10 'Barbiecore' Pop Songs To Get You In The Mood To Watch 'Barbie'
By Rebekah Gonzalez
July 17, 2023
We've been waiting all summer and now we're just days away from the highly-anticipated movie Barbie hitting the big screen this Friday, July 21st! As fans flock to theaters to see Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling's take on the iconic fashion doll, the star-studded soundtrack, dubbed Barbie: The Album, will drop in tandem. So far, we've gotten exceptional plastic pop offerings from the likes of Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, FIFTY FIFTY and Kaliii, Karol G and Aldo Ranks, and an existential ballad from Billie Eilish. With additional songs from pop giants like Lizzo and Sam Smith still to come, we're celebrating the arrival of Barbie with some unaffiliated pop songs influenced by Barbie!
Barbie's undeniable impact on pop culture has been dubbed "Barbiecore," which can be defined as anything pink, frilly, luxurious, and unabashedly girly. (Think Y2K fashion.) So, how does Barbiecore translate to music? In a recent interview with TIME, Mark Ronson, the mastermind behind Barbie: The Album, revealed that he and Gerwig (Barbie's director) were inspired by "guilty pleasure music" and "Peloton pop."
Running with those ideas, I've selected 10 pop songs that fit the Barbiecore aesthetic perfectly. We've got pop stars like Kim Petras, Lady Gaga, and MARINA going in heavy on the Barbie doll imagery and vibe; divas like Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, and Lizzo delivering sonic confidence about being an independent woman; early 2000s staples like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson giving it their all on the guiltiest of "guilty pleasure music;" and slightly off-kilter bangers from Bananarama and Caroline Polachek that speak to Barbie's ultimate—though admittedly for most people, ineffective— purpose: a prop for children to project their burgeoning life dreams and desires onto. As Lizzo says in the final song on this playlist, "If you feel like a girl, then you real like a girl," and I think Barbie would have to agree.
Meet you in Barbie Land! Don't miss Barbie in theaters starting July 21st!