At only 16 years old, music icon Billie Eilish has found herself in the spotlight quite a bit, thanks to her recent single with Khalid, "lovely", and latest release "you should see me in a crown".
If you have yet to indulge in Eilish's craft, you are depriving yourself of some of the most inventive and imaginative music of our time.
Her debut single, "Ocean Eyes" kicks off with simple, angelic harmonies, quietly transitioning into the first verse. The airy quality of Eilish's voice brings a lightness and sense of tranquility to the song, yet also offers listeners a sound quite different from most.
With "bellyache", she offers her audience unsettling lyrics and delivers them in a way that feels simply organic. The simple tone of her voice adds to the feeling of unease as Eilish drives home the idea of her mind being in the gutter, "where she left her lover". When interviewed, Eilish offered up the backstory that "the song is really about doing terrible things and not really knowing why", which leaves listeners finding themselves relating to a song that is... well, "flat-out about murder", as Billie says. And she pulls it off.
Her latest single, "you should see me in a crown", leads listeners on a (somewhat terrifying) journey through Eilish's kingdom. She cleverly incorporates the lyric "ocean eyes" into her first verse, but, actually, the focus of this song doesn't fall on her voice. This time, all eyes (ears?) are on the music itself, and the production truly wows. Beginning with a chill-inducing scrape of metal against metal, Eilish's voice drones in on top of low synth beats that speed up, ultimately achieving a heartbeat-like repetition. In the chorus of the song, the volume kicks up a notch, and the synths layer up in an almost chaotic way, furthering the feeling of trepidation. The second verse dies down almost completely, then brings back a synth that rapidly builds back into the chorus. That build alone is enough to make me label this song as a masterpiece.
Eilish doesn't only wow with her releases, though. In live shows, she offers fans a real treat by playing ballads and tunes whose studio versions have yet to come into play. "When the Party's Over" awes and, quite honestly, when I stumbled across this work of art, I was left with chills and tears in my eyes. Paired just with a piano, a new purity arises from her vocals, and these components paired with her raw lyrics will leave your heart aching.
If you take a listen to this one and find yourself in love, go digging for "Listen" next. You'll thank me later.
So, you might be thinking, fine, her music is good. So what?
Behind every song, Billie brings if the story of a girl and her brother, writing songs together in their bedrooms. Her brother, Finneas, produced and co-wrote "Ocean Eyes", which was originally created as a project for Billie's dance class. After uploading it, though, the response was overwhelming, and the song now has over 96 million streams on Spotify. The pair continued to write together after that, and today have welcomed some of today's greatest hits into the world.
In an age where the top charts are dominated by falsity and artificial emotion crafted by teams rather than feeling, Eilish offers a glimpse of the sincerity that society once treasured, and needs back. Every release brings something new to the table, yet preserves Eilish's honesty with candid, creative lyrics that were handcrafted, not thought up by a team of producers encouraging the repetition of one line over and over so that it gets stuck in your head.
That's not to say you won't find yourself subconsciously humming Eilish's music under your breath... you will trust me. The catch is that these songs are catchy, but for their own reasons and in their own right. They don't focus on meaningless, empty lyrics that are only there to fill the space and ultimately have no meaning. Literally no meaning. Have you ever really listened to the words of today's hits?????
Eilish doesn't build off of basic, overused beats and underlays, nor does she build off of ideas that come from someone who is ultimately uninvolved in her personal life. Her music is her story, and it has been built from the ground up by just her and her brother ever since the start. I don't doubt that it will continue to be this way, either.
If you take the time to listen to Billie Eilish speak in an interview, or in any context, really, you will immediately be able to recognize how real she is. She is not hiding behind an image, and she doesn't try to be anything or anyone other than herself. She is incredibly self-aware, especially for her age, and being in the limelight doesn't seem to have altered her at all, which is rarely the case.
Often sporting long, loose, large clothing matched for a monochromatic look, Eilish finds herself under fire, being criticized by anyone and everyone who decides she doesn't fit their idea of a star, or their idea of beauty, in some cases. Which brings me to my next point.
Eilish is a role model in that she is unapologetically who she is, regardless of the comments she receives that take her on. Considering the fact that 16 is the prime time of low self-esteem and issues with body image, Eilish stands as an icon for all the other people her age who are criticized on their appearance or are simply having trouble finding themselves.
She started out as an average teen writing songs in her bedroom, and that's exactly what she still is, despite the fact that those songs have now racked up millions of hits and millions of fans.
Long story short, Billie Eilish is exactly what the music industry needs. And exactly what you need.
Still, haven't listened? Do it. Now. Right now. Look, I'll even link her Spotify right... here. Now you have no excuse.
