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Billie Eilish Releases New Self-Directed Video for "Xanny"

Ever wondered what Billie Eilish looks like with brown hair?

Billie Ellish performs at Sir Lucian Grainge's 2020 Artist Showcase Presented By Citi and Lenovo on in Los AngelesSir Lucian Grainge's 2020 Artist Showcase Presented By Citi and Lenovo, Los Angeles

Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Billie Eilish, the brilliant 17-year-old who's shaken up the pop world for the past year, just released a new music video for her single "Xanny."

Eilish not only stars in the stirring visual, but also directed it herself. The video depicts EIlish in a cream colored turtleneck and trousers, sitting in a nondescript tiled room. She stares moodily at the camera, singing the haunting melody. As the camera moves closer, the chorus hits and a hand comes out of nowhere, burning Eilish's face with a lit cigarette as she continues to sing. The whole video is done in a single shot, adding to the intensity. It's safe to say Eilish can add talented "director" to her already extensive list of accomplishments.

Billie Eilish - xannywww.youtube.com

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Most Memorable Times the Grammys Snubbed Black Artists

The Grammys have never gotten it right.

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It comes as no surprise that the Grammys have once again snubbed some of the year's most prominent talents.

The rap categories are completely lacking in women nominees, despite Megan Thee Stallion, Young M.A., Tierra Whack and Missy Elliot achieving some of 2019's biggest successes in the genre. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Solange, Bruce Springsteen, and Tyler, The Creator were all overlooked for Artist of the Year consideration (though the latter is nominated for Best Rap Album), and Ari Lennox, Summer Walker, DaBaby (who allegedly wasn't considered because he has previously released "mixtapes"), and Lauv were among a of the few rising talents disregarded for "Best New Artist." Goldlink—who has been nominated for Grammy's in the past but whose brilliantly amalgamative Diaspora album wasn't considered for any award this year—sounded off on Instagram. "The lack of relevance you have just solidifed [sic] today is unbelievable," he wrote. "I've just gotten to a point after three years of being silent on this topic, that my value is much beyond what closed door establishments have been giving us."

While The Academy's disrespect this year feels particularly brash, we can take comfort in the fact that award shows are increasingly meaningless, white-washed, and more out of touch with culture as time has gone on. Let's dive back into (some of) the Grammy's biggest f*ck ups from over the years and find some cynical comfort in the the Grammy's mediocrity, since they shouldn't be regarded as any determinant of popular culture.

2005: Maroon 5 Over Kanye West

For some millennials, Maroon 5's "Best New Artist" win over Kanye West in 2005 was one of the first times we felt a need to destroy the patriarchy. While no one could have predicted that Maroon 5 would dissolve into a "karaoke version of themselves," the disregard for Kanye West at (what many called) his breakout moment would forever breed resentment in our little hearts. At least we got this laughably awkward interview out of the whole thing.

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Prince Has Confirmed What We Already Knew in Our Hearts: Ed Sheeran Sucks

The debate is over.

Prince

Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

The debate over Ed Sheeran's talent has been raging on for years.

"He falters along this blurry gray line where he is always straddling two states of being," wrote Vice. "At once charming and un-charming, a banger machine and anti-music, good at pop and bad at it, annoying and irresistible…" the list goes on.

Known as "The Sheeran Effect," Ed Sheeran's cheesy brand of buoyant love songs has been a moneymaker for the music industry since the ginger's inception into mainstream success in 2011. "The art of the former couch surfer's appeal when he emerged in 2010 was that he had little in common with the deity-like singers who had been occupying the charts before his arrival," wrote The Guardian. Sheeran's appeal was in his unappealing tendencies. "He growls with the fervour of a 26-year-old man desperate to be sincerely identified as an infant."

Celebs Who Want Absolutely Nothing To Do With Ed Sheeranwww.youtube.com

Sheeran's global domination is no accident, and it definitely doesn't have anything to do with talent—though he'd love it if you thought it did. In an interview with Chris Evans, Sheeran was asked whether the disparity between "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill," the singer's first new singles in over 3 years, was coordinated on purpose to appeal to two different types of mainstream listeners. "It definitely came into the equation," Sheeran said. "Everyone said [Castle on the Hill] was a Radio 2 single and we need something for Radio 1. So your theory is correct."

In The Beautiful Ones, Prince's newly released memoir, which he was working on vehemently before his death in 2016, the late and great artist all but confirmed Sheeran to be one of a few tried-and-true weapons of the music industry: totally accessible pop, all gimmicks, no substance. "We need to tell them that they keep trying to ram Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran down our throats," he wrote. "And we don't like it no matter how many times they play it."

In fact, Sheeran is so universally despised that everyone from Mashable and Pitchfork to The Guardianand Slate have dedicated entire articles to unearthing the reason for the universal disdain directed at him despite his on-paper success. Every publication is eerily similar in its execution as they discuss everything from his "offensive inoffensiveness," his "tofu music," his "staunch refusal to 'glo up'" to his neediness and inability to communicate with his romantic partners. Sheeran's career would (hopefully) sink without the help of Big Brother, but as mounting accusations of plagiarism threaten to derail Sheeran's "nice boy" image, it seems like he's finally about to be revealed as what he truly is: an industry plant manufactured to cater to the lowest common denominator. Prince can rest easy knowing that authenticity will always triumph in the end.

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