"Love Me Harder" - Ariana Grande & The Weeknd

Ariana Grande's role in pop music, so far, is to be a replacement for the beautiful, talented Mariah Carey. How has she embraced that role? Well... it's been a bit of a rocky road.

You see, it's not that simple to be the new face of a 90's pop legend, because music from 1994 and music from 2014 differ in many ways. You can't just get away with copying a style entirely, because that would sound dated and boring.

Uh... never mind, point taken. But if you really want to impress, you need to take what you had with the old and also use some of the new to create a great synergy of old and new music. And that's what I think we have here in the song "Love Me Harder".

Ariana Grande is still obviously taking inspiration from Mariah Carey, but the music, as well as the inclusion of The Weeknd, makes this hit grounded in 2014. And you know what? It's pretty awesome.

Okay, "awesome" is stretching it a little. But the combination of old and new does work really well. I think the last song Ariana was featured on, "Bang Bang", didn't really use her talents well, and as a result, she seemed lost in the song, both lyrically and musically. 

See anybody could be good to you,
You need a bad girl to blow your mind

God, her being the "bad girl" still doesn't make sense. But anyway, here she is in this song, right back in her element.

This is a slower, more mellow song compared to previous hits like "Problem", "The Way" or even "Baby I". But Ariana makes it work with the music, complementing it well with her vocals. This song certainly uses Ariana Grande better than "Bang Bang" did.

The Weeknd is also on this track, it being his first big breakthrough on the Hot 100 chart. He's not bad, per se, but he's definitely the weakest part. This song needed an Usher, and The Weeknd sounds... well, weakened in comparison to Grande's powerhouse vocals.

But that's a nitpick, and it only proves what Ariana can do when she's given the right music to play off of. No, I'm not sick of Ariana Grande yet, and I'm continuing to root for her continuing chart success! You could say I love her harder... but that sounds creepy and wrong, so maybe not. Sorry if I ruined the song for all of you. *sigh* I'll see myself to the shame corner.