I might just be getting older and more withdrawn from popular culture, but I truly believe that pop music has recently struck a low point. For the last five years or so it has seemed that pop artists have had a serious lack of creativity and ambition. Many artists have essentially grown lazy. I could hear a new song for the first time on Spotify and it would sound so generic that it felt like I had known the song for years. It's understandable that pop songs generally follow a set song structure, but there hasn't been a spark of true uniqueness or creativity. That is until Billie Eilish began to take off.
Billie, a seventeen-year old-phenomenon, who recently released her debut album "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" has solely inspired a hopeful new direction in pop music. With her gritty, edgy, and nightmarish themes, Billie is introducing a wave of pop music that is finally interesting and truly unique. Mixing elements of horror with pop music is something that has been done before, but certainly not to this magnitude. Many artists do their best to possess characteristics that set them and their music apart but fall short most of the time. With the help of her multi-talented brother Finneas O' Connell, Billie has recently produced upwards of 10 hit songs. Instead of singing recycled love songs Billie tackles dark and unusual subject matter such as sleep paralysis in "Bury a Friend," and playfully murdering her friends in "Bellyache."
Hidden under a voice comparable to that of an angel, are well produced, almost EDM inspired beats that give her songs an untouchable "kick." Billie's songs are very produced but never seem to lose their soul as a result. She is genuinely gifted with a sensational voice, and that has been proved in her live renditions time and time again. Some of her songs such as "when the party's over" follow the traditional pop song format, whereas others like "Bury a Friend" break new ground with an entirely unique format. "Bury a Friend," is particularly interesting because Billie's voice is placed on top of a much deeper voice, courtesy of Mehki Raine, producing a demonic sounding effect. The chorus' intentional redundancy strikes familiarity to The Doors' "People are Strange." There is something very real and very haunting about Billie Eilish's music that I can't fully identify or define, but it definitely serves its purpose luring in millions of fans.
In a time when Drake, The Jonas Brothers, and Maroon 5's songs begin to mesh into one recycled, generic mess of music, Billie Eilish introduces the bright flare of an unprecedented territory in pop music. Pop music has sort of lost its identity over the last couple of years. It's become this cross between traditional pop, rap/ hip-hop, and EDM. Billie introduces a new wave of pop music that will surely pave the way for future pop musicians. If artists follow Billie's direction and create new sounds that channel her same level of uniqueness, pop music might soon find itself in another golden age.
