This pop artist released her first song, called “Ghost,” in 2014 and has been ranking high on charts, while her album is currently at No. 3 on the Alternative Albums chart. Not only is her musical success notable, but also she uses her position to reach out to other millennials and express her own voice.
She’s a persistent, creative soul.
With intentions to be a fine arts major in college, now 21-year-old Ashley Frangipane, otherwise known by the anagram Halsey, ended up pursuing a songwriting major in community college. Halsey wanted to avoid the misunderstanding that accompanies people reading lyrics on their own, so she sang her words to control the emotion they provoked. “I always say I'm a singer out of necessity because I can't imagine anyone singing my songs but myself.”
As for her music, it is refreshing, catchy and a reflection of her experiences. Not only is her music a way for her to “immortalize my memories forever,” but also, “I want to make pop music that’s a little bit left of center and has dignity and crosses gender barriers and talks about things that otherwise would be considered unladylike.”
She wrote most of her own music for her album, “Badlands,” and her EP, “Room 93.” Halsey was determined to be heard.“ As someone who enjoys writing, the biggest struggle, I think, for any writer, is people not actually reading what you write. I would hand essays and prose and stream of consciousness things to my friends and my family, and they'd scan it and hand it back. That didn't cut it for me. Songwriting was the easiest solution because it forces people to hear what I'm saying from my voice,” she says in an interview with Fuse.
She's not just a musician; she is a millennial with something to say.
In a time when young people are speaking up, expressing themselves, and standing up for what they believe in, Halsey is no different. She’s becoming a poster child for her generation. Though she is a pop star in the limelight, her album is her voice. It holds the messages that she wants to communicate to the world. “I just want it to feel like real life because it’s real to me and I want it to be real to everyone else,” she says in an interview about her album.
She says that her generation lives in a world in which they can choose and personalize their own music preferences. “I was raised in an open format of music where kids curate their own music taste. That is very specific to my generation with streaming online and being able to access radio on your phone.” Possibly, because of this, Halsey has more of a reason to appreciate her fans because they don’t just listen to her music, they choose it.
Halsey vows perpetual honesty.
Halsey recognizes the effect she has on her fans and she strives for honesty and truth in her work. Her EP “Room 93” and album “Badlands” are based on her life experiences. “Men talk about things that are sexual and things that are intimate and romantic and forlorn in their music and it’s something that is celebrated, but when a woman does it, it’s not really interpreted the same way,” says Halsey in an interview. “I am a female writer and I am trying to make music that is honest and that is romantic and that is authentic.”
She acknowledges that fans can sense when singers are not being honest and true. For her fans, she wants to remain honest because feels that it is the least she can do for the fans that devote time to her and her music.
She makes time for her fans and even wanted to leak her own album.
Halsey aims to connect with her listeners and show them that they are more to her than just fans at a distance. “I go stalking through Twitter and I love to catch people off-guard because they have dedicated parts of their life to celebrating mine,” she says. “I want to lessen the gap between artist and listener. Some of these kids are my age. The people who probably I would become friends with if I met them in a normal setting, so just because they’re in line for my meet and greet doesn’t mean I don’t want to be their friend.”
She was immensely excited about releasing her album “Badlands” and she wanted to leak it. “I just wanted everyone to have it already.” She did not leak it, however it did leak two weeks early and her fans reported it to her record company, asking for the leak links to be removed.
Halsey is aware of what role her music could play in listeners’ lives. “I think a lot of the topics I write about are kind of unconventional and I’m not saying that I’m the first artist to ever write about them, but for some kids I’m the first artist they’ve ever listened to who has and I think that’s equally as important,” she tells Billboard. “Some people aren't’ looking for a message…don’t need the words of encouragement, so I think they just find a cool song in it and that’s okay, too.”
