There’s a general understanding on the internet that once a brand (or Elon Musk) gets to a meme, it’s officially dead. But it’s not just big corporations co-opting fun little organic trends anymore. In 2023, a.k.a. the year of the product, brands have found a way to wear out even their own once-beloved moments of communal joy. Earlier this year, we all giggled over a then-novel term: Ken-ergy. Now, there’s a real track on Spotify called “I’m Just Ken - Merry Kristmas Barbie.” Somehow, this feels like all of our fault—or, at least, the natural endpoint of a summer where we briefly allowed ourselves to have fun at the movies again.
If the original version of Barbie’s “I’m Just Ken,” a song that starts out acoustic before building towards a vaguely disco-inspired bridge, somehow wasn’t enough for you, now there’s a wholly acoustic and wholly disco remix of the song available for your listening pleasure. Ken The EP dropped today, featuring the aforementioned three new versions of the original track: “I’m Just Ken - Merry Kristmas Barbie,” “I’m Just Ken - In My Feelings Acoustic,” and “I’m Just Ken - Purple Disco Machine Remix.” It’s... a lot.
This move, unfortunately, isn’t all that surprising. “I’m Just Ken” did make its way onto the revered Billboard Hot 100 chart (along with a bunch of other songs from the Barbie soundtrack) and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award. Barbie The Album is also currently sitting at a whopping 11 Grammy Nominations. But this release certainly won’t help with claims that the Barbie movie was really more of a Ken movie, or that the production of the film was purely about “creating an experience with societal impact that people would want to watch,” in the words of Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, rather than to “sell more toys.” (Or more albums.)
Either way, this is now a thing that exists. Yay! If we’re talking about IP-laden movie songs from the past year, at least it’s pretty unlikely that Jack Black’s perfect “Peaches” ode from The Super Mario Bros. Movie will ever lose its luster.