Ginger Rodriguez - Pain (I Like It)
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This review is written by Bonnie Orbison. She is a published author and her latest release is the poetry collection Pretty Tennessee. If you enjoy her writing, more can be found on her online journal Howdy Bonnie! (poetry and personal diary essays) as well as with her fiction novels.
Ginger Rodriguez - Pain (I Like It)
About two years ago, I had the honor of welcoming Ginger Rodriguez as my legend on the podcast! We talked about her then-freshly released song “La Rosa de Guadalupe” and much more; this is one of those interviews that I always think of when someone asks me which ones I really loved to record. Check it out below (or find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, everywhere podcasts are available ;)
Pain (I Like It) is a song about the current state of dating in this world, stemming from a sounscape that reminds one of 2000s where a meetcute in a cafe was still possible and this past Summer when everyone danced to “Apple” in front of their phone cameras.
And that’s exactly where the inspiration came from, Rodriguez says: “Inspired by Britney Spears’ baby voice and the synth-pop production of the late 2000s and 2010s, I wrote ‘Pain (I Like It)’ in 2022 as a way to fulfill my main-pop-girl fantasies. After posting a snippet of the song in April 2022 onto TikTok and Instagram and garnering praise online, I began pitching the song to other artists in hopes the song could have its moment with someone with a larger platform that could give it the pop diva energy it deserved. Without any luck, the song stayed in the vault until 2024, when the success of Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ album reminded me of what I had created two years prior, and inspired me to release the song myself. After self-producing the track on my own, I shared the song with Dibs, a producer who worked on Carly Rae Jepsen’s song, ‘Roses,’ and Melanie Martinez’s ‘Soap,’ and he helped me polish the song up as he did in 2023 when we worked together on my Latin-pop song, ‘La Rosa de Guadalupe.’”
cause I’m living for hope
my hope is you, yeah but hope is foolish
(…) you’re my muse, you’re my legend
and i’m your groupie pretending
cause when i look in the mirror
i see a lover for rent yeah
** my text message to Ginger after reading the lyrics:
fr
I feel every single one of us felt defeated by a crush, we tell ourselves it was only an illusion, we never expected something to come out of it, but I feel like we can’t keep going on gaslighting our own hearts and yearnings. I’m glad artists are spreading that awareness and write cool hyperpop songs for us to sing along and groove alone in our bedroom once we can’t sleep again.
Rodriguez about the inspiration of the song: “Situationships. Kinky sex. Saying ‘I love you’ but being afraid to call me your girlfriend. That is what ‘Pain (I Like It)’ is about. Through my experiences in modern dating where relationships lack boundaries and commitment, where casual sex is rough in nature and isn’t casual at all, and even the most ‘progressive’ man lacks accountability; I’ve been made to wonder if maybe I simply just like the pain of it all, since I keep going back through it again and again, despite learning my lesson the last time.”
Secret might be that there’s a beautiful acoustic version of this song on its way to your headphones.
watch the lyrics video to “Pain (I Like It)”:
Check out Ginger Rodriguez’s website:
you can find her on (Instagram) and (TikTok)
This review is written by Bonnie Orbison. She is a published author and her latest release is the poetry collection Pretty Tennessee. If you enjoy her writing, more can be found on her online journal Howdy Bonnie! (poetry and personal diary essays) as well as with her fiction novels.
Here’s a journal entry of Bonnie’s that you can read while listening to ‘Pain (I Like It)’:
