YMMV / Billie Eilish

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Whether the other person in "wish you were gay" is female or male changes the interpretation of the song. If they're female, then the singer suffers from Incompatible Orientation. If they're male, then the singer wishes the love was unrequited due to Incompatible Orientation. Also, if the other person is male, is the singer wishing that it's Incompatible Orientation because she does not like the guy specifically, or does she wish that was the case because she, for whatever reason, cannot fathom the idea of a straight man rejecting her?
    • This takes on new meaning after Billie came out as bisexual in 2023, which actually makes all interpretations much more possible.
  • In "Bad Guy", Billie refers to herself as a "might seduce your dad guy". Does she mean that literally, or is she talking about "seducing" him into evil? Or both?
• Awesome Moments:
  • Becoming the youngest singer/songwriter and first woman to come first in Triple J's Hottest 100 (a yearly Australian competition where listeners vote for their favourite alternative music).
  • Becoming the youngest singer/songwriter to take home five Grammies, including the big four.
  • Becoming the youngest singer/songwriter in the history of the James Bond franchise to compose a title track for a Bond movie after writing and performing No Time to Die. Which then won her the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
• Awesome Music: "Happier Than Ever" is one of Billie's most explosive songs to date, proving that in addition to being moody and heartbreaking, she can be astoundingly epic and carry one hell of a Power Ballad built around slamming the worst relationship she ever invested herself in.
• Broken Base: The "Lost Cause" music video surprisingly did create a bit of a stir within the fandom, with the fairly Les Yay nature of it bringing up the rather thorny issue of Queerbaiting as well as whether there was inappropriate fan pressure revolving around questions of her sexual identity (similar to other stars like Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes). While it did get nasty for a little bit, it mostly died down after the album's release before turning Hilarious in Hindsight when she came out at queer in 2023.
  • Eilish has gotten a lot of support and praise for being candid about her issues with body image and dealing forcefully with some of the viscious online hate that's been thrown at her based on her appearence, but there have been some who look at her past and present statements and find a lot of problems with her being (perhaps not always intentionally) thrust up as a symbol of Body Positivity. A lot of that was re-jiggered with the recent Variety interview, where after bringing up those issues she went on a rather eyebrow-raising rant where she gave a Strawmaned argument that men are never body shamed and only affirmed for their different looks & body types while women are inherently nice and never body shame others cause they only look for the person underneath. Many, including a number of women fans, found that a ridicuously untrue generalization, not only was there instant evidence provided to the contrary but that also brought up past interviews where she herself was engaging in that exact thing she says never happens in a rather mean-spirited fashion, and for some who otherwise support her and the Body Positivity movement in general feel like that it makes it to easy to portray her negatively as a Hypocrite or Crybully and/or pushing a percieved and ugly Double Standard of who it's "fair game" to attack for their appearance. Even many who were generally supportive and acknowledged that yes, certainly there's a disproportionate focus & criticism on women's appearence over men in daily life, downplaying the real-life self-esteem issues and body dysmophoria men can definitely go through, or trying to make the issue another lynchpin in the Battle of the Sexes, does much more harm than good.
• Critical Dissonance: Happier Than Ever garnered vast praise, debatably even more than its predecessor with critics, but fan reception was much more divided, primarily due to being more of a change in sound and direction. Ask any general crowd of fans, and you'll find distinct groups of people agreeing with critics and felt it was a step up for Billie (or at least on par with WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?), many others feeling it wasn't as gripping as the specific sound and style of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, and others finding it too inconsistent within the many new directions it took.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Lady Gaga fans despised Billie after she criticized Lady Gaga's meat dress, as Billie is a vegan. Many seemed to view her as a young, disrespectful upstart for attacking a more established pop star in the wake of this. However, Billie's fans believe this reaction is a bit extreme for a teenager expressing an opinion.
  • For a time, this was also the case between fans of Billie and fans of Melanie Martinez due to Martinez' fans claiming that Billie stole Martinez' spotlight when she was dealing with the backlash that came from the accusations against her, which came to light when both singers were on the rise as up-and-coming artists. Along with that, there were accusations of Billie badmouthing Martinez and the two allegedly copying each other's aesthetics and musical styles. It wasn't until Martinez made a comeback with her album K-12 that things began to simmer down between the opposing fanbases.
• Heartwarming Moments: "my future" was written during COVID-19 Pandemic and is directly about Billie speculating about her uncertain future in light of a dour present. Despite this being prime downer material, she instead spins it into a message about abandoning her dark past in exchange for a brighter future, becoming one of her most idealistic songs to date. Combined with how beautiful and sweet the actual music itself is, it's pure Sweet Dreams Fuel.
• Ho Yay: The music video for "lost cause" shows Billie Eilish and her girl friends having fun at a sleepover, experimenting with Faux Yay by kissing each other while wearing some candy wax lips, playing Twister, spin-the-bottle, eating various snacks and making fun of her ex.
• Hype Backlash:
  • While she has a greatly devoted fanbase and critical acclaim to her name, her almost-instantaneous rise to fame garnered a lot of this, with some critics finding the sudden pedestal given to her by record labels as having tarnished her reputation, which also led to popular accusations of her being an industry plant^note Such delegitimizing arguments are almost entirely irrelevant, as nearly all of her work is credited to her and her brother, Finneas. It doesn't help that her signature dark and angsty teenage sound is often a punching bag for many. The hype backlash has received backlash of its own, however, with people pointing out that she was a teenager at the time of her rise. To put things into even better perspective — when Taylor Swift (who is still very much a superstar today) was giving a speech about nurturing young female talent just a few years before Billie became famous, Billie was singing in a children's choir.
  • Her unique singing style also contributed to the hate against her, with some detractors arguing that it could only be called whispering and not "real" singing.^note  In reality, however, her technique is difficult to replicate and/or attempt in a technical sense; Alicia Keys has stated this.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • SIKE BITCH! ^Explanation Most prevalent in her live performances of "COPYCAT".
  • "Ahh! De police are coming! He's going to get arrested!"
  • "Jah, I'm serious." ^Explanation A post by user billiestar depicting a fictional conversation between Eilish and late rapper XXXTentacion, which ended on a dad joke, spread like wildfire over many meme pages on Instagram, as well as having several◊ remixes◊ of the original image.
  • After a behind-the-scenes video for the "you should see me in a crown" vertical video showed an actual spider coming out of Billie's mouth, many have joked about her eating spiders.
  • Billie is also quite notorious for wearing massive shirts, so a lot of memes sprung up because of that. Billie explains why here.
  • "I'm the bad guy...duh!" has become such a popular meme that Star Wars fans have mashed it up with the infamous scene, "Luke, I Am Your Father" from The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Invisalign. ^Explanation Billie is a noted user, which it has come up a few times, including a cameo at the start of "bad guy."
  • The infamous Rolling Stone article discussing Eilish and making her out as this godsend of music simply because she never listened to CDs, Nirvana, and the like. Said article became a big factor in Eilish's Hype Backlash too due to how overly dramatic and immensely hyping it is.
  • “Billie is Ardat-Yakshi” ^Explanation  This came about from the Mass Effect fandom since Billie’s mom Maggie Baird voiced Samara. That, and it fits the brooding tone and lyrics of much of her discography, particularly “bad guy”.
  • Billie is Jolyne Cujoh. ^Explanation  Perhaps in sheer coincidence, one of Elilish's hairstyles heavily resembles that of JoJo Part 6 protagonist Jolyne Cujoh's, hair colour and all. Given that Jolyne preceded Billie Eilish by at least a decade, and JoJo creator Hirohiko Araki's tendency to base his characters' designs on western pop cultural icons, the irony was not lost on JoJo fans who proceeded to have a field day.
• Misaimed Fandom: Some critics view her songs as being more positive for young girls simply because Eilish is not as sexualized as other pop divas. This is in spite of the fact that her songs are often about murder and conquest. Also, even though she does not dress provocatively, many of her songs still talk about sex a lot. Eilish is much nicer than her songs imply and might be a positive role model herself, but her songs are not really more appropriate for children than other singers.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The live action music video for "you should see me in a crown" has Eilish with spiders crawling all over her, climaxing in a tarantula crawling out of her mouth. Note that the video has No Budget and this is all real. The animated music video follows this up having a child version of Eilish gruesomely morph into a spider monster and attack a city.
  • The cover art for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which shows Billie sporting no pupils and a creepy Slasher Smile, is a bit unsettling.
  • "all the good girls go to hell" starts with Eilish being stabbed by multiple syringes, causing wings to sprout out of her back. The rest of the video has her walk towards the camera in an eery fashion all while covered in tar and the background catching on fire.
  • In an interview, Eilish revealed got inspiration for the song "everything I wanted" a year prior, when she had a dream about taking her own life.
• Signature Song: "Bad Guy", though "Therefore I Am", "When the Party's Over", "Happier Than Ever", and "What Was I Made For?" are also pretty well known.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Bad Guy" to an alarming amount of songs, from "We Are Number One" to the main theme of Plants vs. Zombies. It's practically a meme to point out that a certain song sounds like "Bad Guy" by blending them together flawlessly.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In "8", where Billie sings about someone she hurt.
    So I think I better go
    I never really know how to please you
    You're lookin' at me like I'm see-through
    I guess I'm gonna go
    I just never know how you feel
    Do you even feel anything?
  • "When the Party's Over" is quite an emotional song.
  • Billie's single for the second season of 13 Reasons Why, "Lovely". Combined with Khalid's vocals, it is both heartwrenching and beautiful to listen to.
  • "everything I wanted", revealed By Billie to be inspired by a dream she had of people taunting her and pushing her into such a depressed state that she contemplated suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure, it was only a dream, but that doesn't mean the scrutiny she receives doesn't get to her.
  • Her theme song for No Time to Die is quite possibly one of the saddest pieces of music in the Daniel Craig era of James Bond, rivaling "Skyfall" and "Writing's On the Wall".
  • "Happier Than Ever" is decidedly not a happy song. Hearing Billie unleash her heartbreak and emotions about her past relationship is bound to make a few listeners teary-eyed.
  • "What Was I Made For?", which serves as the closing track for Barbie. Eilish herself told her fans go "get ready to sob" upon its release and she wasn't exaggerating.
• Tough Act to Follow: Given how Happier Than Ever was viewed commercially even though it wasn't an outright flop, as it did not quite have the staying power at the top of the charts as When We All Fall Asleep with that mainly be attributed to it lacking a massive Black Sheep Hit like "Bad Guy" (which famously kept climbing the charts to eventually topple "Old Town Road"'s record-setting run)- the closest any single got was that song's Spiritual Successor of sorts "Therefore I Am", which only briefly scraped #2 US.

---