Pop Sensation Billie Eilish – The Anti-Pop Star of Our Generation

Billie Eilish has swept the four biggest prizes at Grammy Awards – Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. The 18-year-old LA artist is the first woman in history to claim these four in one go and the youngest person ever to win Album of the Year.

Looking back, her momentum has been quite unstoppable. Not long ago, Bad Guyjust topped Triple J’s annual countdown of 2019. This win is also history-making in that Billie becomes the youngest artist ever to lead the list.

The song itself is an oddly bass-heavy, rhythm-switching piece that resonates on a universal level, not to mention its ubiquity in streaming services as well as YouTube memes. To Billie, the song is not a playful production of lyrics and beats. It is her fight against anxiety by finding humour in heaviness, which derives from what our generation is facing: the invading and increasingly toxic filter bubble of social media. Bad Guyshows sincerity in the loneliness, and with the mix of horror pop and heavy beats, Billie contemplates into her personality and finds the perfect balance between sanity and madness.

With these honours, few would dispute that Billie Eilish is the first truly Generation Z music phenomenon. Her award-wining debut album renders her music appetite as strikingly original and stylish. She runs completely opposite to mainstream pop anthems of most of her teen contemporaries. It is this darker and weirder stance that makes Bad Guyand Billie Eilish so refreshing and unique.

With the uncertainty in the music industry, if Billie is changing the rules of the pop game, the future is in good hands with the bad guy.