Ariana Grande’s Hate that I Made you Love Me: The Dark Side of Love

Ariana Grande is back with a smash pop record about…you guessed it…love. Petal is out with some instant pop hits and some great musical textures. Grande seems to be going from strength to strength with each record and her pop stardom does not look to be dimming anytime soon. Even though Hate that I Made You Love Me sees Grande traveling over the familiar landscape of love gone wrong, this latest track as a couple twists. Let’s dig in.

Musically, this track is very traditional pop without going overboard. There is your classic 4/4 beat with the occasional flourish. Bass and guitar make background appearances so far back in the mix you might miss them. However, their presence is felt and the background musical warmth in the back of the mix helps to ground the track. Musically, what really makes the track for me are these electro/synth bubble type pops and burbles. These little electro touches and fun vocal effects give the track a needed texture. In reality, the track is pretty sparse for a pop track and those little electro bubbles gives the track enough texture to feel well rounded.

Lyrically, the beginning of the track is quite dark. The narrator sings about “flowers on a tomb,” “dancing with fire” and “shadows.” Love, or more likely a one sided crush that she is not responding to, is compared to danger and death….not the best. This unhealthy one sided obsession continues as she sings about the person’s insecurities and projecting all their needs on her. One can read this as an obsession with celebrity as a once sided love where the person has an unhealthy projection on the celebrity in order to find self worth. One can also read this as a interesting first encounter that turned south as one person’s needs became intense and quickly spiralled into a toxic hell scape…think random incel on Twitter type vibes.

However you read the track, the bridge…which is this lovely drop from textured pop to stripped back acoustic guitar paired with gorgeous and lush layered vocals…adds a whole new spin to the track. This is a classic Beatles middle 8 bridge in how it totally transforms the song and does not stick around for long. In it, the mood switches from the death and fire surrounding this one way love to her own strength. Grande sings about how the person doesn’t like to see “women endure.” This implies that her strength is what he finds threatening, while it is also this strength that will allow her to move past this insecure and toxic man and continue living her life. The bridge takes a largely passive song and gives it some action and power. I love the bridge in this track.

This is a classic intro, verse, chorus, bride, final chorus pop song structure. I mean, it is straight out of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in 1938. Having said that, the reason a traditional pop song structure has stayed around so long is because it works. Grande’s vocals really shine in this traditional pop structure and the electro flourishes help keep a close to 100 year old tradition still fresh and current. Moreover, this bridge is amazing and really takes the track to another level.

Listen to Hate the I Made you Love Me