Star Image Research
BILLIE EILISH
In total, Billie has released three albums, excluding singles and EPs.
THE MUSIC
The music production throughout has shown immense creativity and talent and has varied largely throughout the artist’s music career. Billie’s first album released in 2017 don’t smile at me is classed as an alternative album, alongside her other two albums. However, the music is varied due to her voice always being ‘shapeshifting’. Billie’s brother Finneas produces the music and says that it is “produced to emphasise her unique sound”.
ALBUM INFO
The album was released in 2017 and was a hit. However, she first gained public attention when she released her single “Ocean Eyes” which is featured on this album. The majority of tracks on this album are stylised with all lowercase letters, alongside the album name. Billie released this album in 2019. This album aided Billie and Finneas to gain millions of fans worldwide. The title of the album is stylised in all capital letters. The use of rhetorical questioning strikes the audience as it imposes a hint about the reasoning behind the writing. This album was released in 2021, which regained the fans' attention, which was especially significant as in the majority of songs on this album, Billie was conveying a message important to her. The fact that the album is stylised in a way that uses capital letters at the start of every word, reinstates the fact that the content she is sharing is dominant in her life.
THE MARKETING
Over the years of the release of the three albums, there is a vast differentiation between them in terms of colour scheme and appearance. The colour scheme for don’t smile at me was red and yellow as seen on the album cover. Billie is seen to have a ladder towering over her making her appear small and her body language is rather closed off further insinuating she is being oversized. This album offers an insight into “the artist's twisted and dark storytelling” with an overall “cynical tone”. The colour scheme for WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is black and white as presented on the album cover. This album is said to be largely inspired by lucid dreaming and night terrors, considering the use of props: the bed she is sitting on. Billie’s eyes have been artificially created to be completely white and glowy which is conveying the idea of demons. In Billie’s most recent album Happier Than Ever, the colour scheme includes a gold, pink and beige palette. This is definitely her most personal album, as conveyed through the close up mid shot on the album cover. This is also her first album which is labelled for explicit language, further conveying the personal aspect of the album.
THE ARTIST
Since Billie rose to fame, her appearance has changed several times, more specifically her hair colour.
Her different phases of dyed hair are popularly referred to as, for example, her ‘blue hair era’. This further implements the status at which she is held by society as the word ‘era’, in reference to something such as physical appearance, is uncommon which presents her talent as everlasting fame.
FINNEAS
Finneas, Billie’s older brother, is an essential part of the music they create together. Finneas is credited with producing and co-writing most of the music on Billie’s three albums, and her singles. Finneas is often on stage with Billie during shows or world tours and is often seen to be playing the piano and sometimes also singing backing vocals. Billie and Finneas have always been musical and work extremely well together to produce music for their target audiences.
DOCUMENTARIES
Since Billie and Finneas rose to fame across the world, many documentaries and films of sorts have been produced: typically to promote a new album and provide their fans with an in-depth view of their creative writing and production process.
The most noteworthy documentary is Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry. Released in 2021 on Apple TV, the 2 hours 20-minute film gained a mass audience very quickly.
The documentary was primarily about her album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? The title [...] The World’s a Little Blurry is lyrics from Billie’s hit song ‘ilomilo’ which was a computer game that she loved to play when she was younger.
Disney+ have recently created a ‘concert experience’ called Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles. This includes a performance of every song on her newest album Happier Than Ever, to which they also created a ‘making of’ behind the scenes film too.
BREAKING STEREOTYPES AND GENDER RULES
A striking aspect to audiences about Billie is the way she dresses. Billie is known to wear baggy and oversized clothes, which have recently come into fashion in the past few years. Billie has broken the stereotype for women to wear oversized clothes as it is typically viewed as ‘unflattering’ or ‘unfeminine’. However, in her most recent album Happier Than Ever she modelled for Vogue Magazine in which she was wearing more ‘revealing’ clothing and lingerie. This was a statement for Billie and the message conveyed was that people can dress however they like, and she should not be branded in just oversized clothes because she is diverse and is confident in her own person to be determined by fabric.
SO, WHY HAS HER IMAGE CHANGED SO FREQUENTLY?
Throughout the years Billie has changed several aspects of herself: music, clothes and hair.
One may deduce that she has done this to stay relevant. If a popstar stays the same throughout their career, people will become conditioned to the idea that they have no versatility, therefore no talent. This mindset is a skewed interpretation of celebrities nowadays, and has subsequent consequences on the artist themselves.
It could be argued that Billie has changed her image on multiple occasions, simply because she’s growing up. Billie begun receiving public interest when she was very young, thus, the media would have influenced her decision making very early on and would not have let her grow up by herself and make her own lifestyle choices.
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