Sabrina Carpenter’s New Album is proving how media literacy is declining

After the massive backlash during the release of the Man’s Best Friend cover art and subsequent album its clear many have forgotten how to view music as an art form that requires nuance and reflection

Harrowing images and heated discourse are every second post on social media creating a sphere of terrified people, ready to cancel and hate, but should we react differently when its art? When is nuance required and have we lost what it means for art to evoke feeling, even if that feeling may not be comfortable? Sabrina Carpenter’s new album Man’s Best Friend was eagerly awaited by fans after the major success of Short n Sweet and the subsequent tour.

When the image of Sabrina on her knees with a faceless man holding her hair was released as the cover art for her new album it received major backlash, with fans and haters alike accusing her of being anti-feminist and catering to rising conservatism. However, some who chose to look deeper uncovered a good point. What is music, and is corresponding media but art and why are we not taking a moment and some nuance to think why she is using this image?

“Hey can we get a new cover that doesn’t suck? Feels very against the powerful busy woman character that you built up”

Sabrina has a predominantly female audience, is an outspoken feminist and makes music often discussing her distain for men. The single she released prior to the full Man’s Best Friend album – Man Child – discusses her exes being ‘stupid, slow and useless’. So why would a singer who continues to make her views on this topic crystal clear make her new cover art catering to men. Well she didn’t. If we look deeper, take a step back and think in the context of her art it is clear this cover is satirical. She is leaning into the hate she often receives of being too sexual and being shocking on purpose. Does this image shock and offend you? It should. Seeing a women in this position should. Hence here is her point.

After the hate for the image died down – which included Sabrina posting several other cover art options –  the album was released. Many of the critiques it received was that it lacked substance and deep lyrics.. There’s several points I want to raise here. Firstly, when did we all get so boring? So many songs from the 70 and 80s had non sensical lyrics that were simply fun for the sake of it. Music can be enjoyable for the love of music and art. The Beatles released I am a Walrus, the Beach Boys released Do you Like Worms and we all loved music enough to understand there’s more to this style of art then just lyricism. There’s the instrumentation, the composition and simply the feeling the music invokes. Now I’m not saying Sabrina didn’t put effort into her lyrics but for those who don’t enjoy the satirical points she often makes can you appreciate the beautiful throw backs to 80s synth pop that remind you of the rise of feminist music? There is so much more to music then the one thing we choose to hate and honestly with all the hate in the world we could use some fun, silly music from a great feminist artist.

Sabrina is a young women choosing to defy the people screaming at her to stop and making a statement on her own terms. With today’s environment art like this is evermore important and thinking critically about such art is vital.