billie eilish

it is that overriding note of bleakness that makes one feel out of the loop. i got it with brockhampton too. it is the music of *prepares self for trenchant overload* people raised by smart technology rather than humans, and therein lies the bleakness

I don’t want to go too far in saying why this kind of music is resonating with people born after 1995 but it certainly is. i’m wondering what exactly the musical qualities are that i’m picking up on

I learned about Billie Ellish from the 9-year-old.

He probably found her not from TV or a movie, but through a combination of TikTok, YouTube and Roblox.

Meanwhile, my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify thinks I need more Canned Heat in my life.

My discover weekly wants to firmly keep me mentally in 2007. All the comfort food indie of my college years plus a bit of tasteful postpunk for when I feel retro. Maybe spotify is trying to protect me from something.

The idea of a 9 year old liking a song like “when the party’s over” is baffling to me.

Which one did this kid like pplains?

"Bury a Friend"

And yeah, my reaction was BURY A FRIEND???

Hey, I like this. It sounds fresh.

I'm getting to the point where I can't really even listen to anyone who seems like a rich kid

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, March 10, 2019 11:41 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Billie Eilish was born Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, on December 18, 2001, in Los Angeles, California. She was born into a family of musicians and actors. She grew up with her elder brother. Her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, were popular figures in the American entertainment industry."

I don't even need to Google these suddenly famous people anymore to discover that they are the pop music equivalent of landed gentry. Just once I'd like to be shocked to discover that one of these overnight successes was the son or daughter of a mail carrier or elementary school teacher.

https://i.imgur.com/I169CLm.jpg
lol @ the brother's face

why do i hate that picture so much? they all seem happy. you just sense something corrupt at the heart of it. like maybe the shadow of people who suffered so this family could enjoy such privilege, idk.

i did not have a great childhood, parents divorced when i was 3, but it was not awful either. but maybe it's just envy?

one of her middle names is literally pirate

what a cleverly curated family dog, it looks like the little rascals dog. barf.

and you know these parents are LIB AF but do you really trust that? i don't

This is all over the place stylistically but what's surprising is how much of it basically sounds like vintage store indie that's been messed around with a lot. Like take away some of the production choices and you could put several of these songs on a Feist album and no one would notice.

Hahaha I just got to the schaffel track as well, it's like an even darker more introverted version of the sort of thing that would have turned on a Britney album c. 2007-10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDr4ITrp7YI

As usual, Sean Evans does a great interview. She's entertaining, sometimes just a kid, sometimes mature perspective on her fame and art.

Bleak pop, to paraphrase treesh, is something I cannot but endorse. 'bury a friend' is pretty good.

She’s totally an industry plant, but because the audience it's directed towards is generally unfamiliar with this style of music it's successfully passed off as being something new and different.

Asides from pop music politics, she does have some cool songs and I don’t mind it.

Who do you think does it better?

It’s not about who does it better, it’s that she is being marketed as a counter-culture heroine against all these vacuous, party music in the charts sold by the same label she’s on.

Gotcha.

who the fuck cares whether anyone is an "industry plant"

What sort of plant is she? Like a yucca or a cactus or maybe a spider plant or something like that?

idk i think the term industry plant has to be reserved for people who the industry keeps pushing, but never develops a real fanbase. Eilish got a nudge from her label, no doubt, but there's also no doubting that she's genuinely extremely popular

So this is like soundcloud rap but pop/r&b

... no not really at all

also i like this a lot, it sounds cool as hell

i dig a few of these songs. it's bleak or whatever but also not too serious in a way idk i'm cool with the vibe

idk i think the term industry plant has to be reserved for people who the industry keeps pushing, but never develops a real fanbase.

Like Francis and The Lights.

The idea of a 9 year old liking a song like “when the party’s over” is baffling to me.

― Trϵϵship, Friday, March 29, 2019 1:55 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

absolutely baffling to me that adults would wring their hands over why a 9-year-old would like a pretty piano ballad

Idk why either a 9yo liking a sad song or an adult wringing their hands about it would be baffling to someone who is familiar with popular music history.:P

this is better than i expected. it is funny to listen to it w/o visuals given the narrative around her... how different is this than like alessia cara/skylar grey? less mawkish certainly & she has some wit about her clearly. i guess matt dc is picking up on the same thing just a diff axis of music. reading the description of this on apple music and it mentions tyler the creator & stuff which.... i guess. all of that stuff kind of undersells how this is just a pretty well done version of the sort of very female alt pop album that has existed throughout the last several decades of pop music. i guess i find the updated flourishes to not be such a leap but if she didn't come along branding herself the way she is somebody else would've. actually this reminds me a lot of xxxtentacion sonically.

anyway i didn't realize "you should see me in a crown" is that song that sounds like... every song on reputation. not a bad song but that one threw me off. "wish you were gay" and "when the party's over" stood out to me but as far as album tracks go she sounds better on stuff like "bad guy" and "my strange addiction" than i would've figured.

Idk why either a 9yo liking a sad song or an adult wringing their hands about it would be baffling to someone who is familiar with popular music history.:P

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Friday, March 29, 2019 1:59 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just weird to think of this particular artist as some kind of line in the sand imo. "xanny" reminded me of fiona apple of all things. beyond the well-defined and executed aesthetic this is just... songwriting

it's almost like they're reacting to the idea of the sound in their head than the songs themselves

ok ok you're right, popular music history bears this out over and over

I suppose the key difference is that this sort of move is usually pulled by artists like Sky Ferreira that hardly anyone cares about, where its reasonably obvious that this album is going to be massive. Like there's a lot to be said for gaining people's trust and she's clearly done that.

Also she has personality in spades and while we've all heard similar stuff in the past we haven't heard it done quite like this and certainly not in the context of late 10s mainstream pop.

It’s not the music I have a problem with, it’s the “disneyfication” of teenage angst and depression. Big labels banking on teenage angst is nothing new but this move in particular feels very cynical to me.

It's not the only thing that's nothing new.

https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/music/dont-ask-billie-eilish-to-smile

*under a series of pictures of Billie posing miserable:
- Billie wears Marc Jacobs jacket and Marc Jacobs pants.
- Billie wears Kenzo jacket.

My 12yo loves her. She gets furious when I say ignorant-dad stuff like “this is a bit Lana Del Rey”. Because LDR is what she liked in 2017.

Literally every artist interviewed on what is obviously a fashion website has those captions including teenage girl pabulum like Syd and Yaeji.

Depression : 2fashion4me

It’s not the music I have a problem with, it’s the “disneyfication” of teenage angst and depression. Big labels banking on teenage angst is nothing new but this move in particular feels very cynical to me.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, March 29, 2019 4:38 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'big labels' banking on artists w/ their own pov is a tale as old as time & she does that ... how is this ilx and you're using the concept 'industry plant' sincerely

Good songs, interesting sounds, good hooks, my gals love it. Fuck the haters.

she makes me feel old and yeah pop music this decade does seem to be bleak in a different way than in previous eras, and it kind of freaks me out sometimes that our 12yo is really really into it, but then I remember that young people's music is meant to confuse and worry the adults in their lives so it's cool.

I think "Bad Guy" might be my favourite thing she's done so far?

have people confused about why teens like angsty music ever been teens

Her stuff makes me feel less old than the teenybopper hits of yore. If anything, angst seemed to have gone out of fashion for a while, which I found distressing.

hm maybe i love this album

particularly feel that way during the "my strange addiction" -> "bury a friend" -> "ilomilo" sequence

otm that is where my ears perk up

Second half owns. And the previously released stuff works even better in this context.

i like this better than lana del ray

I like this better than fever ray

Barbie effect. I wasn’t blown away when I first heard the song but I have to say it was used very effectively in the movie and drove several women in my screening (including my stepkid) to tears

Sounds like she dedicated the performance to recently deceased actor Angus Cloud, so maybe that was part of the reason for the emotion (I don’t know if they were close).

Oh wait I’m sorry, that’s a different song

This article reveals that she's "putting the finishing touches on her third studio album."

third album rollout looks like it's about to start