I recently found new respect for Charlie Puth. His marketing tactics sent his new song Light Switch on a steady climb up the charts. This is one of those very few times when I was actually right there in the moment when it all happened. So, let me break down why Charlie Puth is a genius of marketing.
Background
Let me start by admitting that Charlie Puth is an incredibly talented vocalist and deserves every bit of success he has had since he was thrown into the spotlight by none other than Ellen DeGeneres in 2011.
Charlie Puth has seen significant success since he came into the spotlight. He had quite a few big hits, on his own and with other artists, and was headed for the typical pop star route for a while there.
I still remember when he dropped ‘Attention’. I had that song on repeat for days. And he was the only redeeming quality of ‘See You Again’, between the mediocre production and Wiz Khalifa’s phoned in verses. But I digress. My point is that, around that time, Charlie was soaring sky high.
But, as is common with the pop star route, the hype quickly started to fade. His last few songs didn’t do nearly as well as his earlier music. Puth himself said that he wasn’t happy with his latest work and he felt like he was “pretending to be a cool guy.” He was falling dangerously quick into the abyss of obscurity.
But he spread his wings again with Light Switch
Enter Light Switch: A Tik Tok Saga
In an attempt to rise out of his plummeting popularity, Charlie used the absolute virality of Tik Tok to document the making of Light Switch in a very transparent manner that pulled in millions of views on the extremely popular social media app. He filmed every bit of the making of the song, from conception to conclusion, recording the challenges and the triumphs, the frustrations and the reliefs, everything. As a result, we got Charlie's biggest solo hit in 4 years.
Charlie teased the song on Tik Tok with behind-the-scenes videos for nearly 3 months until everyone watching the process unfold felt “just give us the song already!” I was one of those people. Seeing Charlie put in the work and inviting us into his mind to see how he came up with what he did, made us all curious to see how the final product turned out.
I can’t help but catch myself dumbfounded at the sheer creative genius of Charlie Puth. He saved his career with this one stunt sending his new single on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 9 weeks, peaking at 27. That’s from a guy who we almost forgot about. Even Madonna couldn’t do that after trying so hard so many times with big names like Justin Timberlake and Nicki Minaj to help her. And Charlie did it ON HIS OWN!
I have to tip my hat and applaud the man.
Light Switch: Review
So, we’ve established that Charlie Puth has reestablished himself in the mainstream with his ingenious marketing of the new single, but the question is, is the song any good?
If we have learned anything from Gayle, just because you have a successful social media campaign catapulting your song in the mainstream doesn’t mean your song is any good. I’ve made my opinion of Gayle’s ABCDEFU perfectly clear in the worst songs piece.
So let’s take a look at Light Switch through an objective lens and see if it deserves the success it has had so far.
Production
For Light Switch, Charlie Puth pulls a couple pages out of the Bruno Mars and The Weeknd playbook by giving the song a retro sound, with the synth and bassline inspired by the ‘80s.
He also uses the same formula from Attention where he uses a minimalistic production on the chorus throughout the song, finally paying it off in the final chorus with a big energy build up.
To be honest, this formula has been overused and is getting a little tired at this point. But I am also of the opinion that if you’re not reinventing the wheel, at least make the pre-existing wheel roll better. And I must say, it does.
I am, however, particularly fond of the incorporation of the sound of an actual light switch flicking, and I’m even more fond of how the other production elements take a break for the namesake sound of the song to get the attention.
Lyrics
I like the theme of this song. It perfectly outlines what I’ve recently come to learn is a ‘situationship.’ My gripe, however, with the subject matter of this song is the way Charlie admires this girl. The only redeeming qualities he gives her are skin deep and superficial, and the only reason he’s hung up on this girl is because he’s physically attracted to her.
I relate to this song because I’ve had a ‘situationship’ like this myself recently and maybe it’s just me, but I would have appreciated a little more emotional depth to this song. I must, however, acknowledge the subjectivity of that opinion because I simply wanted this song to mirror my own experience so I could relate to it more.
Final Thoughts
I’m not as impressed with Light Switch as I could be, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have the song on repeat. It’s a pretty good song for what it is but I can’t help but imagine how much better it could’ve been.
What I really enjoyed though was the way Charlie Puth hyped this song up using one of the most influential social media platforms of this generation. And I’m confident that I wouldn’t have given this song a second listen had it not been marketed the way it was.
That being said, this tactic isn’t evergreen. Charlie is documenting another song the same way but I’m not nearly as excited about that as I was about Light Switch. I do still anticipate more music from Charlie Puth, and maybe even an album. As soon as that drops, you know I’ll be tuning right in.
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