Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ Remake About Second Jobs Branded as ‘Bleak’ and ‘Orwellian’

Dolly Parton recently recorded a remake of her classic tune “9 to 5,” with the new version being about having a second job, but the track is not sitting well with listeners who have branded it as “bleak” and “Orwellian.” The song was done as part of a new ad campaign from user-friendly website creating company Squarespace, which plans to air the ad during the Super Bowl on Sunday. The clip features a number of office employees eagerly awaiting the end of their workday so they can get to work on their second job, which is clearly more fulfilling if their bright-colored outfits and joyful dancing are any indications.

The lyrics of “5 to 9” include lines such as: “Working 5 to 9, you’ve got passion and a vision. Cuz it’s hustlin’ time, whole new way to make a livin.’ Gonna change your life, do something that gives it meaning.” Listeners have not been too keen on the song, however, with many Twitter users expressing disapproval over encouraging the need for anyone to have to work more in order to maintain a sustainable living wage. “12 hour work day…awesome,” one person tweeted. Scroll down to see the ad and read more comments.

​

“Dystopian as hell that a relatable worker’s rights anthem got turned into an endorsement of squeezing out productivity out of every second of your life,” one user tweeted. “This sucks and is so tone-deaf during a time of record unemployment and financial insecurity.”

​

“We don’t want your ‘grind til you die’ narrative,” another person added. “This is abhorrent worship of a culture that forces it’s workers into 60 hour weeks.”

​

“Squarespace usually does interesting work, but diddling ‘hustle culture’ with this abomination deserves a permanent time out,” someone else offered. “Say it ain’t so, Dolly.

​

“Extremely cool to see an anti-capitalist anthem become the soundtrack to a Squarespace advert and an almost-best-picture-winning film be revealed as the proof of concept for making the gig economy look like a grand old time,” one other listener said.

​

“This is horribly tone-deaf,” a Twitter user tweeted at Squarespace. “Why the f— are you celebrating the fact people have to have second jobs and side hustles to survive?”

​

“This [s— is] dystopian,” someone else stated. “Imagine glorifying needing a side hustle just to not starve when people could feed a family of four on a single job 70 years ago.”

​

“Working 12 hours a day is not aspirational. It’s dismal,” a final user wrote. “Regardless of what the supposed end state is meant to be.”