of a very similar name, think it’s safe to name something this without the threat of rabid fan retribution) is a great piece of electropop in the vein of Metro Station’s hit [Shake It]. If it sounds even more familiar it’s because Kevin Rudolf, of [Let It Rock] fame, produced the track along with American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi of, “about a half a key lower” fame. Anyway, star studded, right? It has some really well placed and executed auto-tuner fun and a pounding post-GaGa-esque production value along with a high school cheerleading chant sure to endure it to the classes of 2010 through 2014.
Vocally, Gabe Saporta (that’s the lead singer) has a great pop voice: clear, clean, and with a certain suburban sexiness. Leighton Meester is like a well-trained de-country-fried Miley Cyrus. She even manages to make a decent run towards the end, although how much of that was auto-tuned assisted, the world may never know. In the end, the song is grade-A pop. It’s everything a club will want and everything a GaGa-obsessed fan needs in lieu of more GaGa material.
All I have to say is that if this is where popular music is going, I’m, like, totally in for the ride…
4 Stars
A+
98%
Who's Afraid of Music? 
these guys are pretty cool… i’m looking forward to the next album tho, the first one could have been better i reckon
I’ve tried so hard to like this song, but despite how sticky and shiny it is, something about the lead singer always deters me. XD
I am, however, also looking forward to Western Pop’s continued and inevitable turn towards electro-hybrids. It’s all so danceable and instantly gratifying XP
EXACTLY! :D
(Does that mean I have bad taste? You know… I don’t think I really care… lol)
First of all, congrats on getting into FSU.
Secondly, this was a really well-done review. I’ve only recently heard the song, but I have to agree with you. I think “suburban sexiness” gets at the core of it; it’s very high school and very shallow, a type of song I imagine Gossip Girlers will gobble up instantly. I’m a big fan of Kevin Rudolf (and anyone who references Wayne’s World in general) and you can really hear his influence on this track. It may be quite a bit like what everyone else is putting out (and I actually can’t wait until electro-pop/rock fizzles out, only because I’m excited to see what’s next already), but it stands out for sheer bombast.