the bassment

This is my blog in which I talk about whatever thoughts come into my head regarding music. I hope you enjoy your stay here! Amazing avatar designed by Jo Lennon: https://instagram.com/josephlennonportfolio?igshid=1dc1cfbmckbw8

[johnathan-cowden]

Vapourwave

“Sticking down your leaves on grass, and I don't know just where we've got to go”

In a few of these essays, I’ve mentioned Shoegaze, a genre I’m not too familiar with, but what I know of it, I quite like. I once saw a post on Reddit that was a picture of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, with the caption “what the hell, this is just vapourwave for boomers”. It was a pretty funny post, and whoever posted it definitely made it as a joke, but is there any truth in what they said? Can vapourwave be described as the successor to shoegaze? I don’t think so, but there certainly are some similarities between the two genres.

First of all, they were both popularised by a single album each, as opposed to a gradual movement. Shoegaze was popularised by My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, whereas Vapourwave was popularised by Vektroid’s Floral Shoppe (which she released under the alias Macintosh Plus). Both albums featured album art that would go on to exemplify the aesthetic of the genre. Loveless featured a guitar barely visible under a pink haze covering it, symbolising how the indistinct from each other the instruments heard are. Floral Shoppe a pink computer generated background, with Japanese text and an overall 90s aesthetic, save for the roman bust in the foreground. However, Shoegaze didn’t last very long. It was very quickly replaced with the rising Britpop in the UK championed by bands like Oasis and Blur, and grunge in the US by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Vapourwave is still going strong today, 9 years after its inception.

While the influence of shoegaze can still be heard today in a few genres such as noise rock, dream pop, and ironically vapourwave, it is nowhere near as influential as vapourwave itself. Vapourwave is still a genre on its own, but it’s also worked its way into many other musical niches, particularly under the indie and lo-fi scenes. For example, a lot of people, myself included, sometimes turn to a livestream of lo-fi hip hop beats when they need to focus during studying, or just to relax. I’m actually listening to it as I type this. However, there is a clear element derived from vapourwave in the sound of it, and that’s because it’s such a diverse genre, not to mention the clear influence it has on modern art pop like Superorganism, Tame Impala, and St. Vincent’s recent music.

The stereotype of vapourwave is just the opposite of nightcore. A song that has been slowed down, rather than sped up. This is partly accurate, the most famous vapourwave song is 420 by Macintosh Plus, which is derived from the Diana Ross cover of It’s Your Move by Doug Parkinson. It wasn’t just slowed down though, parts of the songs were moved around and repeated, and overall the song is far more sinister than it would otherwise sound were it just slowed down. This is not the only way vapourwave can be made, though; Teen Pregnancy by Blank Banshee does feature a sample from a couple of songs by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five as well as a song by Boards of Canada. The song is mostly original however, and the most obvious sample is dialogue from the show Degrassi Junior High. Another example of a song that doesn’t conform to the sampling stereotype would be Beach walk by Whitewoods, a vapourwave song that features no sampling whatsoever. As well as this, Macintosh Plus’s brand of vapourwave is decidedly anti-capitalist, hence the 90s aesthetic. She is referencing elements of a bygone era, and claiming that capitalism in itself is an outdated idea. However, Saint Pepsi’s (you read that right) brand of vapourwave goes in completely in the opposite direction, using the same images to celebrate capitalism and consumerism.

Vapourwave isn’t just music, it’s an entire cultural movement. Other genres may have their own aesthetic, such as punk with the crazy colourful hair, and metal with the black clothes and long hair, but vapourwave is a genre of art as well. I really recommend you visit the subreddit r/VapourwaveArt, it’s full of beautiful art inspired by the vapourwave aesthetic, lots of 90s images and clean colours with roman busts and dolphins and pretty much anything strange and unusual, but not sinister, to offset the tone of much of the music. Because of how strangely rooted in other genres of music it is, as well as its versatility as a genre itself, PLUS its art movement and distinctive aesthetic, I don’t think we can expect vapourwave to be going away anytime soon.

[johnathan-cowden]

Subdivisions

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Rush will always be my favourite progressive rock band. It’s part of the reason why this essay isn’t about an entire album, but only one song (and this won’t be the last essay I do on Rush). Growing up, almost all the music I heard was in my dad’s car, and he was very big on classic rock when I knew him, particularly prog. Because of that I have a love of bands like Pink Floyd and Queen that lives on to this day, but strangely enough, apart from Spirit of the Radio I never heard any Rush. I don’t at all understand why. Geddy Lee is my favourite bassist of all time, one of my favourite vocalists, and overall my second favourite musician (after Elena Tonra of course). Alex Lifeson is one of the most creative guitarists the world has ever seen, knowing exactly when to hold back and play an emotional melody, and when to let loose and just shred like a God of metal. A lot of the time, he could do both at the same time. Neil Peart is the best drummer of all time. He just is. Show someone 2112, or YYZ, or La Villa Strangiato, and ask them if they can find a better example of an incredible rock drummer. They won’t be able to, because there isn’t one, and I won’t be told otherwise. Apart from this though, he was also the band’s primary lyricist. After joining the band in 1974, he wrote some of the greatest lyrics ever written, concerning subjects from philosophy, to politics, to literature, the nature of freedom, pretty much any deep subject you can imagine. One of my favourite songs he ever wrote lyrics for is Subdivisions, and I believe it goes some way to showing what an incredible lyricist he was.

Rest in Peace, Neil Peart

 “Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone”

In the case of this song, there’s pretty much no need for any backstory or context, or any of the other excuses I use for not getting straight to the point. This song is about the tedium of growing up in a suburban environment. It’s very much a timeless song as it was released in 1982 and I as well as many other people my age still relate to it very easily. What this song very cleverly does is compare the physicality of the suburbs to the people living within it, being on the fringes of the city and the country, there’s often a lack of identity, or at the very least, a lack of an interesting one.

The music video tells the story of one of the misfits mentioned in the lyrics, living in the suburbs and never feeling as if he fits in. It’s a little bit funny to watch the video in 2020 and see all the old cars, the stereotypical 80s high school nerd. This is because the ‘subdivisions’ the song mentions don’t only refer to the suburbs themselves, but as I said, the people there. When I said the people in the suburbs had a lack of identity, that wasn’t entirely true. I meant the parents. The teens in the video are the main characters, but when you imagine stereotypical 80s parents, there really aren’t any different types.  But with teens, there’s goths, jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, so many different subdivisions of the culture. This is why the video is almost funny to watch, we exist in a time where the fragmentation of popular culture means this isn’t a problem for teens anymore. When I was 13, I was seeing the end of this idea. There were 3 subdivisions at my school: kids who liked football (or soccer if you’re American), kids who liked heavy metal, and other. I was very much in the metal subdivision, but that’s a story for another essay. The point is, it’s a far cry from the stereotypical tribal nature of the song, and all media from the 80s. I’m 19 now, and the subdivisions have all but disappeared. Kids younger than me don’t feel the need to section themselves off into different groups that seemed to be at war with the others, and that’s a very good thing in my opinion.

Despite all this, Subdivisions is still somewhat relatable due to the nature of the suburbs themselves. The environment of the suburbs absolutely does not encourage any kind of individuality and can actually be seen to dissuade it. The houses are boring. It’s where school is. Its where you go to your soul-crushing Saturday job so you can earn a tiny amount of money you aren’t even sure if you need. But the city, that’s a different story. I live in a suburb of Manchester, England, and I feel very lucky because of this. It’s a cultural centre, a beautiful city with a rich history of music, art, and science. When I’m in Manchester, I can almost forget that 7 miles away lies the most boring place in the world that I have to return to once the fun is over. I don’t know anything about Toronto, where the music video was filmed, but I imagine that the story is pretty similar over there. And what about the far unlit unknown? Well, the clue is in the name. There’s not much out there, but why should that stop anyone from being interested? It’s different to what you know living in the suburbs, and often that’s enough.

Even the instrumentation is a misfit in the music of the time. For the first time in a Rush song, the bass, drums, and guitars were all rhythm instruments, while the synth and vocals handled the melody. This did mean that Geddy Lee was singing, playing bass, and playing keyboard all at the same time, which really is a testament to the man’s skill. However, this means that the song didn’t sound like any other at the time, let alone by Rush. It has 2 keyboard solos, and one guitar solo (even though I would say that the bass steals the show during the guitar solo, but I’m obviously biased). I’ve heard it said that you can trace the roots of the genre futurefunk back to this song, and while I’m not sure I agree with that, the influence of the song is clear. The synth was not a widely explored instrument at the time of the song, and Rush definitely helped with its popularity.

This song feels like a friend that understands you. Even though it wasn’t written for us in our time, its still kind of relatable. If you feel alone, like no one understands you, that you can’t express yourself or your identity, maybe take a listen to this song. It understands you. It knows how you feel, as does everyone else in the past, present, and future who have felt the same.

[johnathan-cowden]

Plastic Love

“I’m just playing games; I know that’s plastic love!”

Plastic Love; a song that most of its fans in the west only know about due to a very fortunate glitch in the YouTube algorithm. This song was released in 1984 and was written and performed by Japanese singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi, and produced by her husband Tatsuro Yamashita, as part of the city pop scene of J-Pop. I’d like to go on a quick tangent about genres and their names. A friend once told me how much she loved the term ‘bubblegum pop’ that’s used to describe artists like Carly Rae Jepsen and Teenage Dream era Kary Perry. They felt that it described the feel of the music so perfectly, and also cited dream pop and thrash metal as genres with a sort of implicit charactoym. I would argue that city pop could certainly be described as having the perfect name, although I’ll confess, I know basically nothing about J-Pop or even Japan as a whole; it just feels right to me.

Tangent over, I don’t know about anyone reading this, but I don’t speak a word of Japanese. I was born in Britain and have lived here all my life, and apart from speaking a little French along with everyone else my age, English is the only language I’ve ever known, and I think my lack of ability to understand Japanese is integral to the relationship I’ve had with this song. I first discovered the song when it appeared in my Youtube recommended section, and I decided to listen to it. I was immediately so intrigued by it. “What a beautiful song! Is that the singer? She looks so happy, and she sounds it as well. I bet she’s singing about being in love and how lovely it is!” I might have said if people actually spoke like that. But towards the end, Takeuchi ditches her native tongue in favour of English. Then I got my first sense that this song isn’t as happy as it initially appears.

I work in a shop in which they play the same 20 or so songs every day, and I’ve always thought most of them seem so soulless and dispassionate; plastic. But the Mariya seems to be actively seeking out “the plastic beat”, although we definitely get the sense that that’s not what’s truly making her happy. And since I can’t write one of these posts without talking about bass, I couldn’t help but notice the very bluesy bassline during the chorus, something that conveys to me a kind of solemn sadness. The bassline was the only part of the instrumentation I could find any familiarity in for a while, not only because I’m so familiar with the instrument, but because the style just seems so western compared to the rest of the instrumentation. I must have listened to the song at least 30 times before I decided to google the lyrics, and I didn’t find what I expected at all. To contrast the famous picture of the smiling woman, and the happy-go-lucky instrumental of the song, the lyrics tell the story of someone broken by their breakup. She is turned into a calculating, defensive cynic, desperate to avoid being hurt again. It reminds me of the Paramore song The Only Exception, in which the singer resigns herself to being “content with loneliness”, as its better than the alternative.

However, on the outside, Mariya is happy, she even says not to worry in one of the only lines before the outro that’s in English. On the outside at least, she is happy. She has her dresses and make up and fancy high heels to guide her as her sole companions on her journey, as an entirely English interpretation of the lyrics puts it. Similar to the song, don’t pay too much attention and you might be fooled into thinking its all sunshine in the Land of the Rising Sun, but it isn’t, and sometimes that sad truth slips through. The bluesy flourish in the chorus is a perfect example of the lyrics and instrumentation reflecting each other.

In the end, we don’t know what happens to our broken lover. The song ends on her repeating the same phrase, repeating the same routine, going out and dancing, pretending, appearing that she’s happy. She might even convince you, but I don’t think we were ever the people she was trying to convince. She wants to be happy, or at least convince herself that she’s happy. But in reality, she knows its only a plastic happiness, a plastic love.

[johnathan-cowden]

Old Music

“And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.”

A lot can change in music very quickly. If you look at what was in the charts 10 years ago, its nothing like what’s popular now. The way music used to be is that change would be slow, and then suddenly an artist would arrive and change everything, be it Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, etc. The last time I think music changed in this way would be with the arrival of Nirvana in the early 90s. However, due to the advent of the internet, it’s easy for people today to find old music and appreciate it, not in the way that you see people whining about in the comment sections of old songs on Youtube though, where they complain that there’s no good music anymore and that they’re so much smarter than everyone else because of their music taste. If you’re one of these people though, just look for good music. I promise you’ll find it, whatever your tastes are. Old music still does influence most young people though, I have my own ideas about it but I asked my friend who listens to far more old music than me about it to gain a more accurate perspective.

Me: How did you get into old music?

Caitlin: Because of my dad, he would listen to music from the 60s all the time, so it was part of us growing up at home.

Me: Can you hear the influence of old music in today’s music?

Caitlin: Yes I think a lot of music today rips off older music, like Greta Van Fleet ripping off Led Zeppelin or Robin Thicke ripping off Marvin Gaye for example.

Me: Is there any part of old music that isn’t popular anymore but you wish still was?

Caitlin: Yes, I miss boy bands! I love bands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, and One Direction was alright but I don’t think they’re as good.

Me: Is there any part of it that you’re glad is gone?

Caitlin: Uhhm… no, not really!

Me: What kind of old music do you prefer, if you had to choose?

Caitlin: Oh God, you’ve put me on the spot now, do I have to answer? I guess it would have to be… Soul maybe? No, I can’t answer.

Me: Do you have any particular favourite artists?

Caitlin: Brandy would be one, I like Ace of Base… I have too many… Billy Ocean, Bobby Brown… Tina Turner, Tina Turner bangs mate, Whitney Huston- oh God I love Whitney Huston.

This supports what I already thought, which is that most young people who are into old music like it because of their parents, and it being the music they grew up with. Most people don’t seek out their own musical identity until they’re around the age of 12, having only listened to the music of their parents until then. It depends on the type of person how their parent’s music influences their taste when they’re older. For example, my dad listened to mainly classic and progressive rock, whereas my mum was part of the punk subculture. Because of this, one of the genres I listen to the most these days is modern rock, bands like Wolf Alice, Paramore, and The Wombats. Caitlin grew up listening to soul and classic R&B, and now listens mainly to contemporary R&B. Other people may have wanted to go against what their parents were listening to, which is why a lot of kids listened to metal for example, or why my mum got into punk in the first place.

Other times it can be the opposite of what I said though. One of my favourite genres is dream pop, which I got into when I had a friend that was absolutely obsessed with Beach House (which you should listen to if you haven’t already). Once I got into them, I worked my way backwards and ended up listening to the Cocteau Twins and classic shoegaze such as My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The point is, most young people have at least some familiarity with old music. Everyone knows Bohemian Rhapsody, Wonderwall, and at least one Beatles song. I do think the main reason for this is partly because of its availability due to the internet, which seems to be the main thing I attribute anything to do with music culture to in these essays, but mostly because of the influence of our parents on our music tastes later in life.

[johnathan-cowden]

Bass in Daughter

“What a mess I leave to follow”

I really think Elena Tonra is one of the most underrated bassists in the world. It’s easy to forget that she actually is the bassist of Daughter, an amazingly creative Indie Folk and Shoegaze band I think more people should listen to. Apart from being the bassist, she is also the lead songwriter, vocalist, and rhythm guitarist. It’s because of the control she is afforded over the creative direction of the band as well as the numerous instruments she plays that allows these instruments to stand out from the others, most notably in my opinion (although I am of course biased) the bass.

One of my favourite examples of this is in Made of Stone (and I only noticed this because I’ve listened to the instrumental over 120 times according to last.fm). Tonra’s style of playing means that in a lot of songs, she plays the bass very lightly, to the point where you have to strain your ears to even hear it sometimes. Throughout Made of Stone, she plays the bassline flawlessly, until the bridge, when in the lyrics she seems to be at her most distraught. At this point, the bassline is so simplistic, making any kind of mistake would be pretty much impossible, especially for such a skilled bassist as her, but at multiple points she accidentally slides up a few frets before muting the strings, which seems like such an easy problem to fix. I think she did this on purpose, and she was trying to show that as she was so upset at this part of the song, she is too distracted to care about playing her bass properly. This is emphasised by how after the bridge, the bass and the vocals cut out completely, almost as if she needs to compose herself before she can resume playing.

Another example of her creativity with the bass can be found on the song How. This is my favourite song by the band, and a strong contender for my favourite song of all time. Apart from the genre of the song being seemingly one the band created themselves, which I and my circle of music nerds like to call Dream Folk, as it seems to be a blend of the Dream pop sound of bands like Beach House and the Cocteau Twins, as well as the Indie Folk style of artists like Vance Joy and Cavetown (although even this doesn’t take into account the obvious Shoegaze influence), the bass of the song is very strange indeed. According to last.fm, at the time of writing I’ve listened to the song 392 times and the instrumental 184 times, and even now I can’t figure out what on earth Tonra is doing. The first instrument we hear in the song is bass, and there is a very slow and melancholic melody on the instrument that lasts for 12 seconds, and then appears to cut out. But what I think happens is Tonra simply plays an octave higher than she was, making the bass nearly indistinguishable from the guitar. She then drops the octave again so the bass can be heard, but during the chorus raises it again but plays a different melody to the guitar. During much of the song the bass is almost silent, and you would be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t any bass at all. I think it represents Tonra’s fluctuating confidence as the events of the song unfold, or rather as Tonra explains them to us as if she has seen them in the past, but knows they are still occurring, sometimes wanting to fade away into nothing, but then realising that she relies on other people for happiness. Or maybe she only wants to seem like she’s disappeared, not to disappear.

Every song she writes is filled with details like this, and I think it makes her one of the best songwriters in the world right now. I can think of very few other musicians or writers with such an amazing perception of the link between lyrics and instrumentation, at times (obviously not right now) it feels like I don’t have the words to describe it, to the point where I’ve always said if I were to meet Geddy Lee (the musician I look up to the 2nd most), you wouldn’t be able to shut me up. If I met Elena Tonra, I wouldn’t say a word.

[johnathan-cowden]

Avenged Sevenfold

“Like walking into a dream, so unlike what you've seen”

In my Subdivisions essay, I briefly mentioned that I used to be a metal head. I have my problems with the genre these days, mostly stemmed from people’s misunderstanding and misuse of Djent (which I could honestly write an entire essay about), but I still do like a bit of metal every now and again, my gym playlist is almost entirely full of metal. Sabaton is an amazing band that I still listen to every now and again, and it’s pretty representative of my taste in metal. When I’m listening to metal, I’m only really looking for 2 main things: instruments played well, and absolute maximum cheesiness. With that in mind, this essay is about my former favourite band in the world, Avenged Sevenfold. Looking back on this band’s albums, none of them are really very good, but they fulfil my criteria for metal I like (with flying colours actually) and I like them mostly due to nostalgia from my days as an emo, but there is one album that I think stands out as genuinely fantastic, outside of my checklist of metal that shows I’m not taking it seriously in the slightest: their self-titled album.

I’m just gonna get this out of the way quickly so I don’t have to mention it again, the only songs I don’t like on this album are Scream, and Lost. Scream tries absolutely nothing new or interesting and ends up being one of the band’s most generic and forgettable songs, whereas while Lost is certainly experimental for the band, I don’t think the experiments they tried really paid off. With that out of the way, every other song on this album is fantastic for its own reason. While 2003’s Waking the Fallen put the band on the map as an energetic and talented metalcore band, and 2005’s City of Evil was the debut album of their new alternative metal sound and cemented them as one of the most popular acts of the new wave of American heavy metal, 2007’s Avenged Sevenfold proved that they could be experimental with their sound and have it massively pay off.

Critical Acclaim starts out with a lengthy organ solo, before the heavy guitars come in. This song features 2 spoken word political rants by M. Shadows. Almost Easy features the entire band singing, which is a first for them, proving that all its members have at least some vocal talent. (We don’t talk about the one that comes after that). Afterlife features violins, giving a dramatic and biblical feel to the song, to match its lyrical material, not to mention one of the most badass guitar solos ever played, courtesy of lead guitarist Synyster Gates. Gunslinger is the first taste of the country influences on this album, with the first 2 or so minutes of the song being pure country, as well as having a strangely emotional guitar solo from such a cheesy metal band. Unbound features fast piano arpeggios that give the song a chaotic, fast feel, before giving way to a choir at the end of the song. Brompton Cocktail features a deep string section that is present throughout the entire song, as well as a melody that makes a brief appearance and would later also appear again 2 songs down. Lost is the only experiment on this album that doesn’t work in my opinion, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s the least experimental for the band apart from Scream. All that’s really different is that a strange talk box effect is put on Shadows’ voice, one that I find very distracting and annoying. Other than that it’s just a generic Avenged Sevenfold song. The next song on is a Little Piece of Heaven, a song that features an entire orchestra, which the guitars take a backseat to for most of the song. To cut a long story short, it tells the story of 2 people who come back from the dead and essentially have a zombie wedding, showing that the classic alternative metal cheesiness isn’t entirely missing on this album. The last song of the album is Dear God. This isn’t even metal. It could barely be considered rock. Primarily, this is a country song. It’s also my favourite song on the album, and is a clear example of the band demonstrating that they aren’t just metal through and through, they can do other genres, and in the case of country, better than a lot of the artists who are supposed to be all about that genre.

In conclusion, listen to this album. It’s very much worth your time if you like metal and are sick of all the bands devoid of all talent butchering the genre of Djent, and you just want to hear some good creative metal. And if you heard this album as a kid like I did, take a listen to it again. If you didn’t notice and appreciate how it’s different from their other works then, you might do now.

[johnathan-cowden]

Superorganism

“It is not an easy one.”

Superorganism is… an art pop band? Synthpop? Vapourwave? Maybe not vapourwave but they’re clearly influenced by the genre, as they are by seemingly every genre under the indie pop umbrella. Officially they’re from England, but they’re also from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, and formed the year before they had even met in real life. This is a concept I can see taking off by the way, I was in a folk band once with a couple of Americans I had only ever known online as well. Anyway, with such a mix of cultural backgrounds, surely the band could be expected to release some music with a clear sense of individualism and cultural diversity? Well…

At the time of writing, Superorganism only has one album; an eponymous album released on 2nd March 2018. It’s certainly not like any album I’ve heard before or since. The creativity in the sound of the album alone is enough of a reason for you to give it a chance, but I find the message of the album very interesting as well. Rather than celebrate the individuality of the band members who are from all corners of the earth, the message seems to be the band celebrating their loss of individuality. They didn’t choose the name ‘Superorganism’ purely because it sounds cool, in the band’s own words:

A superorganism is a creature

Made up of many different individuals

Thanks to technological systems

You are me, and I am you

We are tied together into a single processing system

The singer, Orono, also suggests many times throughout the album that she even wants to be a superorganism, comparing the chaos of a human life to the simplicity of just “being a prawn”, and even flat out saying multiple times in the song SPROGNSM that she wants to be a superorganism, as does everyone else. A lot of people may find this hard to relate to, after all we all want to be individuals, right? Everyone wants to be distinct and stand out from everyone in the crowd, surely?

This is the most Gen Z oriented album I’ve ever heard, to the point where you’ll probably have trouble relating to a single word of it if you aren’t a Zoomer. Generation Z is the first generation to be born where the internet has existed and been an integral part of our lives no matter when in the generation you were born. Through that, a serious fragmentation of popular culture has occurred. There’s a reason there hasn’t been a band of Beatles, or Queen, or Oasis-like proportions since the advent of the internet, it’s because entertainment is so readily accessible that we aren’t forced to watch whatever’s on 5 of the 6 channels available on the TV. If I wanted to listen to a song from the 60s, I can. If I want to listen to a song from the 40s, I can. If I want to listen to a mashup of the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64 and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, I can. There’s a reason everyone bangs on about how much they hate the top 40, it’s because we don’t have to like it anymore. Despite this, there are a few things almost everyone in Gen Z can relate to. Laying awake at night on your phone when you know you should be sleeping, aimlessly scrolling through the internet when you know you have better things to do, dreaming of being famous. Ideas that we all relate to can be portrayed through memes, or gifs, or even songs in this case.

Because of everything I just said, Superorganism is not about superorganisms. It’s not even entirely about the loss of individuality that superorganisms are used to represent, despite that being the idea explored the most throughout the album. Superorganism is about being a Zoomer. The album is cyclical, like Pink Floyd’s The Wall. It starts with Orono waking up in the morning and ends with her alarm going off in the same, or maybe the next morning. It’s like how The Wall starts with the phrase “-we came in?” and ends with the phrase “Isn’t this where-“ so that when the album is listened to on a loop it repeats itself, the album represents a day in the life of the average Zoomer. Wake up, do some schoolwork, daydream, chat to your internet friends, waste some time on the internet, try to fit in, go to sleep, do the same the next day. In this sense, the album rejects individuality for a reason. It wants to be generic to the average Gen Z kid, so they can relate to it and realise “Hey, maybe someone else is like me as well”.