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4-9-20 Critical Analysis Essay The Billie Eilish Experience

Have you ever imagined building a museum based solely off of a single music album? Most likely not, but Billie Eilish did. Along with the release of her second album “When we all fall asleep where do we go?” was a pop up museum consisting of 14 rooms- one room for each song on the album. The idea was meant to bring her vision of this album to life, making it a true piece of art. It allowed her fans to walk through each room and experience not only the song it was based off of, but the smell, touch, and vision Billie correlates with that song. As a very visual artist, creating a walk-through museum that brought her album to life not only heightened excitement towards her album release, but allowed for fans to live through ‘the billie eilish experience’.

Billie Eilish, if you don't know her, you've probably heard of her. But I will provide some background information anyways, at fourteen Billie released a song to a free music streaming service called soundcloud. This song wasn’t meant to get her famous, but it ended up going viral overnight. Now at 18, she's won 5 grammys, been named Billboard magazine’s woman of the year and has millions of fans worldwide. In 2019, when she released her highly anticipated album “When we all fall asleep where do we go?”, she also released “the billie eilish experience”, a walk-through museum that brought the album to life. Billie lives with a condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is

when a person experiences correlations between the 5 senses. For Billie this means seeing certain colors when hearing songs, or just correlating smells, and overall feelings and moods to the music she hears. Her synesthesia plays a large role in her creative process when it comes to music. To Billie, every song she writes has a lot more meaning behind it. She brings each song to life through performances and music videos, but the pop up museum was the ultimate way to experience her music from her point of view.

"I wanted everybody to see the album through my eyes," Billie said of the Experience, (Roth, MTV para. 3) which launched in downtown Los Angeles on March 29th, 2019 and was open for one weekend only. Inspired by her synesthesia, each room of the exhibit had a guide on the door to explain all of the elements of that room/song, giving viewers an idea of what they would be experiencing. Instead of breaking down each of the fourteen rooms, I will be describing some of the ones that stood out the most to me, along with the overall exhibit and how it worked on and appealed to those who viewed it.

One room within the exhibit that not only was Billie’s favorite but also really stood out to fans was the ‘Xanny’ room. Xanny is a song about being surrounded by intoxicated, drugged out, under the influence people at a party- all the while you’re the only one who is sober. In today’s world, it's hard to find teenagers that don't use drugs, alcohol or nicotine. Billie has spoken on the topic many times before, saying, “I have never done drugs, I’ve never got high, I’ve never smoked anything in my life.… It’s just

not interesting to me. I have other [things] to do.” (Anderson, para. 1) The room in the exhibit is meant to bring this experience to life, and allow fans to feel like they are sitting in an uncomfortable, crowded, smoked filled room at a party. The room itself was cold, dark and hazy. The air filled with ‘smoke’ and the music blasting so loud that the couches vibrated. This song paired with its visualization appeals mainly to the emotions of listeners. Billie finds different ways throughout this song to portray the ugliness of drug addiction that she’s seen in people’s lives. The chorus of the song begins with the line “I’m in their second hand smoke” and it's paired with a loud, distorted, crazy sounding bass. In an interview, Billie described the bass as, “I just wanted it to sound the way that it feels to breathe in recycled breath. Recycled, poisonous breath, I may add. I just wanted it to feel miserable.” (Roth, para. 3) This was well portrayed in the exhibit, as the room was clouded out by a fog machine to mimic the lyrics and vibrating couches to portray the ‘uncomfortable’ feeling associated with the bass. In the end, the song portrays a message about substance use, and the negative effects it has on people. All together the song and the vision of it strike emotions of those who really listen to the lyrics, and sends a message about substance use.

If the ‘xanny’ room didn’t stand out enough to you, the room for the song ‘8’ definitely will. 8 is a song that Billie wrote, coming from the perspective of someone she broke up with. The song itself, although having a sad tone, is very soft and soothing sounding with gentle ukulele in the background. The room created for this song was purple, and soft fuzzy fabric covered the floors and walls. To top it all off, the room was filled with puppies, which fans could sit, pet and interact with while listening to ‘8’. The

room portrays the soft sound of the song and brings it to life with the soft fabric and furry puppies. In addition to this, all of the puppies there were also available for adoption. The room created for this song appeals to listeners mainly through emotions but also morals. It sets for a calm, happy and peaceful environment, all while attracting more fans to the exhibit because duh- who doesn't want to cuddle with puppies? For this room, Billie paired up with Marley’s Mutts, a dog rescue company. The company provided the puppies for the exhibit, while also receiving some free advertising. Hundreds of people toured through the exhibit over the three days it was open, therefore hundreds of people saw the puppies and were able to adopt them, or donate to the company if they felt obliged to. This not only appeals to emotions, but also to the morals of fans. It is widely encouraged to adopt a rescue before considering buying from a breeder. Adopting rescues gives the animals a second chance at a happy life with a caring family. In conclusion, the ‘8’ room was enjoyable and attractive for all those who came to the exhibit. It captured the softness of the song and supported animal rescue.

Overall this limited time event was undoubtedly a success. Targeted towards all Billie fans, ranging anywhere from younger children to adults, this interactive display turned the debut album into a sensory experience that appealed to fans in many ways. When it took place, hundreds of people from all different states flooded in to feel ‘the billie eilish experience’. The museum opened on the day of the album release, and anticipation from fans was extremely high. Oftentimes when your favorite artist releases an album it’s already exciting enough on its own, but of course for Billie, the album

alone wasn’t enough. Creating this exhibit (which took over 5 months to piece together) allowed for Billie to not only do something she loved- create an extraordinary art piece, but it also served as a great marketing tool that raised the hype around her new album. The visuals incorporated in the exhibit appealed to fans' emotions and morals while also getting a deeper understanding of Billie’s album and the meaning it holds to her.

Works Cited

Roth, Madeline. “Billie Eilish Breaks Down The Narcoleptic 'Xanny': 'I Wanted It To Feel Miserable'.” MTV News, 1 Apr. 2019, www.mtv.com/news/3119125/billie-eilish-mtv-push-xanny/. “Billie Eilish's Dark Debut Album Comes to Life Inside Spotify's New Interactive Experience.” Spotify, 29 Mar. 2019, newsroom.spotify.com/2019-03-29/billie-eilishs-dark-debut-album-comes-to-life-inside-s potifys-new-interactive-experience/. Roth, Madeline. “Billie Eilish Tells Us About Her Spotify Pop-Up, Sampling The Office, And Ending Her Album With 'An R.I.P.'.” MTV News, 29 Mar. 2019, www.mtv.com/news/3118812/inside-billie-eilish-experience-spotify/. Anderson, Arielle. “What Does ‘Xanny’ by Billie Eilish Mean?” The Pop Song Professor , The Pop Song Professor, 1 Apr. 2019, www.popsongprofessor.com/blog/2019/4/1/what-does-xanny-by-billie-eilish-mean....