Wild Ones

Featuring Sia... No? Oh, alright then...

At first listen, Flo-Rida and Sia's "Wild Ones" is a catchy, musically well put together mix that I heard first in one of Pullman's two bars, and downloaded on the drive home (not a proud moment, in retrospect). Watching the video, the eyes are overwhelmed by scenes of sky diving in Dubai, club hopping, parties, and the typical formula for a hit song you'd hear on z100. One might think that a song with a man and woman working together to produce a hit would feature more equal footing, but that's not the world we live in. It's not a new idea that music lyrics are riddled with gender roles, masculine and feminine standards, and complete lack of inclusion for anyone who doesn't fall into a stereotype. Pimps, cowboys, heroin chic "girls" and rockstars, genre doesn't matter, all modern music categories have that "same shit, different bass line" feel to their lyrics. Society and the popular music industry both need some house cleaning if anything is going to change.

Sia leads in with:
Hey, I heard you were a wild one!
If I took you home, it'd be a home run,
Show me how you'll do,
I wanna shut down the club,
With you,
Hey I heard you like the wild ones...

Seems pretty tame. Everyone is a wild one and wants to hook up after the club closes. Fair enough.

"And that, children, is How I Met Your Mother"

But Flo-Rida bursts into his verse with, "I like crazy, foolish, stupid"
Because Flo-Rida is the artist featuring Sia, the song is mainly focused on him, Sia's got a bridge to work with later on, and Flo-Rida dominates the verses. Sia makes no note of what she wants in her "wild one" but Flo-Rida leads in with what he wants, and it's nothing that would put his desired female partner on a level playing field with him or any other man. The song continues, parties bumping and excitement building as he raps:

Take me so high, jumping on clouds, surfing off the ground,
Said I gotta be the man, be the head of my fam,
Mic check 1, 2,
Send 'em down in the club with the playboy girls,
Til they all get loose, loose
Pop the bottle, we all get bent, then again tomorrow
Gotta break loose, cause that's the motto,
The club's shut down, a hundred super models,
(Then it's back to Sia's hook)

 Cheese!

Flo-Rida is pumped to be partying, but he's still following what he deems women want him to be, obviously. Head of the family, the man, and he's headed to work as the main money-maker, doing his mic check. He's in charge, and since he's the money maker and focus of attention, he can send Sia (or another sexy woman) down to the club with his legion of supermodels and playboy girls. These girls are wild ones, and desirable. The women need to drink. Women need alcohol to be talked into having sex with men. Women who are sexualized for a living are essentially cutting out the middle man of talking women into sex, all they need is alcohol to make the party start, if we follow the stereotype. This song is not about finding "the kind of girl you take home to mom" it's about finding a home-run. Taylor Swift would be S.O.L. Men who are doing as they are supposed to, presenting a masculine front, heading their household, are able command that kind of power, and women will group together in praise of such accomplishment, shutting down the club surrounding Flo-Rida.

He returns with:
Can't see me with ten binoculars,
So cool,
No doubt by the end of the night,
Got the clothes coming off,
Then I make that move,

 

Flo-Rida is the pinacle of masculinity. Who could challenge a man who is so cool he can't be see with ten binoculars? No one, that's who. Flo-Rida has no doubts that the clothes will just fall off his legion of playboy bunnies and:

What happens to that body is a private show,

Stays right here, private show,

I like 'em untamed, don't tell me about pain

Tell 'em this, bottoms up with the champagne,

That body, not that woman. Not that person. That body. Flo-Rida breaks down what's important to him in a woman. He won't tell anyone about the "private show" he's expecting to see (til the next single, anyway). He likes wild, sex crazed women, who are so overcome by his masculinity and raw sexual power, that they won't complain about the rough sex. If the women are drinking enough, Flo-Rida won't have to hear about it anyway. But no reason to be alarmed! Sia is onboard with that afor mentioned bridge, to follow her hook:

I am the wild one, break me in,

Saddle me up and let's begin,

I am a wild one, tame me now,

Runnin' with wolves, and soon I'm on the prowl

I don't think that outfit is very practical...

I think it's fairly obvious that the metaphor Sia is running with initially is that one a horse. Horses are ridden, dominated, captured from the wild and domesticated. The need to be saddled with a man to keep them in check. But she's saying it's ok, giving Flo-Rida permission as though it's what she's in to, she's empowered! The last line hints that she too is aware of the short-lived terms of their relationship, and once she's done running with wolves, she'll be back to looking for her own 'wild one' to break her in again. 

Flo-Rida is game:
Show you another side of me,

A side you'd never thought you'd see,

Turn up that body, dominatrix, til you had enough,

I hear you like the wild stuff,

Poetry. I'm not sure what this other side of Flo-Rida is, that no woman would ever think she'd see... He's been pretty clear that he's a sex god, and the women flock to him for his raw masculine power. It seems as though we're still seeing the same bottle popping wild one with a healthy male sexual appetite that's dominated 75% of the song. It's nice that he seems like he's taking into consideration what his sexual partner is into, based on what he's heard about her. Wild women tend to get the wild reputations, but they don't tend to get that #4 single on iTunes with songs about maximizing their femininity and gender role position. Wild women are horses who need taming, and wild men are the wolves, taking women down, buying them drinks, and domesticating them, dominating them, then moving on to another 'wild one'. A woman's sexuality is never her own, she's always got to be tamed and coerced into having sex.

Good girls don't look for sexual thrills!

What it boils down to for me is that if the roles were reversed, this song would be regarded much like Rihanna's 'S&M' and censored, lauded, and swirled in controversy. Sia would have her sexual history plastered across the paper, and we'd wonder who this sex bomb thinks she is, polluting the airwaves and not thinking of what the children might pick up! But we knew that already, because we see it happen all the time. When women write a song about hooking up, it's a gimmick, but when men do it, it's just another one of the 5 singles they'll release about the exact same subject, and it just might be grammy worthy. 8 of the top 10 iTunes US songs have male-identified leads, while Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" sits at #2 and JLo's single sits at #7. It'd be great if this song had come through for Sia as a woman on the same level, a woman being empowered. Unfortunately, it stands out because it's catchy, as it will until the next Wild Ones pushes it to the back of the every growing line of Party Rock Anthem's, and anything with the word 'swag' in it. 

Credits:
Wild Ones
Sia
SomeECards
Flo-Rida
Kitty
Horse
Snow White