Friday Song: “Pink Pony Club”
Is this the song of the summer? It's a definite contender . . .
In a recent interview, Ariana Grande was asked about her well-known annoyance at people who don’t take pop music seriously — both because it’s more difficult to do well than most think, and because it’s often about meaningful topics or stories.
Along these lines, the lyrics of today’s selection — “Pink Pony Club” — tell quite a story:
I’m having wicked dreams
Of leaving Tennessee
Oh, Santa Monica
I swear it’s calling me
Won’t make my mama proud
It’s gonna cause a scene
She sees her baby girl
I know she’s gonna scream
God, what have you done?!
You’re a pink pony girl
And you dance at the club
Oh mama, I’m just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It’s where I belong
Down at the
Pink Pony Club
Originally released in 2020, right before the pandemic hit, Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” sought to celebrate acceptance and joy, and deliver party energy. With everyone sequestered, the song vanished in a puff of social distancing.
Re-released in 2023 as part of her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, “Pink Pony Club” has become a song of the summer of 2024. Built on four chords, with a bridge that mixes things up in an almost imperceptible way, the song is all about dynamics and energy. Roan seems particularly capable of playing well with these elements of the tension-resolution aspect of music.
Growing up gay and closeted in Willard, a conservative Missouri town, Roan dreamed of finding acceptance in Santa Monica after visiting California, and used this specific idea in the song.
The story is of a woman who finds freedom and acceptance as a dancer at a club, where her true nature can finally take center stage.
Before meeting producer Dan Nigro — the mastermind behind two of Olivia Rodrigo’s most popular albums — Roan’s vibe was more along the “sad ballad” line, as she acknowledged. Nigro convinced her to amp up the energy, but it was a challenge:
I didn’t understand how to write a happy pop song, but I was tired of singing sad songs on tour. It just makes you feel sad after a show . . . you don’t feel super excited, and I wanted to dance and move on stage.
They nailed it with this one, which has great energy, terrific ’80s synths (another hallmark of current pop music), and nice dynamics. When the audience sings a song so loudly the singer can stand aside, you know you’re onto something.
Roan has headlined Coachella. In June (the same month as the performance below), Roan drew an audience so large at the Bonnaroo Music Festival that organizers had to move her set to a bigger stage to accommodate the massive crowd, and she may have just had the biggest set ever at Lollapalooza.
As of last week, Midwest Princess tracks “Red Wine Supernova,” “Pink Pony Club,” “Casual,” “Femininomenon,” “My Kink Is Karma,” and “Hot to Go!” were all charting on the Billboard Hot 100. “Femininomenon” was also a featured track at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week.
Enjoy!