I think people might be misinterpreting what Grohl said about Eilish.
People got mad about the comparison between Nirvana and Billie Eilish because an organic, authentic, extremely talented band that represented the sounds of the 80s underground finding a mainstream audience. Cobain was a talented songwriter who brought together the sounds of Black Flag's hardcore, Melvins' sludge, The Vaselines' twee pop, the garage punk of Mudhoney and Wipers, the quirky indie of the Pixies, the noise of Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth, and the blues of Lead Belly, among other things. In contrast, Billie Eilish is a corporate creation - her talented brother seems more responsible for her music than she is, she seems oblivious to her musical predecessors, and her music isn't unique - if anything, it seems watered down compared to art pop artists of a few years ago, like FKA twigs. Nirvana was also a strong rejection of the manufactured music that dominated popular music at the time - the glam metal of Bon Jovi, the synth-R&B of Michael Jackson, and the manufactured pop of Madonna. In contrast, Billie Eilish is very much a product of the soulless, manufactured music of our time - the trap rap era.
But the important thing that Nirvana did was capture the zeitgeist of youth culture in the early 90s, and in that sense the Billie Eilish comparison seems apt. Eilish's music very much captures the feeling of youth culture today, and it's significantly better than most of the trap rap coming out today. It doesn't have to be in any way authentic or underground to do that - I would say My Chemical Romance also captured the feeling of youth culture in the mid 00s, and they were painfully glossy.
Why not Billie Eilish? I mean, you're right about Lil Peep, he was just as good if not better than her. But right now it seems like Eilish is the one capturing people. And on that same note, why didn't Layne Staley resonate with people as much as Kurt Cobain?
I don't think X works because for people to identify with an artist, that artist has to be sympathetic, and X has been condemned so much that I don't think many people want to identify with him, even if he was one of the only people in that whole scene with any actual talent.
Chase Gonzalez
Billie is the female replacement for X. She only started getting marketed as a suicidal SoundCloud sadgirl after X was murdered and Interscope decided to change her image to cash in on X's crazed fanbase.
>lied about growing up poor >lied about her parents' industry ties >lied about her brother writing her material >lied about how Ocean Eyes was created >lied about how and why she got signed >lied about being an industry plant >lied about clout-chasing soundcloud rapprs >fake deep >fake edgy >fake ghetto >fake woke >"authentic"
Grayson Watson
If anyone wants to understand how meaningless pop success is, they should read So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star by Jacob Slichter.
He's the drummer from Semisonic who had this inescapable hit in the late 90s:
It cost the record company $700K to get that song on the radio as much as it was back then. Which of course came out of Semisonic's sales.
Pop music and radio is a machine. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands or even millions have now been spent to push "Billy Eilish"?
Why her? Because it has to be someone. And there is nothing on earth more valuable than a slim young pretty white girl.
Don't read into anything more than that. This is just how the world works.
William Lopez
hahaha
Brody Morris
Do you know if Billie has a 360 Deal? I'm guessing she has to, given the amount of payola she has.
She'll be begging for change once Interscope starts sucking up her royalties.
Elijah Garcia
>believing in the authenticity meme
Jackson Myers
>right now it seems like Eilish is the one capturing people
What you mean is right now Eilish is the one mass media companies are pumping millions of dollars into so they can get payouts like this: Pop music is disposable because you can change the pretty girl out front a hundred times over and over but the machine behind her will always remain the same.
Jonathan Powell
who cares. every great musician lied about things. In case you retards haven't notice a lot of bands put on a persona to seem more interesting
Nathaniel Clark
She has an endorsement deal with CK to make up for the amount of payola spent on her. It's one reason why so many pop stars willingly take endorsement deals and also come out with clothing or perfume lines (I used to work in fragrances - don't laugh - and saw this bullshit firsthand). It's all due to the stars in question being in massive debt to their labels.
Samuel Wright
>great musician >great keyword: great billie eilish sucks ass and her music is ariana grande tier but she's presented as "different" somehow
Nathaniel Williams
She's definitely being very heavily advertised but I haven't really seen her really resonate with people. I thought of her more as a somewhat successful experiment on selling to zoomers than anything else.
Jaxson Miller
>I'm guessing she has to, given the amount of payola she has. Correct. No one gets shoved down people's throats that much unless they're a total label puppet.
Aiden Gray
Yeah, 100%. The richest "musicians" are people who made their money by turning their name into merchandise, like Jessica Simpson, Dr. Dre, and 50 Cent.
>her music is ariana grande tier but she's presented as "different" somehow
Try this flavor of Diet Coke. Don't like that? Try Mountain Dew. It's extreme!!! Didn't you see the ad? We had skateboarders in it so you know it's rad.
We have something for everyone. Just open your wallet and buy something please.
Brayden Jackson
Good post. The problem I have with Billie is while Nirvana's sound worked and successfully defined the early 90s zeitgeist due to Kurt's legit involvement the the underground and genuine passion for the scene and art in general, Billie's music and whole aesthetic just seems like an attempt to mass market the whole soundcloud-rap culture to larger audiences. It all seems fake to me. I guess it succeeds in painting a picture of some 2010's trends, but it does so in a bland corporate way. There are better artists out there that accomplish that way better in a more genuine way I think.
Joseph Sanchez
>while Nirvana's sound worked and successfully defined the early 90s zeitgeist due to Kurt's legit involvement
Lol. That's not why. Nirvana was the biggest grunge band of the 90s because Kurt Cobain was insanely good looking and girls were all masturbating to him nightly.
Aiden Lopez
maybe, but they got more respect from people because they had legit appreciation understanding and involvement with that culture
Christopher Cook
I'm looking forward to the day where there is not a single thread about her on Yea Forums anymore. Is she really that interesting that she warrants all this discussion?
Aiden Ross
Here's the true test of a musician. Ask yourself - if they were a fat hispanic guy or an ugly Indian dude - would anyone still care about them?
Would anyone care about her if she wasn't a pretty skinny 20 year old white girl?
As an example, Beck would be famous no matter what he looked like because his success is based on his actual music.
Lucas Stewart
>Billie's music and whole aesthetic just seems like an attempt to mass market the whole soundcloud-rap culture to larger audiences. It all seems fake to me. Correct. There's a reason why the beats on her most recent album sounded like sugary, watered-down Miami underground hip hop, with high hats, distorted bass, and weird synths. Her first EP didn't sound like that at all. And there's a reason why Denzel is opening for her, and why she has so many pics of her with fellow Soundclowns on her IG.
Nothing this little thot does is off-script.
Logan Collins
Yeah, no doubt. I liked Nirvana back then too. I'm just saying most people underestimate how much his looks defined their success.
Same with Bush. They would have been so much smaller if not for Gavin Rossdale's male model good looks. I liked Bush more than Nirvana. But still. It's undeniable for both of them.
Same as Billy Eilish. Most "music fans" just want a good looking person to look at set to an acceptable musical background track.
It's depressing but true. Pop music is 90% a combo of looks and record industry marketing.
Jack Wright
Her album's release date kept getting pushed back. You Should See Me in a Crown was released last summer and only hit no. 90(?) on Billboard. It was scheduled for release by the end of 2018 but was pushed back to March. You have to ask why. I'm guessing it had to be re-worked to appeal to that SoundCloud audience more. Oh hell, the final few songs on her album are about X.
Connor Russell
>Same with Bush. They would have been so much smaller if not for Gavin Rossdale's male model good looks. Very good point. Bush aren't so bad, but Gavin tried too hard to copy Cobain's nonsensical lyrics.
Gavin Hernandez
Oh yeah. Bush's lyrics are fucking shit desu. Gibberish top to bottom. Gavin did it on purpose though. He used to tell Gwen Stefani after they got married that, "Why can't she write more poetic (ie. incomprehensible) lyrics?" because she writes simple plain easy lyrics and he likes writing abstract lyrics. The problem is his lyrics are so abstract you can't make heads or tails of them and then what's the point?
Anyway, they had great music.
Jordan Roberts
>And there's a reason why Denzel is opening for her, He's fucking her.
She doesn't though. Her childhood memories are mainly of going to talent shows and industry events in LA. The only people she could really relate to in a personal sense would be someone like Kylie Jenner.
Christopher Myers
So much this.
Her parents probably took a few cues from Joe Jackson and deprived their kids of conventional childhoods so they could focus on becoming Hollywood successes. Billie has said in older interviews she was homeschooled by private tutors, for example. She was in the LA Children's Choir and was a professional child dancer.
Julian Taylor
>Gavin did it on purpose though I believe it.
Hudson White
Filename checks out.
Juan Martin
My Chemical Romance makes legitimately great music though, Billie does not
Parker Lewis
This promotion is very good for us, since it kills any last bit of question people have about Billie being "underground".
Austin Cook
>slim >pretty Uh...
Andrew Butler
which he got from REM, dont give kurt the credit
Landon Morales
The difference is Ariana can sing
David Bailey
She's the 2010s version of Fabian.
Carter Rodriguez
She's desperate to appear "hood" and "underground" which is why she clings to Denzel. She needs him for her image way more than he needs her.
As soon as he's done touring with her, he's going right back on the road with City Morgue, Suicideboyz, and Ghostemane. He's not stupid.
Luis Edwards
Literally who?
This. Billie's vocal abilities are downright atrocious.
>be denzel curry >barely get 2 million views in 48 hours despite making aoty 2018 >industry plant child bride gets 10 million views in less than 10 hours
Is there anything more embarrassing than to be upstaged by wifey?
>if they were a fat hispanic guy or an ugly Indian dude - would anyone still care about them? As long as it's Tongo, yes. youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5uocadSUs
Ryder Perry
disgusting
Jaxon Gomez
Taboo was good but dont pretend it was aoty lmao
Aaron Gray
literally a product
Alexander Foster
There is literally nothing wrong with having companies back a musician, or an athlete. The amount of butthurt commies ITT is insane
Bentley Lewis
kill yourself
Mason Gutierrez
No one cares if Ariana gets endorsement deals because Ariana isn't viewed as anything but a manufactured pop star. Billie's whole appeal, on the other hand, is that she's "counter-cultural" and "DIY". That's exactly how music critics praise her, claiming she's "sincere", "deep", "woke", etc., the exact opposite of someone who should be doing ads for a major retail brand.
Leo Hill
It's a free country where you can sponsor someone if you have the money to. Move to China if you want communism
Matthew Johnson
Yeah right, next you are going to tell me the DIY Punk movement or garage rock had some kind of corporate backing
Christian Stewart
It does now. I know plenty of diy hardcore and punk bands who get sponsored by polar water or taco bell or some shit
Evan Parker
Ggetting sponsored by drum or amp companies isn't uncommon either. If you like the artist and it helps them tour more/put out more records and all they have to do is make a post online then what's the big deal
Elijah Gray
Go away, David.
Xavier Cox
actually what he means is both nirvana and eyelash are soulless trash
Nicholas Morales
Sex sells.
Blake Bailey
THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST
