WHEN “GROUNDBREAKING” BECOMES A MUSIC GENRE WITH ARTISTES LIKE BILLIE EILISH AND TONES AND I

Unusual names like Billie Eilish and Tones and I are booking spots on the billboard list and other music charts, along with their songs. They are bringing their absurdities and weirdness, their personal struggles and darker shades, turning both into piles of awesomeness we cannot get enough of.

The question to be asked here then is, why are we suddenly embracing songs like this? I know people are drawn to variety, to ingenuity and a mastered sense of self-confidence when it comes to displayed creativity, or are we so steeped in horrible music that anything else that sounds differently is interpreted as “innovative”?

Both Billie and Toni (preferable to Tones pronounced as toh’ nes) are insightful and talented. I mean I am very sure of Billie prolly because this genre of music she does is her own version of what makes sense to her, and whatever it is she is doing she is definitely having fun while at it. On the other hand, I cannot exactly say if Toni will be a one-hit wonder at this point or not, maybe Warner will make sure this isn’t her last.

But whatever these two artistes are doing, it is clear they do not take life so seriously and they talk about their simple ideologies and simple lives in their music. For someone like Toni, it seems reductionist that most sites are trailing the grass to grace trajectory talking about how months ago the 19-year old was living in a truck and singing to passersby.

As if she cares!

While in “Dance monkey”, she talks about how hard it was as a busker to get people away from their phones long enough to listen to what she has to say. Yeah, lump her together with people like Greta Thunberg that actually have something to say to negligible humans obsessed with their phones and social media.

Billie on the other hand is a cosmic bath bomb, exploding into different colours on prompt. With her rich blend of angst and depressive pop, and the added satisfaction she derives like singing dark and infectious diss- harmonies that our brains and not our bodies dance to.

Maybe “groundbreaking” is a genre for other reasons, chief of which is relativity. How our hearts and eyes open up to the visual and audio forms of their music. Even though they both tell their stories, they become our stories too.