Is Billie the Bad Guy?

graphic by lucinda strol

Billie Eilish is the name on everyone’s lips right now. After all, she just won five Grammys, including the coveted Album of the Year and Best New Artist awards. However, as we all know, with success, naturally comes controversy. Since the release of Eilish’s debut album “When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?”, fans and cynics alike have been debating whether she deserves all of the praise and attention she gets. So the question arises: are we allowed to like Billie Eilish, or is she actually the bad guy? 

Let’s start with the criticism. People typically don’t like Billie Eilish either because she’s a try-hard or because she appropriates black culture. People who categorize Billie as a “try-hard,” believe with a fiery passion that she is disingenuous and that she tries way too hard to be ~cool~ and ~edgy~. However, the latter accusation is far more serious by claiming that Eilish routinely appropriates Black culture in the way she dresses. 

Why do people feel this way? Think about the 18 year-old’s Grammys 2020 red carpet look as an example:Eilish wore an oversized green-and-black Gucci shirt paired with small sunglasses and long, green acrylic nails. All of these trends stem from African American culture, and some assert that Eilish should credit the source of her style since she is constantly praised in the media for it.

If Billie was trying to escape this criticism, her recent comments about the state of hip-hop did not help her cause. In an interview for Vogue last week, she said that modern rap is full of boasting and falsehoods, claiming that, “There are tons of songs where people are just lying.” In the following days, she received tons of backlash online from people who believed her comments were anti-Black. 

Now let’s move to the defense. Billie’s fans say that the hate she gets is unwarranted, and is primarily a result of her being a young woman in the music industry, and an insanely successful one at that. Don’t believe us? Go ask the executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who just asked her to sing the title song for the newest James Bond film. 

It’s also true that it is far from easy to be a young woman in the music industry. At only 18 years old, Eilish has managed to make herself a household name, which inevitably comes with hate from music consumers. One of her biggest issues has been the rampant sexualization and objectification that she has faced since her debut album was released. It is for this reason, she explains in a Calvin Klein ad, that she wears oversized clothing. 

We can’t tell you whether you should or should not like Billie Eilish. All we can do is lay out the facts and let you reach your own conclusions. HOWEVER, one thing is for sure: regardless of whether you love her or hate her, you certainly have not seen the last of her.