Breaking Down Sabrina Carpenter’s Pop Culture References in ‘Please Please Please’ Music Video
Hold the “Espresso,” because Sabrina Carpenter’s newest music video is a pop culture fan’s newest dream.
On Thursday, June 6, Carpenter, 25, released the official video for her single “Please Please Please” from her upcoming album Short n’ Sweet. While her costar (and boyfriend) Barry Keoghan is enough to grab some people’s attention, it’s only one element of the must-see video.
“I ended the last video getting arrested, so naturally I thought it would be satisfying to start the ‘Please Please Please’ video in jail,” Carpenter shared with Vogue. “I liked the idea of falling in love with a convict and being shocked and embarrassed every time he commits crimes. I was sooo lucky to get Barry Keoghan in the video 'cause he is just magic on screen.”
While their chemistry is undeniable, fans also will be able to spot some pop culture references that came to life thanks to music video director Bardia Zeinali and stylist Ron Hartleben.
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From the story of two unpredictable lovers on the run to the must-see fashion, see how “Please Please Please” references pop culture below:
Iconic Hollywood Couples
When approaching the music video, Zeinali said he thought of “historically and famously chaotic couples” as Carpenter’s character got dragged into a messy scene before finally taking control of the situation.
“Pamela [Anderson] and Tommy Lee, Sid and Nancy, Madonna and Dennis Rodman, and then in film Natural Born Killers and a bit of Thelma & Louise,” Zeinali shared with Vogue when listing Hollywood pairings that came to mind. “These stories about two people who are on the run or on the road, the dynamic shifts in which one person becomes more submissive and the other more dominant, where the accomplice becomes the person in control and in power, which is what happens in the video.”
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Tribute to Coachella Music Festival
For those curious about how Carpenter came up with the song title “Please Please Please,” it may have been established well before the singer’s April performance at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California. During her set, a sign in the crowd stated “Please! Please! Please! Play ‘Espresso!’” Little did fans know that the sign was an Easter egg for the new single from her upcoming album out August 23.
The Power of Quentin Tarantino
At the beginning and end of the music video, viewers see a title card with the words “Please Please Please” in a font similar to the one director Quentin Tarantino used in movies like Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight and Jackie Brown. “Bardia also mentioned this Quentin Tarantino sentiment when we first started talking,” Hartleben recalled to Vogue, “and that made the wheels start turning for me.”
Mob Wives Aesthetic
When she finds herself free from jail in the music video, Carpenter pays tribute to the popular mob wives aesthetic when she picks up her belongings that include big, bold sunglasses and dark red lipstick. When Keoghan, 31, later finds himself as the victim of a bloody mob boss standoff, it’s Carpenter who arrives to offer aid.
Must-See Fashion Moments
Throughout the four-minute video, which was shot in only one day, Carpenter honors plenty of unforgettable pop culture looks. When the singer follows Keoghan along for an office burglary, she sports a white button-down that reminds some fans of Britney Spears’ “… Baby One More Time” music video or Uma Thurman’s iconic look in Pulp Fiction.
As Carpenter changes into other looks, some viewers are transformed to 1983 when Michelle Pfeiffer starred in Scarface. And when the singer sports a furry yellow jacket in one scene, it’s hard not to be reminded of Thurman’s yellow jumpsuit in Kill Bill: Volume 1. “I always like to heighten fashion and story line in my videos,” Carpenter told Vogue. “It’s playtime for me.”
