Awesome article!  I'm glad someone else is thinking what I've been thinking since I first heard this song coming through my stereo...

The only problem is, it's so darn catchy, it's stuck in my head just from reading this piece! :P

I'll echo the "thank yous" for this post - I actually just came back last night from hearing my best friend sing this song in the car and was really bugged because I HAD listened to the lyrics (thought not as deeply as you) and understood this to be a truly creepy song - it was really reassuring to see my own bothered feelings mirrored back here, much more eloquently than I could have ever put them.

Being ridiculously out of touch with pop culture, I have never heard the song (which i'm now thankful for). Some may argue that media does promote actions into reality, it only describes a reality that already exists. While I think there is truth in that statement, what it isn't covering is the social attitudes that are shaped by media creating a cycle of action and opinion that feed each other.
The sad thing is that this doesn't suprise me in the slightest. We have gotten to the point where this kind of thing is expected in media, so what does that say about what is expected in real life?

See, now this is intertesting to me because I too am completely out of touch with pop/club music. But more than that the presentation I first heard it in.

A very good friend of mine is a singer/songwriter, she plays acoustic and sings quite amazingly (I really want her to get famous, korean female winning it big, I give all thumbs up) and when she sang the song she basically presented the song in slow acoustic fashion as herself as the protagonist, replacing several instances of you with me (got me feelin dizzy etc) then seperates the middle verse into a dialogue between male and female with her voice. In all it's a mildly complex treatment.

Put in such context it was about a girl who -does- concent and know what she wants but uses the convenient excuse of alcohol to get around social mores in a way she feels acceptable. Notably there is a strong note of irony in the way she sings it, as if she's not drunk, but it rather giving that line to the guy so he'll be emboldend. The middle

Yes, it's still terribly steeped in rape culture (I'm certain she doesn't see it that way) But she puts it forth beautifully and in a way... it's hard to explain.

So naturally when I heard the original and found out it was sung by a male I was frankly shocked, I thought it'd be a female song... One version I find acceptable if irresponsible, the orignial? Well that's just kinda... wrong isn't it?

And doesn't kick it like Judo (which doesn't kick, morons) imply a struggle?

There are certainly moments in the song where it's unclear how much the woman is using alcohol to willingly proceed in something she wants to have happen versus how much is in the inflated ego/mased insecurity issues of the male singer (who regardless is still operating under the assumption that he'll need a lot of alcohol to win the prize in this predatory game HE's playing). Add the highly interpretive possibilities of the song in the hands of the right singer, it could even be manipulated as an educational tool about alcohol & date rape (imagine if the Blame It chorus was posed as a judgmental question or a pained cry). I'd love to hear how your friend does the cut (YouTube maybe?). Thanks for posting!

Wether or not the female may be playing into the players game or not, she can not legally commit if she is legally impaired.  If she says it was date rape; it was, in the eyes of the law.