Media Journal: Bubblegum Bitch

“Licka Licka lips”

A tune that took Marina’s song “Bubblegum Bitch” to the top of the charts again in 2020, nearly a decade after it was released all thanks to Tiktok.

Bubblegum bitch is only one of the many catchy and clever tunes from her album “Electra Hearts”. Perhaps the reason the whole album is so well… electrifying is the story it personifies. The narrative of the album follows a very interesting complex called the Electra Complex which is often seen in songs released in the early 2000s era. Another champion of this narrative is Britney Spears who by the way inspired this song as seen from references such as “dear diary” and “soda pop”: and also by Marina’s direct comments.

Before spiralling into references, what exactly is the Electra Complex. According to every teacher’s bane Wikipedia, it is analogous to the Oedipus complex in males, here however the girl is competing for her father’s approval with her mother. This usually leads to extremely sexual women wanting to dominate men or being overly submissive. It is extremely evident that Marina tries to explore both extremes in the album with songs like “How to be a heartbreaker” and “teenage idle”.

The album also tells a story of a girl going through heartbreak. Each phase is cleverly worded and made into a song.

From feeling like this can't be real with “The state of dreaming” to feeling empty and dead with “ Living dead” to becoming a toyer of hearts and feelings with innumerable songs. Marina travels and delves into each emotion and yet

Yet she portrays them so harshly with such poisonous intensity almost like a warning that feels but don't lose yourself in the emotion, to move on in life

Although I didn't lose myself in those emotions I lost myself in her songs and especially “Bubblegum Bitch”

The protagonist of this song (henceforth referred to as BB) is a classic mean girl. She is the object of everyone’s desire no matter whether they like “pin-up” girls or “doll” figures, considering the period it was written in where there was extreme pressure to look a certain way, extremely skinny bodies with flat stomachs, collar bones poking out: it is refreshing and a rarity to have someone so openly be confident in their body. Yet BB is extremely, she might even overvalue herself as someone who people would die for. An exuberant display of self-esteem. On a side note of body image, it's funny how the early 2000s were more brutal even without the advent of social media, for someone who grew up with technology I can't even seem to fathom how it happened but yet it did, interesting to say the least. Back to the initial topic, BB, unlike the typical fuckboy we meet, is very clear of her intentions. She doesn't play the games of how the person BB is seeing is the love of her life and has changed them. None of that “you make me better I want to be with you” bullshit. She sticks to her claim that she will spit them out like stale gum, well aware that her lover’s admiration is real, she is more than reading to taint it

BB is portrayed as an immensely vacuous character who seems so unrelatable except when you are exactly in her position post break up. This is maybe the beauty of Marina’s writing, they seem so far-fetched and yet somehow they always apply in some stage of life.

Finally, a comment on American pop culture in the 2000s, Marina cleverly drafts her words to play on the hedonistic lifestyle embodied by the era to give us some of the most catchy tunes of the decade