"Gonna Get This" is still here you people!!
but you guys REALLY thought some other Hannah garbage is better than Just a Girl? REALLY?
Hmmmmmmmm......
#96 - Gonna Get This: 5.72
(created by Suburbia)
Highest: 1x9 (Me)
Lowest: 2x2s (@iheartpoptarts @savilizabeths)
My Score: 9
Favorite Lyric: Somebody just said
"Hannah, do you already have a man." (It's fun when an artist gives themselves a shout out in their song, and this is a fair question. Plus I always smile when that line plays.)
Trajectory
5 Voters: #74
10 Voters: #94
15 Voters: #85
19 Voters: #96
Total Points: 114.45
Gonna Get This was recorded for the fourth and final season's soundtrack, Hannah Montana Forever, and was used as the opener of the album. It was written by Niclas Molinder, Joacim Persson, Johan Alkenäs & Drew Ryan Scott, and produced by Twin and Alke. I have been dying to talk about this one, due to the episode its featured in, "Hannah's Gonna Get This." But first I need to say I lied in the Que Sera write-up, cause while I thought it was only used in one episode, its actually used at the beginning of this one, where Hannah is in the studio recording the song. Oops. The episode aired on October 03, 2010, and the only reason I mention this is cause the timing is really interesting. Before I continue, I need to say I will be talking about the plot of this episode in length, and don't want to put it in a spoiler cause it connects to the write-up as a whole. But I don't spoil anything major in the show, so feel free to read on. Anyways, the episode starts with Miley and Robby talking to their record producer about how Miley wrote 9 songs all by herself for an album, but the producer wants one more song because Taylor Swift had just written 9 songs plus a bonus track for her new album. As if we'd ever live in a world where Taylor only put 10 songs on an album, but its really funny, because the album Taylor released in 2010 is Speak Now, which there was a lot of press about how she wrote the album entirely by herself, because she wanted to prove she could do it. Also, that album would come out just 22 days after this episode aired, on October 25. What a coincidence, huh? Anyways, he needs a new song by Friday, and Miley agrees to write one. We soon find her in her room, telling Lilly she already wrote one, and sings some of it to her...to the melody of "Supergirl" from the third season soundtrack and I’m assuming Hannah’s in-universe third album. Miley does this three more times with Nobody’s Perfect, If We Were A Movie and The Best Of Both Worlds before giving up. She then tries to record Robby writing a new song for her – Barefoot Cinderella – and asks to use it for the album and pass it off as her own, but of course he says no. Soon, Lilly gets Miley to leave her room, where she’s holed herself up in for days, and takes her to the nearby pier for some sun and to get her mind off of the song. Desperately and hopelessly, Miley says “I’m never gonna get this, never gonna get this!” over the sounds of the pier (video games and rhythmic bucket tapping) and soon, this song is born. After playing it for the producer, he says he loves it but its totally wrong for Hannah. Miley, Robby and Lilly argue differently, and the producer suggests a focus group of random Hannah fans to see if more than half of them like the song. Miley agrees, but 6 of the fans don’t like the song, or the idea of the song being a Hannah song. Miley tries to tell them that her changing and growing as an artist is exciting and good, when one of the fans hugs her and says she never wants her to change and loves her just the way she is. Eventually, Miley decides to use the song, and Iyaz shows up and they record it as a duet. Now, the point I'm trying to make is...well,
@pop3blow2 talks a lot about the duality of Mandy Moore between her music and her acting in his rate (that's led to some very interesting write-ups, I definitely recommend reading through it) and I've always felt like that's going on here with Miley the person, and her character. I don't know much about how the show was written, then filmed, then released but the first episode of the final season didn't air until July 11, 2010, almost a full month after the Can't Be Tamed album came out, on June 18. So is it far-fetched to think that the situation that Miley Stewart experiences with Gonna Get This is that different than what she experienced with Can't Be Tamed, the song and album? I don't think so. I mean, can you imagine what it was like when Miley went to Hollywood Records with the title track, and was like "I want this to be my lead single,"? They probably weren't very happy, and I can definitely see them being very similar to that producer and trying to convince Miley it was too different, nothing like her, it wouldn't work, the fans wouldn't want it, etc. Hell, they might have even brought up the idea of a focus group and done that, especially since the fans Miley would have had at the time are very similar to the Hannah fans in the episode, but I'm not sure if Miley would have gone for it. Obviously, the song and album got released, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Miley had to fight a little for it to happen, considering it wasn’t just a more “mature” album lyrically, but different musically than what us fans had been used to. It could have been a crazy coincidence but I think there's a chance that the writers for the show did this episode to represent that happening in Miley's life. And if not, then there's still the duality of "Hannah" wanting to grow as an artist and singer in the show happening at the same time Miley was attempting to do the same thing. Whew, I've had those thoughts inside me for a long time, so it's great to finally share them.
Now, I guess we can talk about the actual song. Gonna Get This is definitely unlike anything else in Hannah's discography, with its video game-esque electronic production, synthy handclaps, extremely auto-tuned vocals, the (very random in my opinion) feature, and the lyrics about partying and checking out/meeting up with a guy. It's the perfect song to use for the episode. The question is though, whether or not the experiment works. For most of you, it didn’t. To be honest, it used to not work for me either. I used to think the song was really grating, annoying, and exactly what I didn’t want from a Hannah song – which I know is the point. Eventually though, the absolute fun that exudes from the two of them throughout the song won me over, as well as the production. The electronic explosions and synth –laden handclaps (y’all know I love handclaps in songs!) just do it for me, especially listening to it on repeat for this write-up. That said, it’ll probably never be one of my Hannah favorites and I won’t use it very often. Though it is interesting that it was top 80 at one point, and is the first song to cross 100 points. Critical reception towards the song was quiet. I can't find any reviews that explicitly mention how they felt about the song, but
AllMusic did make it one of their track picks for the soundtrack, so that must mean they liked it. Unlike most of the people here.
Lowest scorer
@iheartpoptarts (2) just quotes:
It’s my girl Hannah! so thanks for giving me a fun way to open this. Other lowest scorer
@savilizabeths (2) will be very happy after the last couple messes:
Oof, no. I really don’t like the chorus. Yeah, I think the chorus is why I can't give this a 10. It's just not as fun as the verses.
@DJHazey (4.5) brings up another Disney queen:
Hearing something like this just reminds me of that random song with a rap feature on one of the early Selegend's albums. Honestly this Iyaz guy is the exact antithesis of what I enjoy from this kind of featuring vocal and I usually don't mind them. This is a no thank you. (By the way, looked it up. It's "Intuition" on A Year Without Rain). That's one of my least favorite Selena songs as well. I think Iyaz is fine here, but you weren't the only one with issues cause
@M24 (5) brings him up as well:
Who is this guy? Totally ruined the song. But I'm not sure if the song was any good by itself anyway, doesn't sound like Hannah. Dddd you sound like the kids in the focus group in the episode. Also Iyaz is a hip-hop/reggae/R&B artist, who
apparently had a number one in the UK but doesn't seem to be very popular otherwise. I've only heard one other song with him on it. Don't worry, I'll post it below. Finally, our highest scorer to submit a comment,
@pop3blow2 (7.2) mixes things up:
Yeah, this just never clicked for me. Reading the credits here & I see Denise Rich was a co-writer. She was a writer on Mandy’s ‘Candy’… so, yeah…… The fact that I knew I was going to mention her and your rate in this write-up, and you send this commentary…coincidences are bullshit. I’m just saying. Sadly though, Denise Rich didn't co-write this, but did have a hand in Que Sera.
Here's a pseudo-music video for the song:
The other Iyaz-featuring song I mentioned:
(This has always been one of my least favorite Demi songs dddd)
That Selena song Hazey mentions:
Even though it's a mix-up, here's Mandy's Candy:
And one of my favorite Mandy songs that has some duality themes:
(This is lowkey the best song in this write-up.)