Worth It

Title:  Worth It

Artist:   Fifth Harmony

  Kid Ink

Writers: Priscilla Renea

        Ori Kaplan

    Stargate

Producers: Stargate

                       Ori Kaplan

Release: March 2, 2015

Runtime: 3 Minutes 44 Seconds

I have been called many things, one of the being a hipster, or at least a pseudo hipster. But really, how could I blame them? All of music, especially pop, has a certain alien quality to it that I simply could not wrap my head around. I used to think that in order to be successful in the industry, one needs talent, tenacity, a good sense of music even. Well, apparently all you need to be a pop star nowadays are serviceable vocals from mannequins that are barely proficient in solmization, sound mixers that are more interested in making unintelligible noise than a coherent musical number and a rabid fanbase. All of these problems are entirely present in the track, "Worth It."

First of all, let us start with the production itself. It is utterly boring to listen to. I am fully aware that a pop song is a pop song, which means I am not expecting it to be a 12 piece orchestral sonata, but a pop song should at least sound lively, which is not the case for this dismal track. Everything about it just screams factory manufactured with hardly any passion in its assemblage. The synths are quite literally the exact same two notes. The percussions, underpowered yet somehow turgid and the saxophones did not add anything to the track, except for a rather catchy yet pointless hook. I think that they are trying to aim for minimalism, but then they half baked it.

Kid Ink's rap verses are especially vapid. In fact, I might argue that if the producers decided to cut the rap out of the equation, it would still be just as awful. It did not add anything to the track, nor did it detract. It is the musical equation of adding salt to a scrambled egg, sure the egg is bland, but I can do well without it. There is no effort nor direction in it, it is almost like the producers asks Kid Ink to just make up lines as he went along as long as it hits the tone and rhythm. I know this because the verse repeated the exact same line for four straight times. There are four writers working on the lyrics on the lyrics, FOUR! Yet none of them even bothered putting some effort into it?!

Fifth Harmony are easily the weakest link in the entire song. Nothing about them stood out from other pop acts. Their vocals are serviceable, but uninteresting. They had presence, but not that powerful. They are gorgeous to look at, but there are others that are more aesthetically interesting. This is especially problematic for a band that is still trying to establish themselves. The track betrayed whatever potential they had, obviously unaware that the record producers had probably never heard of first impressions.

In conclusion, the track is vapid, uninteresting and dull. It is nothing but a blank slate of a song. The production alone should have been lively but they composers did not even bother to do that. Instead, we have nothing but a cheap, watered down, artificial product assembled with very little passion, and they are awarded with a triple platinum selling album and one of the most intense fanbase this side of My Little Pony.