“Not Allowed” by TV Girl

TV Girl is an indie act from San Diego that has actually been around since 2010 but, to reiterate, are not mainstream as of the writing of this article. Therefore, theirs is a brand you probably never heard of unless maybe you frequent TikTok, the platform which has recently led them to wider notoriety. 

That is to say that a handful of songs this band has dropped throughout the years have managed to achieve virality as of the 2020s. And one of those tunes would be “Not Allowed”, which was released on the 26th of February 2016 and, as it currently stands, is one of the band’s most successful songs.

SHOUTOUT TO THE YEASTIE GIRLZ

This song samples four tracks by a hip-hop crew called Yeastie Girlz (as inspired by the Beastie Boys) that were around during the late 1980s. 

The said tracks, which were all dropped in 1988, are:

• “You Suck”
• “FCC”
• “F*ck Yourself”
• “Sue Your Friends”

To note, the production of “Not Allowed” was handled by the entirety of TV Girl while Brad Petering, the lead vocalist, wrote it.

THE LYRICS OF “NOT ALLOWED”

The title seemingly points to the notion of the vocalist’s girlfriend or the woman that he fancies, i.e. the addressee, restricting him to friend zone. That is to say that she’s apparently the one who is ‘not allowing’ them to “talk about sex” anymore.

Within the context of a romantic relationship or one that is not particularly serious, as seems the case at than, that would mean that they probably did it already. But now, the female has decided that she doesn’t want to go there anymore and furthermore does not want Brad tempting her or even now bringing up the subject at all.

So, he’s pretty pissed. And this is not only due to the fact that, as indicated in the second verse, the vocalist is very strongly attracted to the addressee sexually. But also, while denying him, she is concurrently, based on the first verse, giving it up to another dude. 

So as such situations tend to go, it’s as if he’s accusing her of being a slut and is also looking forward or hoping that she will come to regret not taking his hand.

“You don’t know how long I could stare into your picture
And wish that it was me
I guess it’s different ’cause you love him”

But as explained by Petering in his own words, he doesn’t really mean it. First of all this scenario is fictitious, not representing an ordeal that Brad actually went through, at least not according to him. 

Secondly and more to the point, what it is meant to illustrate is how people tend to get angry at romantic interests who do not feel the same about them. And indeed, all lyrics considered, it doesn’t appear that the addressee did anything wrong to the vocalist. 

Instead, most simply interpreted, Brad is upset that she will not let him bonk her. So for example the reasons she’s giving him for not wanting to go there, he’s taking as “excuses and lies”. Or another way of understanding what’s going down, once again based on the writer’s explanation, is the narrator being unable to maturely take rejection.

Release Date of “Not Allowed”

TV Girl officially released this song on the 26th of February, 2016. It appears as track number 5 on the band’s second studio album, “Who Really Cares”.