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"All About That Bass" is the debut single by American recording artist Meghan Trainor. It was released by Epic Records in June 2014 and was co-written by Meghan Trainor and Kevin Kadish. Musically, "All About That Bass" is a pop and doo wop song that contains lyrics of body positive themes.

The song was positively received by critics who praised the catchy beat, lyrics, and message. The song has become a commercial success, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming her first hit single on the chart. Internationally, it has topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in other countries.

Writing and composition

According to Trainor, the title of the song relates the idea of the bass being the support at the bottom of a song to a person's bottom: "You know how the bass guitar in a song is like its 'thickness," the "bottom"? I kind of related a body to that. My producer (Kadish) had the title and said that none of his prior co-writers could figure out what to relate that to. So, I said, "What about a booty? Let's talk about that!" From there, it turned into, let's do a song about loving your body … and your booty."

The song depicts the "ideal" skinny body type as overrated and promotes body acceptance by celebrating men and women of all sizes and shapes with lyrics such as "Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top" and “It's pretty clear I ain't no size 2, but I can shake it, shake it like I'm supposed to do". Trainor says, "I wrote this song because I myself struggle with this concept of self-acceptance. It was written from a real place so I’m glad that other people can relate to it." Though it has been suggested that the song is a feminist anthem, Trainor has insisted that she did not set out to write a feminist anthem, rather a universal message to appreciate your "booty". The song's message of self-love has been compared to "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, who has been cited by Trainor as a musical influence. Musically speaking, critics have also compared the song to Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man".

According to the sheet music published on Musicnotes.com by Year of the Dog Publishing, "All About That Bass" is written in the key of A major in common time with a tempo of 134 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of A–Bm–E–A, and Trainor's vocals span from E₃ to E₅.

Music video

The music video was directed by Fatima Robinson. It was choreographed by Charm La'Donna and features Vine personality Sione Maraschino. It was shot on May 8, 2014.

Critical reception

Since its release, "All About That Bass" has received mostly positive reviews. It has been described as "making a run for song of the summer" and as an "enthusiastically affable song". A commentator from Idolator wrote, "Adorable video aside, we say that 'All About That Bass,' with its blend of country, pop and throwback rock 'n' roll, has just the type of unique sound to break through the EDM rut radio seems to be stuck in."

However, some have criticized the song and interpreted it as skinny-shaming, due to Trainor's use of the phrase "skinny bitches". In defense, Trainor refers to the full context of the lyrics: "I'm bringing booty back. Go 'head and tell them skinny bitches that. No, I'm just playing, I know you think you're fat. But I'm here to tell you, every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top." Trainor says what she meant was, "Naw, I'm just playing, I know you guys even think you're fat, but I'm here to tell you that you're perfect.'"

Trainor continued to reiterate her point over this criticism in an interview with Billboard where she stated "But, I'm not bashing skinny girls. Some girls have commented, 'I'm a size zero, so you must hate me.' But that's not it at all! There have been battles on my YouTube page, like, 'You don't know what she's talking about. She's actually saying, 'I know even you skinny girls struggle'.' And that's exactly how I feel."

Commercial performance

The song debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart on July 26, 2014, at number 84. For the week of August 16, 2014, the song rose from number 28 to 8, making her first top 10 on the chart. The following week, the song rose number 8 to 4. For the week of August 30, 2014, the song rose from number 4 to number 2, only behind MAGIC!'s hit song "Rude". The following week, however, despite gaining 28 percent in overall chart points, the song fell back a spot to number 3, due to the debut and chart leap of Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, respectively. For the September 20, 2014 chart, the song finally made its ascent to the top, marking Trainor's first number-one single in the United States, while displacing Swift to number 2. The song sold 1,821,000 for just atop the chart. As of October 29, 2014, it has sold 3,195,000 copies in the US and has been certified 3× Platinum by RIAA. The song has lead the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks so far.

This song has also seen success as it topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand and reached top 40 in other countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, the Official Charts Company confirmed that "All About That Bass" had become the first song in British chart history to enter the UK top 40 based on streams alone, a week ahead of the single's full sales release. The song climbed to the summit of the UK Singles Chart on October 5, 2014 and continued its stay at number one for four consecutive weeks.

Live performances

On July 16, 2014, Trainor performed "All About That Bass" live for the first time at an Emily West show in Nashville. She made her Australian television debut on September 15, 2014 performing the song on The X Factor Australia.

Charts and certifications

References

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External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• Meghan Trainor - "All About That Bass" - Official music video on YouTube
• Meghan Trainor discusses "All About That Bass" on The Today Show

• Single chart usages for Germany2
• 2014 singles
• 2014 songs
• Epic Records singles
• Number-one debut singles
• Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
• Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles
• Number-one singles in Australia
• Number-one singles in Austria
• Number-one singles in Denmark
• Number-one singles in New Zealand
• Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
• UK Singles Chart number-one singles
• Body image in popular culture