Line #16 Music/Sophie


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oilsophie.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"I hope you don't take this the wrong way,\
3	[[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre but I think your inside is your best side.]]"'']]
4
5	-> ''"Despite that, and with a weird certainty, something tells me that the voice might now be more real than ever. Maybe it really is her suggesting that I try recreate that sound using a different oscillator or make that lyric a bit more fun. Maybe she’s here right now, visiting from a place with no rules and no limitations. Maybe she’s become a part of me, a part of everyone who loved her in their own way. It’s indescribable, to have lost a friend who was so caring and so real, and whose presence was a constant affirmation of life itself. And it makes me feel just like we never said...''"
6	-->-- A.G. Cook, [[https://agcook.com/msmsmsm "Sophie"]]
7
8	Sophie Xeon (17 September 1986 - 30 January 2021), mononymously known as SOPHIE, was a Scottish-born and Los Angeles-based [[ElectronicMusic electronic]] producer, songwriter and DJ known for being one of the key artists of the "bubblegum bass" subgenre of {{electronic dance music}} and a [[TropeMaker pioneer]] of the {{hyperpop}} microgenre.
9
10	Sophie's music -- and the wider bubblegum bass formula she helped solidify -- took the conventions of pop music and wildly exaggerated them to UncannyValley-like levels, with cutesy, heavily synthesized and "plastic"-sounding instrumentals, pitched-up vocals with repetitive lyrics, and beats that were oftentimes frenzied and chaotic but thoroughly detailed. The result is music that's equal parts surreal, blatantly artificial, parodic, and ridiculously catchy.
11
12	Sophie released several singles throughout 2013 to 2015, gaining critical attention and popularity for tracks like "BIPP" and "LEMONADE"; the songs were all then released in a 2015 compilation titled ''Product''. Near the end of 2017, she emerged from secrecy and premiered her newest single "It's Okay to Cry". Later in the month, she made her debut live performance, released her next single, "Ponyboy", and announced her first major studio album, ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', released in June 2018.
13
14	On top of her own singles, she shared her unique style with other artists, with many producer credits working with Music/{{Madonna}}, Music/CharliXCX, Music/LadyGaga, Cashmere Cat, Vince Staples, Music/NamieAmuro, and others. She's also frequently associated with the London-based Music/PCMusic label, sharing a similar approach to electronic and pop music, and has frequently collaborated with founder A.G. Cook, as well as individual acts like GFOTY and Music/HannahDiamond.
15
16	Sophie died on January 30, 2021, the result of an accidental fall in Athens, Greece. [[https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/sophie-producer-posthumous-music-brother-interview-pride-2021-9580835/amp/?__twitter_impression=true Her family has confirmed]] that she had a second studio album in the works, and have said that a posthumous release is a possibility.
17	----
18	!!!Discography:
19	* ''PRODUCT'' (Compilation, 2015)
20	* ''OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES'' (Album, 2018)
21	* ''OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES NON-STOP REMIX ALBUM'' (Remix Album, 2019)
22	----
23	!! ''My tropes are the front of [[Administrivia/TropeRepairShop shop]]'':
24
25	* BeYourself:
26	** "Faceshopping" has been interpreted to be about this, but with a twist. The lyrics bring to mind photoshopping and other types of self-alteration for personal branding, but since they still reflect a certain view of the subject, there's authenticity in artificiality.
27	---> ''My face is the front of shop''\
28	''My face is the real shop front''\
29	''My shop is the face I front''\
30	''I'm real when I shop my face''
31	** This is implicitly the entire theme and arc of ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', with many lyrics alluding to Sophie's personal journey as a transgender woman and her struggling with existential feelings of personal irrelevance. This culminates in the penultimate track "Immaterial", which seemingly represents [[IAmWhatIAm her overcoming her insecurities and truly accepting herself for who she really is, i.e. anything she wants]].
32	* BookEnds: ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' begins with "It's Okay to Cry", which contains the phrase [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre "There's a world inside you"]], and it concludes with "Whole New World", itself containing the phrase "I looked into your eyes, I thought that I could see a whole new world."
33	* TheCameo: She makes a split-second appearance as herself in the video of Music/CharliXCX's "After the Afterparty". She's the one [[ItMakesSenseInContext holding her own decapitated head]] around the 3:15 mark.
34	* CapsLock: Most of Sophie's songs are rendered in all-caps. Aside from the title of ''OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES'', the songs on that album are rendered in Title Case.
35	* ComingOutStory: ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' is widely considered one, as not only did it (and more specifically, its first single "It's Okay to Cry") feature Sophie coming out as a transgender woman, much of the lyrical content is directed around concepts of the anxieties and pains of inhabiting the physical body, as well as the cathartic liberation of [[BeYourself being yourself]]. The liner notes further this by containing photos of her topless, embracing her female identity physically as well as psychologically.
36	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The special edition bundle of ''Product'' contained a "SKIN SAFE ODOURLESS AND TASTELESS PLATINUM SILICON PRODUCT". [[https://images.vice.com/noisey/content-images/contentimage/71658/Screen-Shot-2015-09-29-at-15-55-06.jpg?resize=1050:* That's one way to put it.]]
37	* DroneOfDread:
38	** "L.O.V.E." contains a ''very'' high-pitched one.
39	** "Pretending" is six minutes of a very low-pitched one, including a recording of a bassy voice singing "I was just pretending" that's then been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_BW1JW85QM slowed down by several magnitudes of speed and pitch]].
40	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Much of her earlier pre-"BIPP" music, including "NOTHING MORE TO SAY / EEEHHH", is a lot more straightforward than her later work, taking more of a general [[HouseMusic house-inspired sound]], with vocals left un-pitched. It wasn't until "BIPP" where Sophie decided to crank the artificiality up to eleven and became more experimental where she gained her signature sound.
41	* EpicRocking: "Whole New World / Pretend World" exceeds 9 minutes, beginning with slamming electronics before gradually fading into a sparkling ambient soundscape.
42	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: A strange, rare non-comedic example which borders on being a DoubleSubversion. Sophie crafts individual sounds from scratch with simple waveforms as a base, which end up manipulated to sound similar to latex, balloons, bubbles, metal, plastic, and elastic. These are in turn incorporated rather effectively in her songs, such as with the synthetic, "bubbly" sounds making up much of "LEMONADE". [[https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9237-sophie/ Sophie compared this creation process to molecular gastronomy.]]
43	-->"''Music as molecular gastronomy is something I like to think about. It’s about getting to the molecular level of a particular sound-- realizing what that sound actually is made of, and why it behaves a certain way when processed or cooked. Then, you use those molecules to build new forms, mixing and re-appropriating those raw materials--and of course, it should be bloody delicious.''"
44	* GenreMashup: "[[AvantGardeMusic Avant-garde pop]]" or the nascent "bubblegum bass" label are a good start in describing her style, but something more accurate would likely be an experimental, blatantly synthetic mixture of mainstream pop, TrapMusic, and industrial hip-hop. ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' [[NewSoundAlbum further complicates things]] by adding influences of IDM, drone, and {{ambient}} music.
45	-->'''[[https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6221915/sophie-producer-interview Billboard]]''': What genre do you coin yourself?\
46	'''Sophie''': Advertising.
47	* GenreRoulette: Looking past her signature sound, her individual songs vary in base genre influence. "BIPP" and "LEMONADE", at least structurally, are rather straightforward pop tunes, "MSMSMSM" takes inspiration from TrapMusic complete with rattling hi-hats, "HARD" and "Ponyboy" are aggressive, experimental bangers, "JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE" and "It's Okay to Cry" are gentle pop ballads, etc. Her debut album toys with this heavily, with the hyper-poppy “Immaterial” being preluded by the near 6 minutes of ambient droning that is "Pretending".
48	* HappyRain: Appropriately enough, at the end of the video for "It's Okay to Cry".
49	* HurricaneOfPuns: The lyrics to "HARD" are just a rapid-fire list of different applications to the titular word:
50	-->''Latex gloves, smack so hard''\
51	''PVC, I get so hard''\
52	''Platform shoes, kick so hard''\
53	''Ponytail, yank so hard''\
54	''Leatherette, party so hard''\
55	''PVC, I get so hard''\
56	''Platform shoes, kick so hard''\
57	''But it's just so hard!''
58	* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The artwork for the singles that ended up on ''Product'' are stock renderings of water slides on white backgrounds. "L.O.V.E." is the odd exception, where it's instead an inflatable bug.
59	* IndecipherableLyrics: "Faceshopping" and "Whole New World/Pretend World" have actual verses, apparently [[StepUpToTheMic sung by Sophie herself]] and not Cecile Believe, but you'll be forgiven for not knowing they're there due to the heavy amount of distortion, almost unidentifiable in their already [[SensoryAbuse whacked-out instrumentals]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es9-P1SOeHU The official video for "Faceshopping"]] captions the lyrics, but good luck trying to make it out as the video gets increasingly warped over time.
60	* TheInvisibleBand:
61	** Initially, Sophie's imagery was all there was to know about her, and she often misled her audience when she actually appeared, from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_CbN2p3NFc using a voice changer during an audio interview]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxM0bxsJEuI hiring a drag performer to mime her live DJ set without telling anyone]]. However, this went away by 2017, where she was much more keen to performing live herself and appearing front and center in her videos.
62	** There's also a case with the singers, where most of the vocalists still have yet to be identified. Only ones known for certain are Nabihah Iqbal for "LEMONADE", [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFOTY GFOTY]] for "HARD", [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecile_Believe Cecile Believe]] for most of ''Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', and Sophie herself for "It's Okay to Cry".
63	** A variant occurs in the video for the Sophie-produced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUBzGKpHGAY "Koi" by Le1f]]. While [=Le1f=] plays himself the whole way through, sections of the chorus featuring [[SignatureStyle a typically female vocalist standing in for Sophie]] is illustrated in the video by... [[MindScrew a giant pair of animated lips.]]
64	* IronicEcho: Despite not having much lyrical content to base off of, "Not Okay" appears to be a much darker response to "It's Okay to Cry", the opening of ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides''. While "It's Okay to Cry" is a serene, reassuring pop ballad, "Not Okay" is a distorted mess of aggressive and tense sounds which can barely keep itself together.
65	* ItsOkayToCry: the name of the opening track of "OIL OF EVERY PEARLS UN-INSIDES"
66	* MoodWhiplash:
67	** A favorite trope of hers, with many of her songs going back and forth between serene ambiance to ridiculous aggression to poppy choruses, usually within a matter of seconds. "L.O.V.E." is a good example, largely comprised of a harsh and intense DroneOfDread with constant, ominous {{Title Drop}}s, but there are sections where it abruptly interrupts itself with cute, sparkly keyboard riffs before it resumes.
68	** ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' has a wild love affair with this trope, not only containing her trademark sound jolts within songs, but the entire tracklist flips between being ethereal and uplifting to aggressive and cacophonous. To boot, the intro track "It's Okay to Cry", one of Sophie's most personal and gentle tracks to date, is immediately followed by "Ponyboy", which is among one of her most harsh and experimental, and things only escalate from there.
69	* MsFanservice: After she fully came out as a transgender woman in 2017, she also stopped being shy about showing off her body. Many of her videos feature her in highly sexualized outfits, and for promotional photos (sometimes even performances), she often went completely nude/topless.
70	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', in stark contrast to the more post-ironic and pop-oriented ''Product'' compilation, is much more personal and sincere, retaining much of her SignatureStyle, but putting it through a larger variety of different emotions and genres, from straight ballads to experimental soundscapes.
71	* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Ponyboy" is a raunchy, almost [[FanDisservice ugly-sounding]] and intense example whose lyrics seem to be from the POV of the submissive in a crazy animal roleplay scenario.
72	* OnlyOneName: As an artist, she's just named "Sophie". Prior to "It's Okay to Cry", "Sophie" was only a moniker because "[[https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9237-sophie/ it tastes good and it's like moisturizer,]]" but after coming out in 2017, it became her preferred first name.
73	-->''"[[https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/sophie-its-okay-to-cry-interview All I’ve ever wanted to be seen as or referred to as is SOPHIE, and I stand by that in the same way. I don’t feel the need to clarify anything more than that.]]"''
74	* OutOfGenreExperience:
75	** "It's Okay to Cry" is an unequivocally sincere pop ballad, [[StepUpToTheMicrophone complete with providing her own vocals]] and appearing in the song's music video, with only hints of her signature sound.
76	** Within the context of ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', an album full of distorted bangers, {{Surprisingly Gentle Song}}s, or surreal [[DroneOfDread droning soundscapes]], the penultimate track "Immaterial" stands out by being a perfectly straightforward dance pop song.
77	** Throughout several live performances (both on her own as well as with affiliates like Music/CharliXCX), SOPHIE played a live-exclusive remix of Sylvia Striplin's "Give Me Your Love", which is a straight-up FutureFunk track, notable for being by far the most {{Sampling}}[=-=]heavy song she ever produced.
78	* RemixAlbum: One of ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' was released in July 2019 as a 2-part non-stop mix, with most of the remixing done by Sophie herself. Many of the rearrangements are incredibly drastic, to the point where a good chunk of the track titles don't correspond to tracks from the regular version of ''OOEPUI'' ("Cold World", "XTC Acid", "Push Emission (wHor3 moans)", "Leeds Heaven and Hell", "Pony Whip", "Laser", "Cold Water", and "Dive (SDF)").
79	* RhymingWithItself: The ''only'' rhymes in "HARD" are with the word [[TitleDrop "hard"]] and itself.
80	* SensoryAbuse:
81	** Most of Sophie's music tends to be chaotic and wild, but "L.O.V.E." has a constant, ''very'' high-pitched DroneOfDread going through most it. Worse, in live performances, she occasionally blasts it as ''intermission'' music.
82	** "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" go the other route, whose beat consists of highly-distorted bass and vocals alongside metallic screeches.
83	* ShirtlessScene: Topless photos of her appear in the liner notes to ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides''; given the album's overarching ComingOutStory, the imagery appears to be there not for the sake of {{fanservice}}, but rather to showcase Sophie being willing to embrace her identity as a woman outside as well as in.
84	* ShoutOut:
85	** "Ponyboy", appropriately enough, features brief flashes of ponies from Franchise/MyLittlePony in its music video and live background visuals.
86	** "Immaterial" is frequently seen as a huge invocation yet [[SpiritualAntithesis thematic inversion]] of Music/{{Madonna}}'s "Material Girl".
87	* SiameseTwinSongs:
88	** A bit of an odd example with her first single, "NOTHING MORE TO SAY / EEEHHH". [[https://soundcloud.com/annie-mac-presents/free-music-monday-sophie The most "official" release for streaming]] is actually a mashup of several mixes of the namesake songs [[EitherOrTitle (hence the title)]], but on the digital singles, they're split individually; "EEEHHH" is its own track, and there's also a "vox" and "dub" of "NOTHING MORE TO SAY".
89	** The finale of ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'' is a double track labeled in the tracklist as "Whole New World/Pretend World", starting off as an aggressive, vocal banger that halfway through dissolves into a cacophonous, but ethereal soundscape.
90	* SignatureStyle: Her uniquely plastic and synthetic style is very recognizable, often featuring prominently in very textured and meticulously-crafted production.
91	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: After years of releasing singles with female vocalists, most of which are still unidentified, Sophie made her own vocal debut on the track "It's Okay to Cry". She's also believed to have vocals in tracks such as "Faceshopping" and "Whole New World", [[DownplayedTrope but they're hidden behind incredibly garbled and distorted filters]].
92	* StylisticSuck: At least in the ''Product'' era, some of the vocal tracks have hints of this, with lyrics that sound derivative of bubblegum pop clichés and vocalists being slightly pitch-bent to imply a sense of artificiality. Possibly the most evident case of this is "JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE", which [[PoesLaw almost sounds like a parody of 2000s pop ballads]] with its vague, romantic lyrics and overly-synthetic instrumental (which, in a surreal twist, is almost completely devoid of percussion).
93	-->''We went out the very next day''\
94	''You still remember my favorite place''\
95	''And we laughed, just like we used to''\
96	''And did everything we like to do''\
97	''And now we’re holding hands and running''\
98	''And it makes me feel, makes me feel...''
99	* UncannyValley: One of Sophie's defining traits was pulling this off in an auditory fashion. Much of it deconstructs and exaggerates the cutesy, overly-pristine pop music of the early 2000's to a point where it becomes creepy, not helped by tracks with slightly pitched-up vocalists singing repetitive, vapid lyrics.
100	* VirtualCelebrity: In 2014, Sophie collaborated with Hayden Dunham and A.G. Cook to produce "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QT_(musician) QT]]", a performance art project of a semi-satirical popstar played by Dunham who "promotes and is the living embodiment of the semi-fictitious [=DrinkQT=] energy drink." She only released one single, "Hey QT", produced by Sophie and Cook, but she continued making live appearances for affiliated acts including Sophie and Music/CharliXCX to lipsync her song.
101	* VocalDissonance:
102	** All over the place, with songs like "Faceshopping" using light, powerful singing voices in order to contrast with the harshness of the song itself.
103	** There is also "Burn Rubber", in which [[Music/KeroKeroBonito Sarah Bonito]]'s young, playful voice sings about a harsh life in the fast lane, accompanied with a screeching, bassy rhythm.
104	* WordPureeTitle: "BIPP", "ELLE", "MSMSMSM", and "VYZEE", which are all rather unsurprisingly [[NonAppearingTitle Non-Appearing Titles]].
105	* WordSaladTitle: ''Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides'', though it makes a little more sense when said quickly aloud, [[StealthPun where it sounds like "I love every person's insides."]] According to an [[https://imgur.com/a/kOrZ1GJ#XeUzSHe Office Magazine interview]], she came up with it while stoned and decided to make it her title ''[[{{Troll}} after]]'' [[{{Troll}} she shared it with others who thought it sounded annoying and pretentious]].
106	----
107	->''[[TheStinger Shake, shake, shake it up and make it fiiiiiiizz!]]''

Context Music / Sophie