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81. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? - Billie Eilish (2019)

Pop

One of the most intriguing aspects of the evolution of television into the 21st century has been the shift from celebrating heroes to celebrating anti-heroes. Shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy, among many others, have capitalized on our apparently voracious appetite for bad guys. Sure, many of them were actually good guys that just did bad things with increasing regularity, but there’s no denying they were a far cry from being heroes.

In music, the demand for “bad guys” has been in place longer, as certain genres, like gangster rap, outlaw country and rock and roll are, in many cases, predicated on those character traits. But until Billie Eilish, the world of pop has been almost entirely devoid of anti-heroes. It was a matter of time, really, until someone realized the gold mine that Billie has stumbled upon. In eschewing the endlessly regurgitated and apparently inexhaustible tropes of pop music and inverting the formula, she’s achieved the same kind of bombastic success that some of those shows did. She’s filling a void that nobody wanted to admit existed.

The album isn’t quite as dark as the cover art would have you believe, but it’s no day at the beach either. There is a substantial amount of eeriness throughout, as well as a sense of dread that ebbs beneath the surface. Certain tracks, like “Bad Guy” and “Bury a Friend”, seem maliciously molded out of Billie’s nightmares, but others, like “Xanny” and “Wish You Were Gay” are much more benign observations on life as a teenager in 2019. The album has made major waves in American music since its release and will surely spawn a flood of imitators, potentially catalyzing a permanent shift in commercially viable pop music. Not bad for a 17 year old.

*image; cover art for the album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by the artist Billie Eilish