Totally getting into Billie the kid!

Music is like friends We progressively discover less and less of permanentnew ones with age And thatrsquos really our bad For no matter how old you are mdash itrsquos still the youngest yoursquoll ever be and the oldest yoursquove ever beenStill unsure about you every time I socialise we start with all kinds of music hence everyone remains relatively uninvolved As the boozy evening progresses like an elaborate but easy maze we inevitably end up with the same tracks that permanently define the average age in the roomPresuming because music is memories first With time I suspect those forceresistant reminiscences take over every porous space in our head to instantly allow for newer sounds to seep in If yoursquore past 30 tell me the last time you organically discovered a brandnew unknown international artistetrack and immediately made it your lifersquos minimission to evangelise Irsquom not including Bollywood and other desi stuff Every latest bit of it blasts through our eardrums no matter where you go Earworms donrsquot countFor me all the way since Ed Sheeranrsquos ATeam which is a 2011 track itrsquod have to be only around early 2019 perhaps on Instagram which has great sound quality if yoursquove noticed mdash with Billie Eilish And her debut album When We Fall Asleep Where Do We Gorsquos title track lsquoBury a friendrsquo lsquoBad guyrsquo I guess was her other breakout numberNo seriously frickinrsquo eh what is this voiceproduction How do you not go deeper into the rabbithole of this sweetly raspy repertoire Only later I learnt thatrsquos what my lirsquol niece about three decades younger religiously listens toAnd thatrsquos because we rarely discuss fresh music with the superyoung mdash heaping on them our own personal tastesignalling nostalgia instead Which by definition is an exaggerationThe reason the rsquo70s for instance were so cool in the rsquo90s likewise rsquo90s in the naughties is because we were only listening to the lsquobest of the decadersquo that survived yearsgenerations mdash not every crap recorded every other week This is why the anointed lsquogolden agersquo always precedes us mdash whether in music architecture painting name itMaybe some of Fiona Apple 43 comes vaguely close mdash what is it about Eilish that so powerfullyviscerallynaturally draws you into her distinctively emotional electronic experimental pop Quite simply itrsquos just something adult I hadnrsquot heard for long and it maturely fits Overintellectualising music is like ironing jeansThe lyrics if yoursquore into it at all are full of alluring melancholy even when the production is phenomenally peppy For what is teenage without its angst The best of soulful music I reckon also last longer mdash like comedies with moviesEilish is 20 She starts out at 13 in the heartwarming incredibly insideraccount of her career thatrsquos her life thus far mdash RJ Cutlerrsquos Billie Eilish The Worldrsquos a Little Blurry that dropped on Apple TV recently The film pretty much wraps with her first time at the Grammys 2019 where she picks up all the top awardsWhat happens in between A homeschooled life with a sorted LA family unit the OrsquoConnells mdash father mother neither of whom shown to be particularly pushy and brother older by four years Finneas whorsquos also her talented producer and songwriterBasically when shersquos not touring like a product shersquos any other artistic kid albeit in extraordinarily consumerist circumstances mdash navigating the usual rhythms of friendships loneliness heartbreaks and a driving licenceShe directsconceptualisesshoots her videos donrsquot we all Jamming with her brother at home shersquos a lsquocontent creatorrsquo which is the democratically expressive term for every artiste on the web The camera is on all of us This is what you notice about Cutlerrsquos film as I did first with Asif Kapadiarsquos tragic Amy Winehouse biopic 2015 mdash the sheer quantum of selfrecordedintimate material that exists for everyone allowing for visual access unprecedented in the history of Everyman The celebrity being no exception All it takes is to stitch smart Cutler does a fine jobWhat would one give for a film that similarly captured from the basementbackstage Elvis hysteria Beatlemania or MJmadness What does living inside a documentary film do to young celebrities though Where every moment mdash through iPhone Instagram or a short selfielife mdash is up for review And every review starts to hurt because public and its judgments followGuiding Eilish in this case to live forever in the fear of the ldquomeanness of Internetrdquo Well the reverse is equally true Eilish is a firm lsquoBelieberrsquo Like Justin 27 her God and inspiration she became star at the speed of light mdash casually dropping music ofon her own on Soundcloud The musiclabel middlemen are a byproduct They usually enter once the partyrsquos already onThe Internet SpotifyYouTube etc also allows for no excuse whatsoever for every generation to discover the new Agree itrsquos hard to cut through the clutter And God knows what will survive anymoreBut Eilish you can tell is universally special Shersquoll probably stay on in her current teenaged fansrsquo living memory mdash her music growing roots of nostalgia alongside Sure will play her on loop in the eclectic part of a social evening Of course I know wersquoll collectively head southwards to the same old songs as the night endsMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper