It gets better. Unless you’re Selena Gomez, in which case it’s ALREADY PERFECT.
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Katherine St Asaph: If asked “who says you’re not pretty,” most kids who’ve actually been bullied would rattle off an explicit list of at least a handful and an implicit list that contains everyone; meanwhile, the reverse list would contain “Um, my mom? But she has to think so….” There’s a bigger problem, though. This is sung by Selena Gomez, who happens to be ostensibly popular and really pretty herself, enough to be dating Justin fucking Bieber (laugh all you want, this matters to people.) So while you don’t get the sense that Selena’s laughing at your loserhood post-song like Katy Perry, you do get the sense that she’s awfully blithe–especially on that na-na-na-na-I’m-so-beautiful-me pre-chorus, the “Pretty Girl Rock” that tweens didn’t need.
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Jonathan Bradley: It’s a shame pop music is stuck on the It Gets Better microgenre, because Gomez’s circa-2011 Hilary Duff fizz would be quite suited to songs about So Yesterday ephemera. “Who Says” is brisk enough for the self-esteem fest not to weigh down proceedings too much and it skips along with girlish charm enough to make its singer’s thin trill of a voice endearing — even when she hits a particularly wheedling note on “Who says you’re not pretty?” Buoyed by mock-serious, stiff-limbed string stings and a jangling guitar line, it’s a sweet, albeit slight, diversion.
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Zach Lyon: If we’re going to call this an It Gets Better song — and it was released in 2011, so that makes it one — it’s certainly one of the better ones. Or at least one of the more endearing ones. I don’t want to think too hard about it; I simply take great comfort in the genuine “Who said that? I’LL KILL THEM” subtext that I might be making up.
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Michaela Drapes: I’m afraid I’m one of those people who’s a sucker for the current vogue for inspirational pop songs. I’m also terribly charmed by Gomez’ ability to really sell this song, all wrapped up in bubbly cliches, especially when the lyrics don’t entirely make sense in a few places. But, whatever, it’s the thought that counts, right? (I’m even more fond of the Spanish-language version of this one, btw.)
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Isabel Cole: I have listened, many times, to “Firework” — also known as “a Katy Perry song,” also known as “not a very good song” — such is my weakness for inspirational songs about how great you are just as your special snowflake self. Lucky for me I feel so much better about liking this one! The warm, cheerful production is intricate enough to stay away from schmaltz territory (my first reaction was “awwww yeah, cellos“), and Selena bounces through it with utmost sweetness tempered by a delicacy that saves her voice from Carlton/Branch territory. She’s so sunny in her earnest pleas for self-acceptance that it took me a few listens to pick up on the unusual dynamic: anyone can reassure someone down on themselves, but it takes a not inconsiderable generosity of spirit to comfort someone harshing on you. Add some na-na-nas and I am more than sold.
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Jer Fairall: Pop has now officially overcompensated for the apparent dearth of self-esteem among today’s young people, but Gomez is a blank enough canvas that this kind of message song can be projected onto her without the kind of baggage that makes Katy Perry and Ke$ha’s attempts at the same sound so fatuous. The real story here, though, is in just how much this song manages to get right in the mechanics of its construction, never mind the triteness of the words: the bright little acoustic refrain, the warm drum machine thump, the cheery “na na na na” hook. By the time she gets to the semi-raps “who says you’re not presedential,” I’m smiling too broadly to remember what I was carping about.
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Michelle Myers: The key to enjoying this song is pretending Selena is singing it as a pep talk to Bieber. Who says you’re not presidential, Biebs? Who says?!
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Edward Okulicz: The sentiments are fluffy but blissfully, so is the tune, so light and summery and addictive, and Selena swoons at every glorious hook as she lines them up across a killer chorus without even betraying the idea that maybe not everyone is as pretty as she. Which puts her light years ahead of Pink, for starters. I thought I was allergic to this kind of song, turns out I was just waiting for it to be done right before letting the defences down. When she asks “Who says you’re not presidential?” to the listener in that perky honey-sweetened voice of hers, I’m thinking, creepily ironic theme song for Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, anyone? Come on!
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Sally O’Rourke: Just what every depressed teenage girl needs: reinforcement that self-worth equals being pretty.
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