What genre is Billie Eilish categorized as? In today’s blog post I won’t be covering just one song in particular as I usually do but I will be going through a few examples as to why I think that Billie Eilish can’t be put into one genre category when It comes to her music. Genre according to Philips are “a loose evolving system of arguments and readings, helping to shape commercial strategies and aesthetic ideologies. ” (Phillip, 2005). Meaning that genre is basically what we collectively believe it to be. For example, when you think of Pop music you think of upbeat songs that are always played on the radio that just make you happy and want to do dance around. You can also think about how the music video look; very bright, bubbly, the singer in a cute outfit, hanging out with all of their friends, and even getting the boy of their dreams in the end. This had me thinking of Billie starting out when she was 16 years old and to me when you think of a 16-year-old making music you think of a pop sensation like Brittney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus. All huge “Pop Stars” their music is very much in the Pop category and doesn’t have very much density behind it. Billie on the other hand; writes her own music and puts so much thought behind every song, they all are a part of her and have such deep meanings.
When Billie was 16, she came out with her first song called Ocean Eyes that was uploaded to SoundCloud. I went and googled what genre this song what fall under and it said “Pop”. Which yes if you hear the song it is upbeat but also a little mellow, her voice is very soft and pretty, and the music video is bright and fits into that Pop genre. Fast forward to her newest album ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO’ this album is completely opposite from “Ocean Eyes” inspired by lucid dreaming and night terrors, is basically what happens when you fall asleep, hence its title, and it’s basically supposed to be a bad dream, or a good dream”. (Lowe, 2019). Billie recently also posted on her Instagram stories her playlists full of songs by other artist that inspired each song on this album. Her song “Xanny” was inspired by rap artist like Post Malone, pop artist Feist, R&B singer Daniel Caesar, and rock band LCS Soundsystem. This is just one of the playlists from her stories from Instagram but all of the playlist look like this, all over the place and very diverse.
Her song “Bury a Friend” was the first single from ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO’ and this song when I looked up what genre it was under said “Pop” but is it really? Sure, the way the beat and tempo sound make it very upbeat and danceable. But when you look at the aspects of what makes up pop such as the; theme, setting, presentation, story formula, character type I would say that no “Bury a Friend” doesn’t fit into this generic pop genre. I will be covering why a couple of these make this song not fit into this genre.
The theme of this song is her album as whole, it is about lucid dreaming, night terrors and what happened when she has these dreams. In this song she sings
“Step on the glass, staple your tongue (Ahh)
Bury a friend, try to wake up (Ah-ahh)
Cannibal class, killing the son (Ahh)
Bury a friend, I wanna end me”
which comparing to other upbeat and happy “Pop” songs these lyrics do not fit into the generic pop category.
The story formula I will be referring to the music video, the music video is very dark in two ways. The first being the color and tones that are in it. There’s a lot of shadows and the way it was edited just makes it look very creepy and eerie. The video starts off with a guy lying in bed and all of sudden waking up and Billie is underneath his bed, her eyes pitch black. As the song continues, she is walking through a hallway, but her feet are dragging, something you would see in a horror film. During the bridge of the song Billie’s eyes are once again pitch black and is spinning in circles. The whole music video just seems like something out of a horror film. Which is once again something that does not fit into a “Pop” category.
Billie in multiple interviews is known to say that she doesn’t want her music to fit into one box. She wants everyone to be able to like and relate to her music. I think she’s doing a great job at this as an artist but also as a person. Besides her music, Billie doesn’t look like your typical “Pop Star” she isn’t in a ton of makeup with her hair done perfectly or in skintight clothes. Billie wears very little to no makeup and expresses herself with the clothes she wears which are baggy and outrageous, but she pulls it off with such confidence.
Bibliography
Lowe, Z. (2019, April 8). Billie Eilish and Finneas: Paris Meet Up Interview. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTiK6XjBi0
Phillip, K. R. (2005). Projected Fears: Horror Films and AMeican Culture. In K. R. Phillip.
Also a little side note… I’m posting this blog post on the birthday of Billie’s debut album ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE TO WE GO?’ so that’s super exciting! ❤
Alexa Mendez’s Blog 
Really great job on this post! The length is there, you used quotes, and great use of visuals! Although I know her music, I feel you did a good job explaining the songs. Those who haven’t heard her music would have a good understanding of those songs if they read you post.
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You’ve explored how genre can play out in unexpected ways, and you set it up clearly. As usual, it’s written clearly and split up well into segments. You have a solid foundation here.
I’m left wondering: how does viewing the album as not fitting in a genre help us to either a) understand something new about the album or artist, or b) understand something new about genre (as a method or theory)? Remember, we want to extend beyond classification when we use genre. When I mentioned Ricch as an example in class, for example, what I meant wasn’t that he fits into a simple category but that we need to have a point, something we learn, when we identify how they connect with other artists, texts, etc. That’s the point of genre: identifying connections and groups.
So, you point out to some great ways that she is inspired by a range of types of music (the Insta playlists was a great bit of evidence here!). You support all of your points well, and I think you’re on to something interesting. But is she truly without genre? Or is she just a different TYPE of pop? She’s definitely not bubble-gum (which is what you’re pointing to with Spears, Gomez, etc.). But what if we think of her in relation to indie-pop artists (like Halsey, Lana del Rey, etc.)? It’s pop with artistry, not spectacle. Or what about pop-rock (like Pink) or more popular rap/not-rap (like Post Malone) artists? That is, genre is most helpful when we identify what relationships ARE there and suggest that we learn something new about the artist, the genre, the text, etc. SO, what are the relationships?
You’re very close with this post, and I think it will be a good option for your final post, if you’d like. Keep at it!
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