by Saffron Irons
TW - Mentions of depression, self harm, suicide.
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| (image: WikiCommons) |
Billie Eilish is a 20 year old singer who has taken the world by storm with her new interpretation of mainstream pop music. Since the release of her first single Ocean Eyes at the age of 14, Billie has built a fan base of over 45 million fans from around the world. While her music is incredible, her fanbase has been built in part due to her being extremely open about her mental health issues, and attracting teenagers who suffer from similar issues. A lot of her music represents her struggle with anxiety and depression, hopefully providing comfort to teeangers who can relate to her songs and helping them to feel less alone by seeing their own feelings represented. While I believe this is extremely valuable in today’s society and I feel Billie’s songs have helped me in the past, I would also like to pose the question: Can you take representation of mental health too far? Could some of Billie Eilsih’s graphic depictions of depression, self harm, and suicide, actually be more harmful to teenagers than helpful?
Billie Eilish’s debut EP Don’t Smile at Me released in 2017 is full of teenage angst and insecurity. In my opinion, this EP handles mental health in a reasonably healthy way. The song idontwannabeyouanymore is very important in representing the feeling of depression and insecurity a teenager that pretty much every 15 year old can relate to. It represents feeling sad for no reason - got a mood that you wish you could sell - and feeling like you are somehow different and not right for feeling like this - was I made from a broken mould? -
tell the mirror what she knows she's heard before: I don't wanna be you, anymore
The rest of the EP follows a more confident Billie dealing with the general teenage life of relationships, friendships and love. There is a relatively violent theme throughout shown in songs such as watch which depicts beautifully an act of revenge:
I'll sit and watch your car burn
With the fire that you started in me
But you never came back to ask it out
The song Bellyache continues this theme with a song about a teenage psychopath who leaves her friends dead in her car, her lover in the gutter and ends up with a bellyache:
My V is for Vendetta
Thought that I'd feel better
But now I got a bellyache
While this is quite graphic for a 15 year old to write, it feeds the mild emo phase many girls go through. There are some lines that in hindsight make me slightly uncomfortable, such as The way I wear my noose like a necklace. Especially as I sang this song at a School Live lounge in Year 9. It's uncomfortable in the way that it presents suicide, but Billie reiterates in interviews that she loves to make up stories and so many of her songs are not real. She states in her mini-documentary by Apple in 2017 that "You don't have to be in love to write a song about being in love and you don't have to hate someone to write a song about hating someone. It's just fun to put yourself in a place that you would not be otherwise." I use to (and still do) admire her honesty in saying this and showing that she can write a song about killing people without actually being a psychopath, and it's just fun to make up stories. Consumers of music can, I feel, take a lot of songs too literally and look too deep into the meanings of it to the artist, when often it was just inspired by a made-up story.
Billie's debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was released in 2019 when Billie was 17. This is the album that I feel is the most problematic in terms of graphic depictions of mental health. The name for the album was inspired by Billie's experience with sleep paralysis and the song Bury a Friend depicts an episode of sleep paralysis. While it is supposed to represent a nightmare, I honestly feel that the graphic lyrics are not something that teenagers should be listening to. When seeing Billie Eilish live, I was terrified by the room of 20,000 people screaming the chorus, especially noticing some of the very young children attending. Making it normal to say things like this can be very harmful to the minds of young children.
Having said this, there are other songs on the album that are less graphic and are very important in teaching young people important lessons. The term 'bury a friend' seems to relate to Billie's experience with drug misuse in friends. The song 'xanny' depicts Billie in a group of friends who will not stop doing drugs while she is the only one who doesn't.
I'm in their second hand smoke
Still just drinking canned coke
I think this song is very important in teaching young people about the dangers of drug misuse and instead of glamorising it as many artists do, she shows the harsh realities of taking drugs. In a few songs Billie talks about the death of her friends possibly through drug abuse/suicide such as in ilomilo:
Said I couldn’t love someone
‘Cause I might break
If you're gonna die not by mistake
It is clear that Billie has experienced many traumatic events in her life and it is understandable that she depicts this in her music. She has two songs: Everything I wanted and Listen before i go that both depict suicide. Again it is important that these issues are discussed through music and I’m sure these songs will help many people who will feel less alone after listening, however, to some extent, I feel that suicide should not be something that becomes normalised or somehow okay because Bilie Eilish talks about it. Billie has spoken about Everything I wanted claiming that her brother and parents did not want her to write or release the song. They did eventually agree to it as Billie wanted to face up to the depth of her depression and the way that her family has helped her with it. The chorus depicts her brother comforting her, showing Billie’s wish to represent her strong relationship with her brother and show that everyone has someone that can help them, they just need to find that person.
Billie’s most recent album Happier than Ever was released in 2021 when Billie was 19. The title of the album and the first song Getting Older show Billie’s growth since her last album. She claims that she is indeed ‘happier than ever’. In the song Getting Older she says:
I'm happier than ever, at least, that's my endeavour
To keep myself together and prioritise my pleasure
This album seems to have moved away from these intense earlier periods of her life. The song My Future is a very important song on the album. She talks about change, and the feeling of being excited to see what her future holds rather than not seeing a future for herself.
One of the themes in Billie’s new album is the theme of not being in a relationship and not needing to rely on other people for your happiness, which I believe is a very important theme considering the majority of pop music is about relationships and love. My Future states:
I know supposedly I'm lonely now
Know I'm supposed to be unhappy
The song Happier than Ever is a masterpiece about Billie’s breakup in which she clearly states: When I’m away from you I’m happier than ever, before launching into an extremely angry second half in which she releases all feelings about her breakup - an extremely cathartic experience to hear live.
Seeing Billie Eilish live definitely restored my confidence in her motives - she clearly cares so deeply about her fans and their mental health. There were many times throughout the concert that she encouraged us to sit down and take a deep breath, to be in the moment, and to let go of anything that was worrying us. It was an incredible experience, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than myself as some of Billie’s set and songs are extremely graphic.
Essentially, I do not believe that Billie has done anything wrong in releasing these songs, and it is so important to have music about mental health and for her to share her experience. I sincerely believe that Billie, through her songwriting, has instead helped other people as she has helped myself.
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