Billie and the Jazz

Listening to the husky voice of Billie Eilish it is far too easy to imagine yourself in a smoky bar in downtown Manhattan sipping whisky. Billie Eilish’s music being new to me, despite the numerous awards that she has won, has given me a new appreciation of modern pop. After hearing her rendition of “Bitches Broken Hearts”, and “No Time to Die”, I can definitively say that Billie Eilish brings pop music closer to jazz than any other musician that I have heard in the past decade, besides perhaps Adele and the late Amy Winehouse. Her infusion of jazz into pop music may be one of the things that makes her so successful. In contradiction to her jazzy music is her grunge wardrobe that is reminiscent of the 1990’s. With the emergence of Billie Eilish also came the reemergence of the e-girl aesthetic, formerly known as emo or scene. Her neon green and black hair inspired Gen Zers and millennials alike to try their own DIY dye jobs, resulting in a rather colorful new generation. Eilish also established herself as a body positive advocate after being shamed by the paparazzi. Clearly Eilish has been an influence on the public, though whether for the better has yet to be determined as her career is still relatively new when compared to other musical influencers of the current times.