Glamorous by Fergie x First Class by Jack Harlow, a Media Review.

Can you believe enough time has gone by for the song Glamorous by Fergie to be remixed? It feels like just a few years ago we were yelling the lyrics to this famous Fergie song, and now it is sampled in Jack Harlow’s most recent rap single. On Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” playlist, Jack Harlow’s single, “First Class’’ is number one on the charts. This song includes the most famous part of Fergie’s song spelling out “G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S”. The inclusion of this familiar song in a remix with additions of new lyrics relevant to today’s social and societal expectations is why this song became so popular and catchy so fast.

Back in 2006, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas released her very first solo album, The Dutchess, including the song “Glamorous” and other popular songs such as “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, and “London Bridge” (Oh Snap). In 2006, Fergie’s album with the song Glamorous had the most “digital sales and No. 1 on the Hot Digital Songs tally for the first time” (Hasty, 2013). For almost 16 years now every girl knows the beat to the lyrics “G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, We flying the first class, Up in the sky”. Jack Harlow took advantage of this familiarity and included the spelling out of glamorous in his most recent single “First Class”.

First Class starts with the intro from Fergie’s song Glamorous: “I can put you in (First class, up in the sky, up-up in the sky…” and includes the spelling out of glamorous but in a different way including Jack Harlow’s additions “I been a (G), throw up the (L)…”. He adapted this song to make it fit societal expectations of music today by including some current slang such as “being a G”. He continues using the sample from Fergie spelling out Glamorous and with his own twist “s*x in the (A.M.), uh-huh, (O-R-O-U-S, yeah), And I can put you in (First class, up in the sky)”.

The inclusion of this all so familiar “G…L…A…M” can relate to repetition and familiarity increasing our positive attitudes toward music. “Repeated exposure actually makes anything more appealing” (Hobbs, p. 172). To gain recognition, Jack Harlow posted a sneak peek of his new single in a TikTok of him in the studio listening to this new song including a sample of Fergie’s song Glamorous. This increased anticipation for the song to be released as viewers and fans wanted to know what the rest of the song would be like. This song includes familiar lyrics, but with a pitch change, different background music, and a slowed-down tempo. Jack Harlow successfully balances the familiar lyrics with a new tempo and additional lyrics allowing him to have a balance between familiarity and novelty.

“Because people seek a balance of both the familiar and the novel, creative people try to balance these two poles”. (Hobbs, p. 174).

While Jack Harlow perfected the balance between familiarity and novelty, he also perfected the creation of a remix. A remix is “cultural production using existing media available from the internet.” (Hobbs, p. 373). Jack Harlow used Fergies existing song “Glamorous” in his production of the song “First Class”. In an interview with ET Jack Harlow stated he “grew up loving Fergie” and “in 5th grade, [he] tried to perform ‘Fergalicious’ at the talent show” (Lee‍, 2022). It seems as though Jack Harlow has had some previous practice working with some of Fergie’s songs and he continued to explain he has “been wanting to do that for a while, and it just came together” (Lee‍, 2022).

All in all, I would most definitely recommend someone to listen to Jack Harlow’s song “First Class”, and also listen to “Glamorous” by Fergie to experience and appreciate the balance between familiarity and novelty. Jack Harlow successfully remixed a song with an already familiar song sample increasing the chance of a listener recognizing and enjoying the song, which ended up being successful as his song is currently number one on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits. Jack Harlow brought the song Glamorous back to life through this remix and inclusion of current cultural and societal expectations of music. The balance of familiarity and newness, creation of a remix, and inclusion of cultural and societal expectations such as slang is what makes the song so likable and popular today.

References

Hasty, K. (2013, January 4). Fergie gets ‘glamorous’ atop hot 100. Billboard. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/fergie-gets-glamorous-atop-hot-100-1053885/#:~:text=article%20on%20Comment-,Fergie%20earns%20her%20second%20No.,tally%20for%20the%20first%20time

Hobbs, R. (2021). Media Literacy in action questioning the media. Rowman & Littlefield.

Lee‍ Tionah. (2022, April 11). Jack Harlow on Fergie Sample & Angus Cloud shoutout on ‘first class’. Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.etonline.com/jack-harlow-talks-fergie-sample-and-angus-cloud-shoutout-on-first-class-exclusive-182403