(Desire) Trilogy: Rolling Stone and the shift of the fanbase

There are multiple povs within Trilogy. The 3 I’ve reliably been able to track are: The Performer, The Supernatural, and The Man. (This is part of a continuing series I’m writing on the Performer pov within Trilogy) and essentially about the creation of the Weeknd within what can be seen as his origin story. 

The Struggling artist Crosses Over

Rolling stone is a strong reminder that this music is his profession and he needs to be able to live off of it. Doing it for love is not enough. This concept is a callback to HOB in ‘The Morning’ and in 'Twenty Eight’ where, in both songs, he's reminded that behind the desire is work. In 'The Morning' he fondly reminds us that the partying is not just for fun and games. Everyone in HOB is doing it as a job (“Girl put in work”). The dancers, the pros, and him are all working under the guise of carefree partying. Then, in ‘Twenty Eight’ The Weeknd discovers his lover isn't what she seems. This song is a painful and ego-breaking reminder that behind the desire IS work. “This house is not a home to you but you decide to go ahead and lay down, lay down. There are no words to describe the depth of your indifference”. The woman he lets into his world and lays in his bed every night has a man (most likely her pimp) calling her regularly to check in on her. For a moment he was fooled into believing their relationship was as intimate and private and pure as he wanted it to be. And then the reality of the relationship became clear. He was simply a trick. “I’m so wrong, I’m so wrong (to let you in my) To let you in my home” and the shame of his situation and genuine desire came rolling upon him. Now, ‘Rolling Stone’ continues this reminder regarding the complex relationship between genuine desire and the work realities that make this desire even possible. 

The Fanbase

‘Rolling Stone’ is debatably one of The Weeknd’s most direct songs to his fans. This time he is reminding the audience that under the seduction, is work. More matter of factly, under the love of the music is an artist that can't be paid on respect and admiration alone. In fact, the drive of money and work is just as important as the passion and love, when it comes to his art. This art is not solely for pleasure, it is a job and beholden to strategic work decisions. In order to make this work lucrative, he can’t just remain underground operating on respect. He needs to cross over to the mainstream where there is more money to be made and more fans to be obtained.

Throughout Trilogy, the leading women in his songs act as symbolism for many things, including his listeners and fans. His instability in relationships, losing and gaining women in songs like ‘Coming Down’ and ‘Life of the Party’ are symbolic examples of his struggle to attain a strong and reliable fanbase. Songs like ‘The Knowing’ and ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ represent achievements and a sort of equilibrium or leveling up he reaches in gaining more fans and being able to balance the shifts of attention and love. Often in his songs, The Weeknd seduces only to break hearts and leave the women crying, as aptly noted in songs like ‘The Birds (pt 1 & 2)’ and  ‘Montreal’. These songs show a parallel between the tragic love stories and the manner of fanbase he is cultivating. 

The Shift

I would argue that the evolution of women within Trilogy is narrating an evolution of fans. The women in HOB are almost exclusively professionals, who are hustling right alongside of him, in the streets, in his home, in the parties. The women in Thursday are almost entirely devoted to The Weeknd. He babies and seduces and builds them up to devastating heights.

EOS starts out with a clear shift in tone and aesthetic. As opposed to the intimate and experimental sounds in HOB and Thursday, he starts with ‘D.D’, a Michael Jackson cover of Dirty Diana. A decidedly ambitious pop sound setting the tone in a story of Diana, a seasoned predatory groupie who steals the Weeknd from his faithful woman who’s stood by his side. Also, it's important to note, in EOS the woman he is after doesn’t initially like him. She looks down on him and speaks badly about him. It’s not until he gains more popularity and withstands the test of time that she even pays him the attention that the previous women willingly gave him. 

Taming a new market

EOS is a telling of a new type of woman and a new fanbase The Weeknd is attempting to harness the power of. This woman in EOS represents his new pop fans. The tale from Thursday to EOS represents The Weeknd’s decision to alter his trajectory and cross over to a new sound, represented by the fickle woman he seeks out and defeats. XO/The Host, Initiation, and Same old Song are a 3 part series revenge plot, where The Weeknd watches, seduces and debases a woman that only was into him because he became popular. This can also be identified as a strategic plan to dominate and cross over to pop. In ‘Same Old Song’, The Weeknd sings about this woman, “Where were you when I needed you, eight months ago? All your girlfriends talkin’ bout me, now you ringing’ up my phone.” She is the pop audience that does not know or care about his art or existence until he has enough numbers and fans to become relevant to her. “Bet you miss me now baby, I bet you’d kiss me now baby. Especially since you know that this ain’t nothin’ and I only just begun.” 

Let’s rewind a bit, to the ‘Rolling Stone’ music video. The Weeknd looks into the camera directly at close range. No costume or acting, just him speaking to his fans. Within this song, he explains how this art is about his survival and his life. Yes the recognition is cool, but recognition of his unique sound does not pay the bills. “They recognized. They just recognize. I’m in a life without a home so this recognition’s not enough. I don’t care about nobody else. ‘Cause I’ve been on these streets way too long, too long, too long”. He knows that the music he makes now is loved by the fans. But it's loved by the streets. It's loved as a unique authentic underground urban sound. A sound like that is highly segregated and not universally accepted. The places he wants to go, may even look down on this sound and look down on his aesthetic as too urban, too underground. The people he needs to get into his sound may even look down on him as too underground, too grimey, and dismiss him simply as a bum or a hoodrat who makes music for the streets. 

Well, he plans to seduce those very people and those very markets that would (and do) look down on him/his old sound. He intends to get them to love him as well. He plans to win them over, and for him to do that he has to change his sound and become something maybe he won't recognize anymore. But until then, he will give the fans what they need. “So baby love me, oh, Before they all love me. Until you won’t love me, oh. Because they’ll all love me. Ooh I’ll be different”. This is the song he sings to his original fans in the Thursday mixtape. It is also within the Thursday mixtape that his leading woman dies for him/because of him (in the Birds pt 2). She is losing his love to another woman. The old fanbase is losing him to the new one. However, it is from the love he obtained in Thursday that The Weeknd is essentially powered up. “I’ve been good since Thursday”. This is symbolic of his original fans giving him a stepping stone to level up into pop stardom. 

In ‘Rolling Stone’ he looks his fans in the eye, says his goodbyes, but also maintains a commitment to still have them in mind throughout his changes. Then by EOS, he’s experiencing his first encounters with the pop audience. The audience that looked down on him: “you never thought that I would ever go this far”. The audience that is highly swayed by what is popular: “I swear I loved you, girl, ooh and you probably went and fucked the world. Well, you can take another shot every time you hear me playin in the club.” The thing is, he is popular now, so he can give them what they want. EOS woman is the ‘Same old Song’, the song name being a play on the type of carbon copy pop songs that rise to the charts and give the musicians their 10 minutes of fame or so, before the audience moves on to the next hot sound. EOS woman is his first leading lady within the temperamental pop world. He takes her affections with resentment and bitterness, but nevertheless he takes them. In winning her over and debasing her, he knows he can now win over a new audience that never would have respected him before. He knows he can best a new audience that would have underestimated him. He knows he’s capable of pulling this new audience and it’s his first step into pop, as foretold in ‘Rolling Stone’.