Why Barbie Girl Wont Play in The Barbie Movie #shorts
Why We Won’t Hear "Barbie Girl" in Greta Gerwig’s 'Barbie'
Mattel wasn’t too happy with the ‘90s pop song that the band Aqua made into a global hit.
C’mon, Barbie, let’s go party! Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling will introduce the live-action versions of Barbie and Ken in a blockbuster that promises to bring all shades of pink and a rise in toy sales. In two teaser trailers, Barbie (2022) hasn’t shared plot secrets, but while spoilers are missing, something else is too. Where in the holy plastic is the “Barbie Girl” song!? The upcoming movie promises to be for both young and older audiences, it would make sense to include the ‘90s pop song. The original song hasn’t been heard, not even a somber cover from a modern music artist like many other trailers for movies have tried out. And that’s because the song won’t be featured in the movie itself, and surely none of the advertising. This absence of the song isn’t too surprising, it can be traced back to risqué lyrics and a lawsuit that tried to make the song go away.
Aqua, the Danish-Norwegian band, didn’t know “Barbie Girl” would be as loved as it has been after all these years. The band still has a love for it, and credit needs to be given to singer Lene Nystrøm, who couldn’t rely on auto-tune to hit the high-pitched notes. She had to do it herself. As for the song’s music video, filmed in “Aqua-scope,” a little animatronic bird that isn’t trying to fool anyone, caws out to start the day. From that point onward, everything is so highly stylized, you can’t help but hit replay, again and again. From an oral history published by Rolling Stone, Aqua member Søren Nystrøm talked about the song’s origins, “I went to an art exhibition at a store in Copenhagen. They’d taken a bunch of Barbie dolls and made a planet out of them. It looked like a big, round ball. It made me think of, ‘Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.’ I thought that was a great line. Then I wrote, ‘Come on, Barbie, let’s go party.’” The kitsch and camp aesthetic from Nystrøm’s inspiration are in the video, and with the playfulness from the song, “Barbie Girl” should make perfect sense to be in director Greta Gerwig’s live-action movie.
What might have had a strong hand in stopping Aqua’s song from being used, goes back to a lawsuit Mattel, Inc. filed. Released in 1997, the song became a global hit, something the band did not expect. That might have been due to excessively hearing it on the radio, watching the music video on MTV, and the involuntary urge to sing out key lines. Who was thoroughly unamused, would be Mattel, the toy company that launched the Barbie doll brand back in 1959. The lyrics which especially infuriated them had their petite, fabulous doll referred to as a “blonde bimbo.” On the Aquarium CD booklet, Aqua attempted to quash any backlash with the statement, “The song ‘Barbie Girl’ is a social comment and was not created or approved by the makers of the doll.” It wasn’t enough.
In the Rolling Stone story, Frackman stated, “My view was reinforced when I learned more about Barbie’s background. Barbie began her life as a German doll known as Lilli. And Lilli was a plaything for men, so her background was not pristine. It also became very clear that Barbie had been represented in books and other media, even in recordings prior to “Barbie Girl,” as representing a certain type of person. She became an icon standing for a certain type of person. That led to the major defenses in the case, which were essentially First Amendment defenses.” After Mattel’s lawsuit got dismissed by the Central District of California, they didn’t let it go so easily. They took the case to the Ninth Circuit, where their appeal was again dismissed. The song was protected as a parody, and when Mattel tried to send a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, it was denied. That would be the end of the story, except -- there’s a plot twist.
In 2009, Mattel wanted to revive sales and promote a new product, Barbie Fashionistas. They turned to the song which gave them a headache to boost advertising. The company had a new version of “Barbie Girl” made, with KIDZ BOP-esque lyrics to fit the company’s brand. A music video with a title named after the choreographed dance, “The Barbie,” has humans and dolls dance and sing together, where they have new lines, “You can be a star, no matter who you are.”
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