Once the COVID-19 pandemic became inescapable in March, Lady Gaga delayed the release of her long-awaited new album Chromatica. In one week, she’ll finally drop the follow-up to her stripped-down 2016 outing, Joanne, and in the singles she’s released so far, she’s referencing a few past moments in culture. February’s “Stupid Love” felt right out of the dance-pop heyday of the early 2010s, while her newest single “Rain on Me,” featuring Ariana Grande is like a 90s club hit. The music video, released Friday, is also a bit of nostalgia to another unexpectedly bygone era: the pre-coronavirus days when droplets didn’t fill us with fear.
In the lavishly produced and animated video, Gaga and Grande are dancing in a few futuristic, rave-like settings. Grande sports a pair of chrome butterfly wings, and both have impossibly long ponytails. As you might expect based on the song’s title, it’s raining in nearly every scene, and when a phalanx of dancers starts moving in TikTok–friendly ways, the droplets go flying everywhere. Gaga’s anime character pulls a dagger out of her thigh, and look at that, more droplets.
Because it was seemingly such an undertaking, the video was likely made long, long before 3D simulations of cough droplets were ubiquitous. Besides, it’s a great public service announcement for exactly how easy viral spread will be if we start doing the Renegade outside of the privacy of our own homes. Once stay-at-home orders are lifted, think of “Rain on Me” and remember to wear a mask to the club.
Until then, Chromatica will serve a nice reminder of the type of celebrations we used to have in person. Grande, for her part, joined with Justin Bieber to release a more quarantine-friendly song and video, “Stuck With U,” earlier this month. This week, it topped the charts, leading to a little bit of beef with another aspirant to a number one song.
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