“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus is spending another week on top of the Billboard 100 – quite fitting for Valentine’s Day.
The disco-country track has gotten people talking for a few reasons, but most notably, Cyrus invokes Bruno Mars’ classic “When I Was Your Man” in both lyrical and melodic allusions. The connection between the two songs is not one of interpolation, but rather, Miley is responding to Bruno’s hit through her own words: making “Flowers” an answer song.
This episode of Switched On Pop, we take a deeper look at “Flowers” and how it fits in the canon of response songs throughout history, from classics like “This Land is Your Land” to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.”
Songs Discussed:
Miley Cyrus – Flowers
Kacey Musgraves – High Horse
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
Dua Lipa – New Rules
Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man
Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
TLC – No Scrubs
Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg – California Girls
JAY-Z, Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog
Rufus Thomas – Bear Cat
Hank Thompson – The Wild Side of Life
Kitty Wells – It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
Ray Charles – Hit the Road, Jack
Nina Simone – Come on Back Jack
The Chantels – Well, I Told You
UTFO – Roxanne, Roxanne
Roxanne Shanté – Roxanne’s Revenge
UTFO – The Real Roxanne
New Edition – Candy Girl
The Jackson 5 – ABC
Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
Nicki Minaj – Anaconda
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“Flowers” and the art of the response song | Switched on Pop podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
