Billie Eilish

[Rose-Colored Boy]

15 minutes ago, priest17 said:

Billie Eilish wont headline Glastonbury. 

Why the fuck not? Seriously. She’s a brand new - interesting - popstar, killing it on her debut. If it continues to happen for her then let it happen. If it doesn’t then never mind whatever but, y’know, rather her than George Ezra ...

[Matt42]

5 minutes ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Why the fuck not? Seriously. She’s a brand new - interesting - popstar, killing it on her debut. If it continues to happen for her then let it happen. If it doesn’t then never mind whatever but, y’know, rather her than George Ezra ...

Gatekeepers man. This forum is full of them.

[vintagelaureate]

I don't see why she wouldn't get a chance to headline (although I would say in a couple of years) if she continues on the path she is on? Whilst I'm not a massive fan of her - my wife is - she clearly appeals to slot of people!

Edited August 25, 2019 by vintagelaureate

[priest17]

10 minutes ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Why the fuck not? Seriously. She’s a brand new - interesting - popstar, killing it on her debut. If it continues to happen for her then let it happen. If it doesn’t then never mind whatever but, y’know, rather her than George Ezra ...

I dunno look somewhere between the public's willingness to drop female pop stars or Glastonbury's lack of female popstar headliners. 

For what it's worth I agree, if she can keep it up she'd be hella more interesting than most the shite we go around and around arguing about here. 

Happily eat my words when I'm proved wrong, I'm very poor at predictions anyway.

[priest17]

10 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Gatekeepers man. This forum is full of them.

Says the boy who wont let Foals headline!

[Matt42]

1 hour ago, priest17 said:

Says the boy who wont let Foals headline!

You say that as if I’m the one who calls the shots. I’m not getting into the Foals debate again it’s boring.

However, how can you look at this and think that she doesn’t have a massive and hugely promising career ahead of her.

 

[dentalplan]

16 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

However, how can you look at this and think that she doesn’t have a massive and hugely promising career ahead of her.

Don't get mad and call me names here but she's sort of raised eyebrows because of her style being immediately eye-catching and eccentric more than anything else, she has mostly a younger audience and she's coming up at a time where acts can barely go away because attention spans are getting shorter. Things just don't bode well for her being a concern in five years or so.

This, however, probably adds weight to the prediction of her being fast-tracked to headlining Reading and Leeds next summer. Much like with Post Malone who has a very inevitable decline in his future.

[jyoung]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Things just don't bode well for her being a concern in five years or so.

See, I completely disagree. Time will tell.

[mcshed]

5 hours ago, Matt42 said:

You say that as if I’m the one who calls the shots.

No he said that in response to you calling other people gatekeepers, they call the shots just as much as you do.

FWIW I think you're right about Billie if album 2 is as big or bigger than her debut then she'll certainly be in the headliner conversation, that's a big if though.

[thewayiam]

4 hours ago, jyoung said:

See, I completely disagree. Time will tell.

I actually kind of agree,  I think she'll get massive but I also think she'll drop off just as quick because I can't see her style going to something different.

Post Malone is also the biggest example of a festival striking while the iron is hot and for an easy booking for a big ticket act at this moment where the crowd will have moved onto the next thing I'm a few years. People only need a couple songs these days from an artist to lap it up.

[priest17]

7 hours ago, Matt42 said:

You say that as if I’m the one who calls the shots. I’m not getting into the Foals debate again it’s boring.

However, how can you look at this and think that she doesn’t have a massive and hugely promising career ahead of her.

 

I don't want to do that debate either, maybe I misunderstood what you meant by gate keeping.

And I clearly havent made the point I wanted about Billie here and that's on me, I went in with a blunt inflammatory statement and it's coming back to bite me. I'm the bad guy (duh). The woman has a massive career ahead of her and is an exciting prospect. Glastonbury's current attitude to female headliners and having seen what's happened to lots of exciting, young female artists being dropped by fickle fans suggests she wont make it to the top of the Pyramid.

[Matt42]

My point is that I don’t think we’ve had a rise to fame so quick in quite a long time. She’s managed to build a huge fan base in under a year and she shows incredible confidence on stage.

Plus, she’s still young herself - we are a long way off before she’s making “how do you do fellow kids” albums. Her target market is going to grow up with her.

[Matt42]

9 hours ago, dentalplan said:

Don't get mad and call me names here but she's sort of raised eyebrows because of her style being immediately eye-catching and eccentric more than anything else, she has mostly a younger audience and she's coming up at a time where acts can barely go away because attention spans are getting shorter. Things just don't bode well for her being a concern in five years or so.

This, however, probably adds weight to the prediction of her being fast-tracked to headlining Reading and Leeds next summer. Much like with Post Malone who has a very inevitable decline in his future.

I do understand your point - but this is a more speculative argument - I think Billie Eilish means more to her audience than Post Malone does to his. I think there is a unique sentimental connection between her and her audience which a popular right now hip hop artist doesn’t have.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Matt42

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Post Malone feels so... temporary. And not just because he's rubbish. I could be wrong, he could be the next Drake and manage to stay at the very top despite nobody being quite sure how he got there, but it's gotta be no coincidence his team are rushing out the follow-up to Beerpongs while the iron is hot, they know the whole thing is incredibly surface-level and it could easily not take much for people to move on. 

OTOH the Billie personality cult seems to matter to people a lot more and in a deeper way. Look at that reaction of those fans Radio 1 had her meet backstage this weekend - can you imagine smelly old Post leaving people lost for words like that? She could absolutely fade away a bit into a cult phenomenon rather than a mainstream megastar, but the comparison feels off regardless.

[Mattymooz]

Billie just has a personality, however cringy it may be. Every other newish pop act is just so dull and vanilla at the moment, Dua Lipa, Anne-Marie, Mabel etc. are all just bland. I reckon the more theatrical stuff popular in the more early 2010's are probably on their way back in looking at some of the other more popular acts (Lizzo, Rosalia etc.).

Still dunno if Billie has the chops to make it big mind, I think the production is the most interesting thing about her music (the duh! and instrumental chorus of Bad Guy is awesome) and that style of production isn't going to stay trendy for long. I think people saying she is locked in are being very presumptious, I think people have thought that about a lot of acts previously (e.g. Lorde) who then stall a lot after their first album. We'll see on if she can follow this up with something impressive (definitely don't think headlining is out of the question, but her next stop will probably be the Katy Parry slot if anything)

[dentalplan]

1 hour ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

OTOH the Billie personality cult seems to matter to people a lot more and in a deeper way. Look at that reaction of those fans Radio 1 had her meet backstage this weekend - can you imagine smelly old Post leaving people lost for words like that? She could absolutely fade away a bit into a cult phenomenon rather than a mainstream megastar, but the comparison feels off regardless.

Maybe it does, but I think to the vast majority of the crowd in front of her at Reading she’s a temporary curiosity and the peak of that interest will be 2019. The young fans who live for her at the moment are at an age where they have different phases every few months, right? How many different things were we into in those few teenage years? Were we still deeply invested in stuff five years on?

Brockhampton is a major case in point here. Last year people were proper obsessed with them and then last week they brought out an album accompanied by very little hype at all. Things just move that quickly.

I think, with the nature of social media now, we’re going to have a lot of acts who explode overnight and for whom interest burns out pretty quickly. I’m not even saying that festivals should keep these acts at arm’s length - I actually believe they should be embraced - but I’m not sure Glastonbury is that willing to do that. But of course Stormzy happened so I’m chatting shit.

[Matt42]

I just think Billie has reached a bit further than other acts being listed here. The kids that are into her now are going to be growing up with her - if they are going to Reading at 16 they’l probably try Glastonbury in the future.

Plus considering the intimate nature of her music - that it’s a double act with her and her brother, I highly doubt there’s gonna be much outside influence. 

If we collectively keep shutting down new stars that rise up, we will NEVER break out of Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Muse, The Killers cycle. 

The 1975, Billie Eilish, Stormzy etc have proven that they can perform to thousands of festival goers and be the highlight of their weekend. They are the new headliners, we need to let these newbies succeed otherwise the festival scene will fall on its arse.

[not worthy]

She seems really nice, just a bit tricky getting the wristband on over the rings

Had the pleasure of meeting lots of acts whilst working a vehicle gate this year

Edited August 26, 2019 by not worthy

[Mattymooz]

3 hours ago, Matt42 said:

I just think Billie has reached a bit further than other acts being listed here. The kids that are into her now are going to be growing up with her - if they are going to Reading at 16 they’l probably try Glastonbury in the future.

Plus considering the intimate nature of her music - that it’s a double act with her and her brother, I highly doubt there’s gonna be much outside influence. 

If we collectively keep shutting down new stars that rise up, we will NEVER break out of Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Muse, The Killers cycle. 

The 1975, Billie Eilish, Stormzy etc have proven that they can perform to thousands of festival goers and be the highlight of their weekend. They are the new headliners, we need to let these newbies succeed otherwise the festival scene will fall on its arse.

This is a bit extreme, I don't think anyone is condoning that just suggesting there are better options out there. Billie doesn't have the best live reputation (not only does her vocal delivery result in a lackluster performance, it's also really hard for her to fill a stage as effectively a one man show. It's not like Stormzy where you consistently heard about people who went to go and see him and loved it).

Plus off one record it's hard to say if she can maintain the same trajectory. Again the Lorde comparison is rife, she was huge when her first album dropped but really hasn't gone anywhere since. Same thing with Sam Smith, could have been a potential headliner but the hype died off a lot around him. Really think it's to early to call yet, and calling anyone who doubts Billie as being ignorant is a bit presumptuous. She literally hasn't headlined any major fests yet, and her first album, while performing well, wasn't exactly the largest success (in terms of cementing it as a GOAT album. It really only spawned 2 hits. Rihanna's last album did better than that and people here call that a flop)

It's not like the fest is running out of headliners anyway, off the top of my head we still got Kendrick, Gaga, TSwizzle, 1975, Ariana at least who are all headliner ready now

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Sam Smith’s hype died through a combination of a weird faux pa at the Oscars that made him persona non grata among his core demographic, overexposure including a lame Bond song. and his comeback singles being a pile of w*nk. He’d be headlining Glastonbury by now if he/his team hadn’t fucked it up. And we definitely follow different people on Twitter if you think Melodrama was anything other than a smash with a massive cultural impact hahaha. Agree it’s too early to tell on Bill, though.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Rose-Colored Boy

[Matt42]

Sam smith flopped because his second album was complete and utter non event. Plus, he became unpopular within his own fan base pretty quick.

[Mattymooz]

21 minutes ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

And we definitely follow different people on Twitter if you think Melodrama was anything other than a smash with a massive cultural impact hahaha.

It's a cult classic for sure, but thats like saying Jeppo has any chance of headlining because Emotion was one of the best albums of the decade. I love that album, but it didn't exactly boost Lorde's career too much (whether that was because of the weird lead single choice, the length of the break between albums or the odd promotion strategy - I still don't know how that HD remix didn't explode given the features).

[Mattymooz]

13 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Sam smith flopped because his second album was complete and utter non event. Plus, he became unpopular within his own fan base pretty quick.

Exactly, too early to guess that Billie won't end up having something like this happen. I doubt it, she seems to know how to play the streaming game well, but still.

[Steve1000]

1 hour ago, Mattymooz said:

and her first album, while performing well, wasn't exactly the largest success (in terms of cementing it as a GOAT album. It really only spawned 2 hits.

Eh?

[Mattymooz]

37 minutes ago, Steve1000 said:

Eh?

As in it was obviously very successful, but I don't think it's an instant classic on the same level as other pop albums that give acts their big break (e.g. Fame Monster, Red, Teenage Dream, Views, Good Girl Gone Bad etc.) and not enough to give an immediate bump up to headliner. Especially because of the lack of big singles (other than Bad Guy and Bury A Friend). Again, everyone here says Anti was an unsuccessful album, and the performance of both those albums on the charts and on spotify is pretty similar (again, not saying that for a debut album it wasn't very successful, but if people don't reckon Rihanna could headline off a similar performing album and extensive backcatalogue of hits then I don't see why Billie should be getting the nod instead).