One, two three… c’om, girls!
Focus is an Ariana Grande single yet it doesn’t belong to any of her studio albums:
The song was originally released as the lead single from Grande’s third studio album, titled Moonlight at the time. As the album’s concept changed and its title renamed to become Dangerous Woman, the song was removed from the main track list, including the standard and deluxe versions. In this process, “Dangerous Woman” replaced “Focus” as the lead single.
To view from a higher, music-industry-level perspective, nowadays music is becoming more of an affiliate of an artist’s personnel–that the singles and albums are mere means of building and enhancing the artist themselves, while the labels behind are aiming at selling the publicity of the artist, instead of actually collecting the revenue of selling digital or physical albums.
Focus was meant to be the transition between Ariana Grande’s second album My Everything and following Dangerous Woman, to reflect her shift of personality from a sweet, neighbourhood pop singer to a more popular diva. But Focus didn’t meet up the expect of the critics:
Brennan Carley of Spin noted that Grande’s vocals in Focus “[lacked] any real excitement from a star who’s got the restraint and skill to take her instrument places most other pop singers can’t anymore”. He criticized the “male howling the faux-chorus” for “[getting] grating quickly” and for making “Focus” too similar to Grande’s previous lead single “Problem”.
Some are even, meaner:
Time named “Focus” the sixth-worst song of 2015: “Grande needed a tightly constructed, elegant hit, and this isn’t it.”
Eventually, Ariana was then pushed to redo her album and Focus becomes an aborted single halfway. It was great, but just not enough for such an anticipated young artist. Yet, the song’s vitality and energy is something to live up to, and it symbolizes the real Ariana Grande’s core spirit around her My-Everything-slash-Dangerous-Woman era.
Reflecting on this topic, it becomes clear that Ariana Grande faced immense pressure from critics and external expectations. As a young artist exploring her path, she deserved more tolerance. Grande admitted that the comments were deeply hurtful, yet this period likely contributed to her growth, making her stronger and more resilient and indeed it contributed to a better album. Perhaps this experience underscores the importance of perseverance and the ability to transform criticism into a catalyst for personal development. Yet it’s again important to be empathetic and think in other’s position. After all, one’s seemingly sub-optimal choices might already be his optimal under some unknown private constraints.