Billie Eilish- Redefining Pop Culture

There will always be something eye-catching about Billie Eilish- the 18-year-old sensation who has taken the industry by storm. Read our article on the grammy award winning artist by Rishi Kant.

There will always be something eye-catching about Billie Eilish. An eighteen-year-old millennial with her signature baggy, epicene couture and a slightly unusual, if not nonchalant demeanour— which especially includes her neon green hair. Yet, her accomplishments are almost prodigious in the industry. Not only is she the only artist born in the 21st century to be included in the Billboard 200, she is also the recipient of four of the biggest Grammy Awards– Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

But what separates Eilish is how she is anything but an archetypal popstar. She is absolutely adored by Gen-Z and is already considered as a generational icon for the modern-day teenager— a position she would not confine to playing by the book. Eilish’s story is reminiscent of the current generation. She first rose to fame when she in 2016, a 14-year-old Eilish uploaded her first song, “Ocean Eyes” on SoundCloud, hoping that her music teacher would listen to it. However, the very next morning, she finds that her upload has gone viral on SoundCloud.

It has been more than three-years since that fateful night and the Los Angeles-born Eilish has skyrocketed to fame— with over 51.3 million followers on her Instagram page. Even before the release of her debut album in 2019, she had become a sensation on Spotify and became the streaming platform’s second most popular female artist. The 62nd Grammy Awards took place hours after basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash at the Staples Centre—where Bryant became a global icon, will also be remembered for an unofficial “coronation” of Eilish in the pantheon of iconic pop artists, as he announced her arrival among the bigwigs.

Eilish and her candid outlook towards her public image has played a significant role in amassing such fame, commercially and culturally. In 2019, while she was performing at the Coachella, Eilish forgot the wordings of her own song, “All Good Girls Go to Hell.” Instead of panicking or even getting anxious, Eilish simply swayed with an indifferent swagger on the stage. She wheeled around the stage and after mumbling a bit, she said, “Fuck.” She turned back to the audience, swayed her hair and went on, “What the fuck are the words, though?” The crowd was so taken aback by Eilish that they did not even realise her misstep in the performance, they jeered and yelped as if it all was part of the act, and the internet too, responded similarly.

The blunt and open nature of Eilish as an icon is what the Gen-Z seeks today. Most artists of her stature would often have a team of songwriters and musicians helping them with their work. But here too, Eilish is an anomaly— most of her collaborations are with Finneas O’Connell, Eilish’s brother and four years her senior. Both siblings were home-schooled by their parents, who were actors. Eilish said that the brother-sister bond is a significant aid to her music. “We come from a place as outsiders because we’re still in our childhood bedrooms making music,” she said.

Eilish has been an unconventional entrant in this pantheon. For those who came before her, be it Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato or Selena Gomez, Eilish wasn’t backed by a major television network. Instead, she has relied upon user-generated platforms and has significantly contributed to the rise of independent music celebrities­­– be it Juice WRLD or Lil Peep. “What the hell would the point be if I was just creating something that somebody else wanted me to create that I had no say in?” said Eilish in an interview in 2018, about how being self-reliant in the production process also gives her the much-needed creative freedom.

Apart from a sensational career in music, Eilish is also known to use activism on contemporary issues, climate change, for instance. She has become a contemporary to Greta Thunberg, who has been lobbying governments. In 2019, during the American Music Awards, a 17-year-old Eilish performed her single “All the Good Girls Go to Hell” with a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “No Music on a Dead Planet” in an incinerating urban landscape. In a simple gesture of red sequins on her t-shirt, she made sure that the premier musical fraternity took notice of the rallying done by teenage environmental activists across the world to let the elder generation know an issue which is becoming synonymous with this generation.

Eilish’s public image also speaks of an issue which also defines the Gen-Z­– body shaming. In a Calvin Klein ad which also included Noah Centineo, Shawn Mendes, and Chika Oranika, she let out the truth about her signature clothes. “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass.’ No one can say any of that because they don’t know,” said Eilish. This has received positive responses— Eilish becoming the few cultural icons who publicly acknowledged objectification of women’s bodies. Her epiphany spiralled an on-going debate on the issue.

With her neo-gothic attire and macabre lyrics and music, many critics have adorned her of romanticizing death and evil. Eilish speaks of loss, fear and the unpredictable nature of life— everything that the modern-day teenager needs to know, despite parents trying their best to shield their children in the safe cocoon of parenting. She aspires to be a “genreless” star, a very common term used by young members of the music fraternity, who do not believe that they are bound to only one category of music. It will not be far-fetched to imagine that the listening patterns of teenagers have gone through a paradigm shift in a decade. From Taylor Swift, which focused on a more angelic narrative of life. Eilish can be regarded as the anti-thesis to Swift, with a more devilish, pessimistic perspective to life— talking about depression, anxiety and other mental health issues among people.