Meghan Trainor had a huge smash last year with “All About That Bass,” in which she brags about how she is “bringing booty back.” This is impossible. Booty never left.

Look at some of the major pop hits of the year: “Anaconda,” “Bang Bang,” “Wiggle” and “Talk Dirty” all had, if I may, “booty, booty, booty rockin’ everywhere” in the lyrics and videos. There was even a song simply called “Booty!” But which was the best song in terms of music, popularity, and positivity, and which one deserves to be shaken off? (Unpopular side note, “Shake it Off,” which I thought about putting in this column, is a terrible song.) Let’s “Get Low” into the analysis.

“Anaconda” in particular caused major controversy over the video’s sexual content, and debates about whether it was feminist or not erupted online. I’m ok with a song like “Anaconda” being on the charts: aggressive, in-your-face, and ugly. Unfortunately, the producers emphasized the “ugly” part. It’s a mess of a track. It samples “Baby Got Back,” already one of the best known butt songs, but it does so lazily, not really changing anything and rather plopping it in. It’s just random noises all over the beat. I’m all for for female artists having more representation in media; I just don’t think that the video is doing this any real good.

It’s primarily a “male-gaze” extravaganza, and while I’ve heard people say “she’s in control the whole time,” I would counter that the only woman credited in the songwriting process was Nicki Minaj and that men produced the song and directed the music video. (As a side note, Da Internz, a production team that helped work on the track, also produced Big Sean’s “Dance (A$$),” which also features Minaj and similar lyrical content, production, and is overall a bad track.)

“All About that Bass” is a more positive view of having a butt, though many can argue that it suffers from similar shortcomings as “Anaconda.” Compare the two videos, and two very different images come up. One is lighter and more inviting, and the other is harsher in lighting, tone, locations, almost everything. Trainor’s song is a more positive version of the booty anthem. Its about being proud of your body and not caring about whatever double standards society impress on women, especially in pop. Ke$ha actually went to rehab for an eating disorder. That’s messed up, when you look at what Ke$ha actually looks like. The root of the issue is more about who these two women are shaking it for. Listening to the lyrics of “All About that Bass” reveals that it’s all about doing it for the boys. The song’s positivity is undercut because of that.

“Anaconda” is the opposite of this. It’s not trying to be an inspiring piece of work. It’s trying to be dirty, direct, and disgusting. It certainly accomplishes that. When pop is increasingly pre-packaged, it’s kind of refreshing to have a song like “Anaconda” come up, but it doesn’t mean I enjoy the song itself. But why is it seen as empowering? I don’t see it. For me, feminism is about men and women being equals in everything. I fully support equal pay, equal representation, equal rights under the law, all of that. But the lyrics of “Anaconda” paint scenarios where Minaj is with her boyfriend, a drug dealer, because he’s buying her nice clothes. That’s not exactly my definition of feminism.

However, “All About that Bass” can actually say it’s a good song, so I count that in its favor. It also was a #1 hit, according to Billboard, while “Anaconda” peaked at #2. But does all of this even matter? The music industry is gasping for something, anything, to pump up its revenue. EDM and festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza appear to be the main tentpoles of its strategy. But they aren’t saving themselves in actual album and single sales, as streaming services like Spotify or Pandora steadily chip away at their income. Much has been made over Taylor Swift’s 1989 being the only platinum hit in 2014, and that’s not without cause. Is the music industry really suffering the same idea drought as Hollywood? At the end of the day I’m willing to stand up for Meghan Trainor more than I am Nicki, but I also think that both songs definitely leave something to be desired.