J.Lo's New Single is 1990s Nostaglia

Illustration by Glenn Hilario

Jennifer Lopez's new single "On the Floor" reminds me of a car ride I had to the  club Katmandu in Jersey with some female friends and Robin S.'s 90s house classic "Show Me Love" blasted out of the car speakers. Of course I got nice and tipsy that Thursday night and I'm sure that's what J.Lo wants people to do when they hear "On the Floor." There's nothing about J.Lo herself that makes me think of that Thursday night car ride, but it's RedOne's techno/house beat that does.

The "la la la" hook is catchy, but other than that there's no real chorus. The bridge is the best part of the song. One thing "On the Floor" would benefit from is a big, explosive Duran Duran-like chorus that opens up along the lines of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (another RedOne track). The song's structure is too literal because it just follows the melodies already programmed onto the beat. Instead of using a 90s melody for the chorus, the song maybe could have benefited from an 80s melody, and would result in a different mood. J.Lo herself has such a lifeless voice that she could have easily been a computer-generated voice. For all it's meaty beat greatness, when I hear "On the Floor" I long for a big, booming alto vocal (a la Lady Gaga) instead of J.Lo's  thin voice. For the most part, J.Lo mimicks the Puerto Rican rapper Pitbull (who guests on the song) in terms of flow. Pibull even sings a little bit of the chorus, so maybe it's not even J.Lo singing and just Pitbull's voice pitched higher. Maybe? 

 Through all the 90s nostalgia "On the Floor" will inspire, I think the best thing I discovered about it is that I can do the chorus dance from "Bad Romance" to the sounds of "On the Floor." Just picture that.