Primary research
Serveys
interviews
observation
case studies
Secondary research
Background information
videos
Articles
Podcasts
When was Billies first breakthrough?
Billie Eilish became very popular very fast with her first debut song called Ocean eyes, this song was released in 2015 when Billie was just 13 years old. The song was released onto sound cloud on the 18th November 2015 as a single and a year later it was put onto her album ' Dont smile at me'. The song was written and produced by Billies brother Finneas, Billie tends to collaborate on majority of her songs with Finneas and he even performs on stage with her during some of her shows.
According to https://www.britannica.com/biography/Billie-Eilish Billie draws alot of her inspiration from hip-hop artists such as Childish Gambino and Tyler the creator. When Billie released her debut album 'When we all fall asleep, where do we go?' one of the songs from the album (Bad guy) was Billies first number 1 single on the billboard 200 chart and it also ended up winning a grammy in 2020 for song of the year and record of the year in 2019. The whole album overall was named album of the year and also in 2019 Billies song' Everything i wanted' came to be record of the year
In 2021 Billie Eilish starred in a documentary called The worlds little blurry- Billie Eilish, unfortunately i am unable to watch it as it is only available on apple tv and i sadly i dont have that. I can however find clips from the documentary and insert them if they are relevant. This documentary shares all about Billie and her life juggling being really famous very young whilst also just her trying to live her life as a teenage girl with normal struggles.
How does Billie Eilish handle being in this industry?
https://ormishal.medium.com/billie-eilishs-critique-of-the-music-industry-f8015b622404
According to this website, few artists are able to capture the attention of their audiences quite like Billie Eilish does, Billie has a very distinctive sound and a very unapologetic personality which is one of the reasons why i believe she is so popular and different to other artists within the industry.
Billie seems to also really dislike the increase of vinyl records highlighting there wastefullness and there contribution to pollution, her words affected many fans who agreed to the fact that we need to be more environmentally conscious within the entertainment industry. Billies opinion didnt go without some controversies as some media outlooks make it out that Billie was pointing towards specific artists, specifically Taylor Swift as she has a fair few vinyl releases herself. Critics pointed out that Billie was being somewhat a hypocrite as her second album ' Happier than ever' was released in eight different vinyl versions. Se was quick to clarify this stance saying ' it would be great if people would stop putting words in my mouth, if i didnt point to anyone in particular; these are problems that the entire industry suffers from, and so do i.' her response to this situation shows her complete maturity as an artist and as a person who is so popular in the public eye.
How did Billie and Finneas start out?
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3906552/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Finneas had his start to fame in 2015 when he made an appearance on the show Glee, he was best known for playing Alistaire and also starred as Shane in Life Inside Out which was an award winning show. He has appeared on other shows aswell such as Bad Teacher and also the premier episode of Aquarius. Finneas also started writing songs at the young age of 12, he was in a band named The Slightlys between the years of 2012- 2016 when the band ended up breaking up. The bands song 'Is Anybody There' appeared on a show called 'Families switched at birth' and the band went on to win many awards and competitions around Los Angeles.
During Finneas's time in the band he was writing and producing songs for the band whilst also working with Billie, originally Ocean eyes was written for The Slightlys but after Finneas had written the song he realised it was much more suited for Billies voice. The song was originally written as Finneas and Billies old dance teacher Fred Diaz asked for a song that he could choreograph a dance to, Fred has worked alongside many other famous artists like Mariah Carey and Rhianna. After writing and recording Ocean Eyes it got released onto soundcloud in 2015 giving Billie her start in fame. Billie and Finneas continue to work closely together with Finneas producing a lot of Billies songs and also producing and releasing his own music.
https://people.com/music/finneas-has-no-desire-to-be-more-famous-than-he-is/
Why is Billie so relatable to her audience?
All about Billie
I found this article on Billie Eilish to be very interesting and full of information on Billie and her music, i also feel that it really highlights the difficulty of being part of the music industry and Billies personal struggles also with being so famous at such a young age. A part of the article that jumped out to me was that whilst she was in the process of releasing her most recent album (Hit me hard and soft) whilst taking her cover picture for the album she was submerged in cold water for about 6 hours wearing black baggy jeans underneath some shorts with a button down shirt over a thermal long sleeve top. Billie was surrounded by around 40 people during this process and whilst underwater doing the shoot she was held down by weights in order to get the perfect shot, although this was physically draining for Billie she said ' If im not suffering somehow, i dont feel good about what i am doing'.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2022/04/09/why-the-billie-eilish-phenomenon-is-truly-powerful-for-music-and-fans/ - Billie Eilish power article, this is a very useful source as it has lots of information on Billie and some of the awards she has gotten over the years.
https://www.vogue.com/article/billie-eilish-november-2024-cover-interview
Image in the industry.
https://medium.com/a-sign-on-the-door/women-versus-men-in-the-music-industry-4015e3f763bc
https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/billie-eilish-body-image-interview-9396887/
All of these sources are extremely useful and are going to be great sources to use whilst i write my paragraph on Billie Eilishes image and the differences between men and women in the industry. I want to highlight in my essay how men do have a slight advantage over women in this industry and how it can sometimes be more difficult to succeed as a women. I would also like to go into the evolution of Billie Eilishes style and how that sets her apart from the rest of the female artists in this field of work.