no, hence why I said “ambient Discourse” (which is very heavy in the air after she won all the grammys, though the “she’s a streaming plant you fools, shun the music of no value” takes crop up every so often)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 20:10 (four years ago) link
Ah, I see. Yeah, the rest of the internet is rife with such takes.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 20:39 (four years ago) link
Having watched my kids engage with her rise over the last 18 months, I think it's quite clearly driven by Billie's intelligence and ability to connect very directly with her fans through the right media, alongside genuine and self-developed talent. I've seen many interviews / performances etc as part of sharing their interest, and she is unfailingly what she appears to be - a wry, witty, warm-hearted person who comes across as extremely grounded. I have nothing but admiration for the way she's built her success on her own terms - notably, since I have two daughters and I'm sufficiently old-fashioned, by resisting sexualisation as a marketing tool. Of course she's very good looking but her image and dress are about self expression rather than the male gaze, and that resonates VERY strongly with my kids. I could do without the Gucci/Vuitton/McCartney labelling but it's better than Juul I guess, and a nod to hip-hop culture which is a strong influence.Of course this may well be a naïve take, but I was interested to read about the strategy employed by her managers which seems to be to amplify and enable the decisions made by Billie and Finneas - I'm sure having parents in that world was a headstart, too.https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/behind-billie-eilish-meet-the-managers-guiding-the-artists-global-success/
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 20:52 (four years ago) link
I am also late to this but I like it.
― kinder, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:22 (four years ago) link
I have no idea who these weirdos are who are trolling you, K, but wtf!everyone in my life has enjoyed this record or has come around to liking some songs
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 01:36 (four years ago) link
oh, to clarify, nobody is trolling me personally, but there are plenty of takes (again, uptick since she won the grammys) like "billie eilish is a corporate/industry/spotify plant and everyone promoting her has been duped"
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 01:53 (four years ago) link
god save us from the fucking smarks
― you know my name, look up the number of the beast (rushomancy), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 01:55 (four years ago) link
I’d just shrug that off in the end, because you have to believe that music is promotable product and people don’t care about genuinely relating to music — in which case you are judging people as much as corporation — or you think it’s all pumped up metrics and you shouldn’t be caring about any industry acclaim. Worst case is people think critics are dupes, and they can alway just not listen to critics
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 01:59 (four years ago) link
I mean one of my favorite artists is kate bush but it is also true that she may not have become kate bush had emi and david gilmour not invested shitloads of money at her as a teenager
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:01 (four years ago) link
I did a poll of my friends and family via messaging a bit ago and they’re all positive or ambivalent because the one crappy clearchannel station only played bad guy
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:03 (four years ago) link
tbh we should all have invested in kate bush
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:04 (four years ago) link
Who cares what dumb wags on Twitter or wherever think, anyway? Serious q
― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:26 (four years ago) link
my friend who nearly exclusively listens to the clearchannel/iheartmedia radio stations has reiterated that their format is so weird/impoverished that one of their shows is just “hey so these music sites we follow like these songs”so either broke blogs are the plants or
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:29 (four years ago) link
tbh the idea of anyone spending money to plant an artist on anything that doesn’t already have an angle in 2019/2020 is
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:30 (four years ago) link
The idea of anyone complaining that an obviously talented pop star is being promoted by (gasp) “the industry” is totally high school.
― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:39 (four years ago) link
Finneas is the plant, don't you get it
― I wanna publish memes and rage against machimes (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:44 (four years ago) link
He was on Glee! (apparently)
― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:46 (four years ago) link
it’s no secret that people who have gone to music school or been in successful musical ventures know “the formula”the rest of us must read the KLF book
― babu frik fan account (mh), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 02:53 (four years ago) link
The manual is so good, classic bittersweet snapshot in time
― brimstead, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 03:14 (four years ago) link
― dad genes (morrisp), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 9:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
in the course of interacting with people in the real world you will often be asked the question "so what have you been listening to lately?" and it helps to not have to lie when answering it
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 13:51 (four years ago) link
(to be totally fair, billie eilish probably had one of the highest "oh I actually think she's good too!" ratios among pop artists, although that's declined lately/required a lot more justifying to people in my experience. probably the same trajectory lizzo had in the past few years)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 13:59 (four years ago) link
OMG Eilish is the queen of "I don't usually like pop music but this is great" it's all the dads my age on the big Facebook now playing groupI hear it irl too... almost to a weird degree actually, like something is going on there
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:34 (four years ago) link
like Alex in NYC likes her iirc
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
If you guys are meeting a-n-y-b-o-d-y IRL who has the nerve to dis to your face whatever you tell them you’re listening to, the problem isn’t with you (or the artist)!
― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:48 (four years ago) link
people are afraid to tell people what they're listening to?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:52 (four years ago) link
Not in my experience. I got my hair cut yesterday and my barber, a 42-year-old ex-con and member in good standing of the Latin Kings, was playing the 2014 Sam Smith album and talking to me about how much he liked it.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
I think she's the rare new pop artist who successfully marries Gen X signifiers and up-to-date sonics, is what accounts for older ppl not being embarrassed to like her
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:55 (four years ago) link
like, listening to the album I thought of Tori Amos more than once, justifiably or not
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 14:57 (four years ago) link
i like her lot and EVERYBODY AT THE POTTERY STUDIO (aka "my world of mostly old people") love her and Lizzo a lot
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 15:50 (four years ago) link
A lot of my old friends all seem to like her, Lizzo and Cardi B. But they also like singing and dancing to contemporary pop. My more generic old people friends like shit like Imagine Dragons. Do old people like Lorde?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 15:57 (four years ago) link
Upon hearing "Bad Guy" for the first time, it reminded me a lot of late-model Spoon.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 17:09 (four years ago) link
considering she just won like eight grammys and based on my personal experience which matches with others itt I feel pretty confident saying she is broadly popular
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:21 (four years ago) link
depends on how you define "saying"
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:22 (four years ago) link
She’s about as close as you’ll ever get to a critical/commercial/internet music nerd coalition consensus on an 18 year old mainstream pop star.Even people who don’t like her seem to be able to acknowledge that they’re probably too old for it but can at least understand the appeal.
― triggercut, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
yeah, that was the point of my first post; however, that is changing, in large part due to the "streaming" plant discourse in the air*, plus the general "I liked them when they were underground" backlash that can happen to anyone, plus the grammys. with lizzo it's in large part due to that, plus the postmates thing, plus the (correct) pointing out of a certain kind of white woman having this weird hero worship of her. or potential foreshadowing: what happened to the general opinion and acceptability of admitting to liking arcade fire post-awards.
* obviously this only affects a certain subset of people, but those are also the people I tend to run into socially
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:50 (four years ago) link
and xp -- it's not about dissing you to your face (though that sometimes does happen, or more commonly backhanded comments) but about people thinking less of you. this kind of judgment obviously is also one of those things women experience more acutely
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:52 (four years ago) link
my whole family likes eilish (wife & i are in early 40s, daughter is 10). i think the overall minimalism of the sound works heavily in its favor.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 18:58 (four years ago) link
there’s a great Matt dc post way upthread about how refreshing the relative sparseness of the production is, how maybe it portends a reaction to the maximalist 10s... I think it’s pretty awesome how “minimalist” it sounds while still being hi-fi yet intimate, warm, un-clinical, and (most paradoxically) full of little sounds and variations
― brimstead, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:02 (four years ago) link
plus the MASSIVE bass
― brimstead, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:03 (four years ago) link
yeah totally — it's definitely "produced" in the general sense, but it's not overstuffed. leaves plenty to the imagination.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:06 (four years ago) link
I can dig it on a theoretical level but I have this primal aversion to ASMR mouth noise stuff that keeps me at arm's length. something I expect will occur more and more in the future. even some Leonard Cohen on headphones is too much for me.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:08 (four years ago) link
she took her invisalign out for your benefit though
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:09 (four years ago) link
prob another key is Billie Eilish coming off as likable and more relatable for ppl, and also just not appearing to give a shit (tho i'm sure she does). i guess probably having a more punk rock type attitude comes into play there.
― omar little, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:09 (four years ago) link
bad guy is great except for the crazy frog synth after "duh"
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:21 (four years ago) link
american bradass (BradNelson) at 1:09 29 Jan 20she took her invisalign out for your benefit thoughlol it's not her, I think it's just digital recording can be so detailed now with hardly any noise floor and mic tech has gotten to where you can get affordable stuff that performs like a $1000+ mic now, plus I think it's just a thing now I know lots of people are into it.I notice with FM radio DJs a lot now too
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:40 (four years ago) link
I notice with FM radio DJs a lot now too
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:40 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
i was listening to bob boilen on npr the other day and had to turn it off for this reason so i empathize
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:55 (four years ago) link
She’s reportedly booked to perform during the “In Memoriam” segment at the Oscars.... That’s quite a gig, hope she takes out her Invisalign!
― dad genes (morrisp), Thursday, 30 January 2020 03:52 (four years ago) link
I think her real genius is in her soft closely microphoned vocals
― Dan S, Thursday, 30 January 2020 03:59 (four years ago) link
yeah, i don't even know who produces and records her stuff but they should be getting paid
― I wanna publish memes and rage against machimes (rip van wanko), Thursday, 30 January 2020 04:03 (four years ago) link
I was listening to a lot of the album yesterday and I'm still amazed how perfectly the xanny vocals, starting at skepticism, kind of float off at the end
― babu frik fan account (mh), Thursday, 30 January 2020 04:03 (four years ago) link