Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Watch Now: Apple Live Streaming First Ever Apple Music Awards With Billie Eilish Performance
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
We are Devo....D-E-V-O....and so the devolution of muzak continues
Once again, an upcoming or popular artist gets mentioned on MacRumors, because Apple has interacted with them in some way, and legions of MR Forum denizens come out to diss said artist, and high-five each other for how great they all are at dissing people they've never met (with a side of how no music is good except for what they listened to in high school or college).
This is an artist, a young woman, who wears baggy clothes so that she can't be body-shamed by... people like you (because, isn't society neat these days?). But no matter, you find other ways to heap abuse. (Hell, one of the heavily upvoted comments here is someone fantasizing about her being beaten unconscious by a super macho guy, for the offense of making music they don't like - and apparently lots of people think that's a great idea.)
Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, "She has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. She is the youngest artist ever to have been nominated for the Big Four Grammy Awards. ... Eilish broke the record for most simultaneously charting Hot 100 songs by a female artist, with 14 ... She is the first and, to date, only artist born in the 2000s to record a number-one single in the US. Eilish has eight gold and four platinum singles in the US."
She's been on world tours playing to large audiences of happy fans, been nominated for all those awards, been on the top of the music charts (more songs in the top 100 at the same time than any other female artist in history), and did all of this before her 18th birthday. What have you accomplished lately?
This is an artist, a young woman, who wears baggy clothes so that she can't be body-shamed by... people like you (because, isn't society neat these days?). But no matter, you find other ways to heap abuse. (Hell, one of the heavily upvoted comments here is someone fantasizing about her being beaten unconscious by a super macho guy, for the offense of making music they don't like - and apparently lots of people think that's a great idea.)
Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, "She has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. She is the youngest artist ever to have been nominated for the Big Four Grammy Awards. ... Eilish broke the record for most simultaneously charting Hot 100 songs by a female artist, with 14 ... She is the first and, to date, only artist born in the 2000s to record a number-one single in the US. Eilish has eight gold and four platinum singles in the US."
She's been on world tours playing to large audiences of happy fans, been nominated for all those awards, been on the top of the music charts (more songs in the top 100 at the same time than any other female artist in history), and did all of this before her 18th birthday. What have you accomplished lately?
Last edited:
Agree entirely.
Saw her at Reading Festival (UK), the crowd was massive. Incredibly talented and a proper artist rather than some manufactured group who only exist to generate money.
She (and her brother) give me hope that there is room for genuine talent to come through.
It’s not the sort of music I listen to but I understand not everything has to cater to me.
Apple starting a music award doesn’t surprise me that much. I’m kinda surprised they waited this long.
Apple has been in the music business for almost 20 years now. They’re a bigger player in the music industry than most major labels were in the late 90s/early 2000s.
The song is "over produced" with hard to discern lyrics. That's the point! I think her music is fantastic and she's not even 18 yet!
I may not care for her music - In fact I've barely heard any of it since I almost exclusively listen to stuff I first heard 20 years ago - but what you wrote is so important.
People born in the 70's or earlier (like myself) that say there just aren't any superstars anymore - well, here you go. This is a superstar. You're just too old to get it.
I thought that too, but I've been thinking more about it.
I remember when I was 14 (along time ago), loving Kate Bush, which was not really the "norm" at the time.
My 14 year old daughter, now, loves Billie Eilish, and there are certainly parallels in both their music.
Ocean Eyes being one.
You have to respect the music and the artists that play it no matter what style, if you don't then you are no music fan.
Last edited:
I don’t think she’s a superstar, not to say maybe she won’t be but she’s not going to sell out stadiums worldwide at the moment.
In the last 20 years I think it would be hard to argue Eminem isn’t the biggest superstar to appear.
It's not an award. It's an Apple music subscription ad. I hope Ellish got a decent fee.
Streamed it for a bit – was really good I think! Beautiful stage design and both Billie and her brother did a good job, both playing instruments and singing. I think she has a personal voice that feels sincere.
Don't really like that she seems to think school isn't much to have saying "why are you still in school" to the audience (heard her questioning school in an interview previously too), but she is young and will probably eventually change her mind on that topic.
Don't really like that she seems to think school isn't much to have saying "why are you still in school" to the audience (heard her questioning school in an interview previously too), but she is young and will probably eventually change her mind on that topic.
What can I say? Those are at least names that someone at my age has heard before, and those are also names that are known all over the world. But this definitely was the first time that I've heard the name Billie Eilish. 30 seconds of Youtube later, I know that I didn't miss anything -- her music definitely is not for my generation and doesn't speak to me at all; to me it sounds like typical generic fashion store or McDonald's throw-away music. But, like I've said, I'm definitely not her target audience and that's perfectly fine -- I'm pretty sure she has a market and she'll be very successful there.
Yes, but times change. In the 90s MTV could force feed people into watching these awards on TV and brand it as something spectacular and so on. These days, people just dont give a crap about these kinds of awards. So yeah, Apple is a little late to a show, thats already over.
Just linking to this tweet I came across on the Defranco show.
I think I saw her being promoted in an apple store music lab session or something, but didn't realise how popular she actually was. Heh, guess my age is showing as well. ?
I think I saw her being promoted in an apple store music lab session or something, but didn't realise how popular she actually was. Heh, guess my age is showing as well. ?
Hmm... I think one limits oneself if looking at music as a generational thing. ? I think there are quite a lot people from your generation who can appreciate Billie Eilish.
In my opinion the music production sometimes stand in the way from the actual song – it can be that the modern style (or modern sound) isn't something that suits everyone's taste, but a live performance such as the one done here in the Steve Jobs Theater is more timeless and something I appreciate more than the sound of the songs on the albums from Billie Eilish that I've heard so far.
Sorry Wolfie, of course people were going to laugh at her never having heard of Van Halen. If nothing else you’d think she would have heard the song Jump at some point.
Of course a bunch of old nerds are gonna complain. And to be honest, I'd probably be amongst them if she wasn't any good. I love music and I always try to give an artist a listen even though my initial cynical self shrugs. But to my great surprise, she is NOT what you think. She is NOT the conventional cookie cutter mainstream pop artist in any sense. If you love music regardless of genre or decade give her a chance. Don't listen to her 'Bad Guy' song which is only a small fraction of what her and her brother are as artists. We should be championing them as artists that write and produce their own music, at home in a small room with rarely any big studio equipment. They put your favourite singer/songwriters to shame, and to top it off they're still very young.
Give her a shot and most of you will be humming her melodies in the middle of the day.
Give her a shot and most of you will be humming her melodies in the middle of the day.
I have nothing against her. I wish her well even if I’ve never heard of her. But I like Apple tech. I don’t care to champion any music artist.
Apple seems mixed up. Let’s stream a live concert without notice on Apple Music. Then let’s pay 25m to her for something and put it on atv+. But the tv app kicks you out to Apple Music.
The complaining has to do with what in the world is Apple doing? Apple is tech. Apple lossless? A decent atv+ app? New Apple TV? No we get endless articles about crap like this or some lame atv show finally hired a cast.
When Apple isn’t very good at something it’s obvious. But does it have to be amateur hour? While something like airpods just totally blows you away. It’s night and day at Apple.
IMHO, it's perfectly clear what Apple's motivations are here.
Diversification from hardware. We've already seen in the last few years a decline in overall volumes of sales by Apple. Combined with increase prices having a suppression affect on some of their sales.
A lot of their revenues had been buoyed to keep margins high by increasing prices to make up the difference.
This is a short term strategy however that can only last so long. Price elasticity has it's limits, and I think Apple has hit that limit and knows it.
To further expand their revenues streams and keep margins up, they are having to expand and venture out into new markets they were not in previously. This has so far included services like AppleTV, AppleMusic, and the other suites of software services.
They've also ventured into producing media content. This is where this comes in. This is content that they can sell as a publisher to other distributions. They believe that Eilish is a future pop culture superstare (I don't know, only cause I'm old and out of touch). So by getting in while she's really young and charting upwards, they are hoping to be instrumental in her publishing and success.
Part of that will be Apple using their corporate might to push their talent.
Don't take that as any judgement from me. It's just business and Apple does often have a captive, and enthusiast purchasing audience. If Apple pushes a specific talent on their platform there is a high chance that that talent will sell well, even if it's amongst mainly apple enthusiast.