Once, there was an ass (in those jeans), that launched a thousand A Star Is Born fans.
“The Shallow” and “I’ll Never Love Again” might be the Oscar bait of Bradley Cooper’s movie, but true ASIB fans Stan for “Why Did You Do That?”—the mindless pop song that embodies all that Ally has become in the movie. With lines about Ally losing her mind over a cute butt and getting annoyed at texts, the song seems like it’s supposed to symbolize how much Ally has lost herself to the pop machine (because instead of belting rustic rock with Jackson Maine, now she’s bopping to synth-pop on SNL’s stage.)
But Diane Warren, who co-wrote the song with Lady Gaga and is also responsible for songs like Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Because You Loved Me” by Céline Dion, as well as dozens of other weepy, high-profile intense pop ballads, says that’s not the case. Warren tells the New York Times that she “would never purposefully sit down to write a bad song.” For the movie, she says she was directed to show that Ally was becoming a pop artist:
“I love that her character defended her music. It doesn’t have to be what he thinks music should be — music can be everything. It can be a serious song, it can be a pop song, it can be a song about an ass.”
“Not everything has to be serious all the time,” Warren adds.
Hear that, Jackson Maine? Ally does have something to say and it’s that cute butts drive her insane.