The triumph of Im Just Ken, the Barbie movies bonkers summer hit

Look, there’s no shortage of statistics to illustrate the massive, sprawling impact of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” It just enjoyed its fourth week as the No. 1 movie in America. As of last week, it had amassed a staggering $1 billion globally — a benchmark only 52 other films have reached — in record time.

But “Barbie’s” most surprising achievement, arguably, comes from its soundtrack — and not its contributions from Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Sam Smith, Haim, Lizzo or any of the other full-time musicians on its star-studded roster. At the time of this story’s publication, Ryan Gosling, the A-list actor known for his work in films such as “First Man,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “Drive,” had 12.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify thanks to “I’m Just Ken,” the hammy, hair-metal ballad he gamely belts out in “Barbie.” For reference, that’s more than the singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, who was on the cover of Rolling Stone this year; more than country musician Jason Aldean, whose controversial new single made headlines this summer; more than rapper Rick Ross, who was nominated for three Grammys this year. As of Wednesday, “I’m Just Ken” had been streamed more than 41 million times.

“I’m Just Ken” — written by pop music jack-of-all-trades Mark Ronson and his friend Andrew Wyatt, a producer and musician best known for his work with the electro-pop band Miike Snow — arrives at a pivotal moment in “Barbie,” when Gosling’s Ken finally lets out his pent-up frustration at playing the thankless role of Barbie’s sidekick. A supersize, chaotic, over-the-top spectacle ensues, with guitar licks and an elaborately choreographed interlude where Ken’s fellow Kens, his brothers-in-plastic, become backup dancers. One-liners such as, “Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blond fragility?” (not to mention the perfect himbo call-and-response, “My name’s Ken/And so am I”) sparkle all along its earnest, surprisingly stirring melody like joke ornaments dangling from a gorgeously cheesy Christmas tree.

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Ronson and Wyatt’s last big movie collaboration, alongside Lady Gaga and Anthony Rossomando, was the chart-topping “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born,” which won two Grammys, a Golden Globe and the Oscar for best original song. “I’m Just Ken” has become a Billboard 100 single and is a serious contender for meme of the summer. Young people in their bedrooms are uploading emotive, heartfelt lip-sync videos; so are dudes named Ken. Dance students in studios are learning the choreography. Summer theater campers are performing the number onstage. A Georgia-based independent pro baseball team known for its impressive stunts and dances has incorporated the song as walk-up music and re-created part of the scene. Are we all just Ken? Ken may be living in Barbie’s world, but now we’re living in Ken’s.

The making of “I’m Just Ken” follows a similar trajectory to the song itself: It started small, with just Ronson at a piano, putting to music a line that had been rattling around his head ever since he read the script: “I’m just Ken/Anywhere else I’d be a 10.” Ronson, who was already working on several of the film’s other original songs, bashfully sent a short demo to Gerwig and her partner, “Barbie” co-writer Noah Baumbach, in which he mumble-sang the chorus through the “blond fragility” line.

“I didn’t want them to be like, ‘We’ll write the jokes, thank you,’” he told The Washington Post. When Gerwig asked to hear the rest of the song, Ronson enlisted the help of Wyatt, who added what Ronson describes as his signature brilliant touches: a rousing, unusually timed key change after the first verse, an elaborate guitar riff and lines such as, “My name’s Ken, and I’m enough/And I’m great at doin’ stuff.”

To achieve precisely the “November Rain”-style theatricality they envisioned, Ronson reached out to a few experts: new Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese (“I knew Josh was, like, a comedy fan, and obviously he plays in Devo, so of course he has a sense of humor”); his friend Wolfgang Van Halen, son of Eddie Van Halen and longtime bassist for Van Halen the band (“My stepdad produced a Van Halen record back in the day. … [We’re] just a bunch of f---in’ nepo babies.”); and the legendary Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.

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“I think we thought maybe Slash would just do it if he was in a good mood,” Ronson says with a laugh. “But he was like: ‘This is dope. I dig this arrangement. Ryan Gosling sounds great. Sure.’”

Ronson did not, of course, foresee “I’m Just Ken’s” success outside of its original Barbieland context.

The proliferation may have started with the Kendall Roy videos, in which fans paired the track with montages of the tragically ambitious character played by Jeremy Strong on HBO’s “Succession.” In one clip, Strong buries his face in his arms as Gosling sings, “No one knows how hard I’ve tried.”

Then the song became the default soundtrack for the “My Ken” meme, in which people cheekily describe the jobs held by their boyfriends or husbands in the off-kilter style of Ken’s on-screen “My job is beach” monologue.

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“My Ken’s job is IT,” reads the text of one post, overlaid on a video of a man typing clumsily at a computer. “He came with a headset, caffeine addiction, and a clicky clacky keyboard.”

“My Ken’s job is history,” reads another post, as a man sets up a podcast studio behind the text. “Before Ken does any history he spends hours telling Barbie about it in great detail.”

And now, 20 minutes in this particular corner of Instagram or TikTok can easily devolve into an hour of cover versions of “I’m Just Ken.” Reenactments of “I’m Just Ken.” Animations of cartoon characters singing “I’m Just Ken.” Translations of “I’m Just Ken.” Parody versions of “I’m Just Ken.” Even workout videos set to “I’m Just Ken.” One guy posted a video of himself singing it to a cemetery headstone. For many, in other words, a torch song written from the POV of an underappreciated grown-man doll has become the unlikely anthem of the summer.

Ronson credits Gosling’s surprisingly virtuosic rock vocals, a memorable pairing with his earnest on-screen performance, with making the track a breakout phenomenon. But he also points out that the laughing-while-crying catharsis so many viewers feel walking out of “Barbie” is near-perfectly embodied in Ken’s lament. “We all need to laugh about things that are actually kind of painful,” Ronson says. The lingering half-life of “I’m Just Ken,” he muses, may be a way to make the “Barbie” experience last just a little longer.

“You go into this world,” he says, “and you sort of don’t want it to end.”

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