What Do You Mean?
"What Do You Mean?" is a song by Canadian singer Justin Bieber. It was released on August 28, 2015 by Def Jam as the lead single from his fourth studio album Purpose (2015). The song was produced by MdL and co-produced by Bieber. It was featured in several year-end lists of best songs of 2015. Commercially, the song topped the charts in several countries, including Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway. In Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, "What Do You Mean?" was Bieber's first number-one single. The song's music video features Bieber in bed with a young woman, Xenia Deli, and masked men kidnapping them, as well as an appearance from actor John Leguizamo. Since its release Bieber has mentioned that the song is about his relationship with Selena Gomez.[2]
"What Do You Mean?"
Background[edit]
Following the release of the EDM track "Where Are Ü Now" (2015), where Bieber collaborated with Skrillex and Diplo for their project Jack Ü and achieving worldwide success and acclaim with it, the singer announced "What Do You Mean?" as the first single from his then-upcoming album on July 28, 2015, on On Air With Ryan Seacrest.[3] While he was there, his manager, Scooter Braun, made Seacrest a promotional sign for the single to hold and suggested he should put the photo on his Instagram account. To further promote the song's release, Braun contacted several celebrities who started counting down the days until the release,[4] among them Mariah Carey, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Big Sean, Alanis Morissette, Meghan Trainor, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Little Mix, Chris Martin, Carly Rae Jepsen, and many others.[5] During an interview with Ryan Seacrest, he described it as fun, summery, and amazing. Regarding its lyrics, he commented, "Well, girls are often just flip-floppy. They say something and they mean something else. So what do you mean? I don't really know, that's why I'm asking." Later, on August 19, 2015, Bieber direct-messaged different lyrics from the song to 49 randomly selected Twitter followers.[3] As explained by Billboard's Jason Lipshutz, Each message included a clock animation with a different time that corresponded to the lyric's placement in the song, and Beliebers spent Wednesday collectively piecing together the upcoming single's lyrics in order.[4] On August 5, 2015, Bieber presented the song to radio professionals at an iHeartMedia event.[6]
Release[edit]
The song was released on August 28, 2015,[7] and was serviced to contemporary hit radio on September 1, 2015.[8] On October 16, 2015, it was revealed that a remix of the song with Ariana Grande would be made available if fans pre-ordered the album on iTunes.[9]
On January 8, 2016, the official remix by Alison Wonderland was released on online.
Composition[edit]
"What Do You Mean?" was written by Justin Bieber, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd and Mason Levy.[10] It was produced by MdL and co-produced by Bieber. It was initially speculated by the media that Skrillex produced "What Do You Mean?". However, a spokesperson for Bieber confirmed in an interview for Rolling Stone that the song was produced by Bieber, and MdL who had previously collaborated with the singer on his single "Boyfriend" (2012).[11] Written in the key of A♭ major, it has an upbeat tempo of 125 beats per minute. Bieber's vocal range spans from the low note of F3 to the high note of G4.[12] It is a pop[13] and tropical house song.[14][15][16]Downtempo with hints of dark electropop.[17]
During the song, Bieber uses a breathy vocal, which was considered smooth and soulful.[10] The production contains flute instrumentation, looped vocal samples, piano chords, tropical synths,[11] bass and slick beat elements with the sound of a clock ticking.[6] Gil Kaufman of MTV News wrote that the track contains a slippery flute-like trill over a spare tick-tock island groove and a super chill vibe, and is a kind of sequel to Skrillex and Diplo's "Where Are Ü Now", which featured Bieber.[18]
Lyrically, "What Do You Mean?" talks about looking for romantic clarity and not being able to figure out the opposite sex,[11][19] with Bieber singing in the chorus, "What do you mean/When you nod your head yes, but you wanna say no?/What do you mean/When you don't want me to move, but you tell me to go?".[11]
Ariana Grande remix[edit]
A remix with American singer Ariana Grande was released on October 16, 2015, and would be available to listen to if fans had already pre-ordered the album on iTunes before November 13, 2015 (the album's release date). The fans who did not pre-order the album before the 13th would not be able to listen to it fully on iTunes and Apple Music but could listen to a short sample of the song via iTunes and through a third-party source online.[9]
Live performances[edit]
Bieber performed "What Do You Mean?" live for the first time at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards on August 30, 2015.[74] He performed the track on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, accompanied by The Roots and featuring a guest verse from Black Thought.[75] Bieber also performed "What Do You Mean?" on The Today Show along with 5 other songs from his album Purpose: "Sorry", "Love Yourself", "The Feeling", "No Pressure" and "Company" (which was performed for the first time).[76] The song was performed on the telecast Think It Up! which was broadcast on September 11.[77][78] On September 29, Bieber performed the song on season 7 of X Factor Australia.[79] "What Do You Mean?" was performed at the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards on October 25.[80] And he performed the song at the NRJ Music Awards 2015 in Cannes, France on 7 November 2015. Moreover, the song was also included on the set list for the Purpose World Tour.[81]