Although many people rag on singer Billie Eilish and claim she hasn’t earned her high levels of prestige and fame, Eilish has proven countless times that she’s deserving of her popularity and success. Eighteen-year-old Eilish warrants admiration not only for her award-winning music, but also for her unique fashion sense, young age and lack of scandals.
Eilish’s rise to fame began with the release of her song “Ocean Eyes” on Soundcloud in 2016. Since then, she’s been nominated for 91 awards and has won 39 of them. Among these awards are Grammys, in which she became the youngest artist to sweep all four major categories in 2020. Clearly, most of the music industry believes that Eilish’s music is worthy of recognition.
Eilish introduces dark subject matter into the pop music genre. Songs such as “all the good girls go to hell,” “bad guy” and “xanny” all deal with very dark, very real issues that today’s teens face. Rather than distract listeners from raw emotions, Eilish invites them to explore and discuss them through her music.
Many of Eilish’s music videos contain unsettling imagery that one can’t help but watch on repeat. The videos for songs “you should see me in a crown,” “bury a friend” and “when the party’s over” feature footage of a live tarantula crawling on her face, black liquid pooling from her eyes and gut-wrenchingly realistic syringes injected into her back.
Much like Eilish’s music genre, her clothing style is non-conforming. Her outfits consist of bright-colored androgynous and baggy clothing from luxury clothing brands, such as Gucci. Her clothes resemble a mix of goth, skater and hip-hop and her style is one-of-a-kind, evident by how she often dyes her hair bright colors, too. Eilish wears what she feels most comfortable in, rather than conforming to the feminine style that women are expected to wear.
It’s hard not to come across Eilish’s music, whether you’re on Spotify or Netflix. Her song “my strange addiction” features sound clips from the TV series “The Office” and many of her songs were featured in soundtracks of popular TV series such as “On My Block” and “13 Reasons Why.” Her and her brother, Finneas, even wrote the theme song for the new James Bond movie, No Time to Die, which comes out in April.
Billie Eilish may not be a household name yet, especially if you’re talking to your grandparents, but she is definitely working to earn that status by spreading her music into other forms of media.
If Eilish wasn’t deserving of her fame, then many celebrities would despise her for existing in their realm without earning it. However, that clearly isn’t the case since many celebrities have worked with her and even fangirl over her. Eilish has collaborated with an array of A-list celebrities, including Khalid, Justin Bieber and Blackbear. Many celebrities, including Nina Dobrev and Jameela Jamil, dressed up as Eilish for Halloween in 2019, according to Seventeen.
People can claim that Billie Eilish’s music is mainstream, but it’s obviously working in her favor since she is one of the youngest female artists to gain so much recognition and respect.
Aliyha Gill is an English and psychology double major junior who won’t shut up about Billie Eilish.