In the Rough

[thestargroove]

Dying in a Hot Tub: A Cultural Criticism

The song “Dying in a Hot Tub” by Palaye Royale reveals many wrongs in our society. In a tweet, Palaye Royale divulged how the song is about one of their best friends who is an addict. In this spirit, we recognize that the song is testament to the lifestyle their friend lives due to their current discontentment with life. 

The song begins with a narrative about visiting that friend:

You're looking skinny, you sleepy head

Well, have you gotten out of bed?

Have you gotten out of bed?

Getting concerned about my lonely friend

We first see the symptoms of depression and mental illness, in which the friend stays in bed all day and is starving themselves. In recent years due to social media platforms giving voice to virtually anyone who has a phone, the prevalence of this in today's youth has become very apparent. Many starve themselves to try to match society’s standard of beauty, in being skinny, as popularized by platforms like Instagram, where people Photoshop their pictures to adhere to this standard, instilling and promoting an unattainable ideal in the minds of the youth who view these media posts. While it is well known that people Photoshop their photos and that much of what people see on social media is fake, it does not stop users from pining for those body shapes. The body dysmorphia that results from this overrepresentation of one body type has led for many to fall into destructive habits, and to even develop mental illness. While more brands today are using different body types in advertising, you either see a typical model, tall and skinny, or someone plus sized, and often no body shape in between. This lack of representation for a whole group of people leads to a loss of confidence and unhappiness. 

When unhappiness hits, people turn towards a source of escapism, such as drugs or alcohol. The song recognizes this trend in the youth:

​​Oh, your money is getting wasted

But you're always getting wasted all the time

Getting concerned about your lonely days

You're doing some more drugs

Getting caught in your "drug phase"

Especially with the romanticization of drugs on social media, this has become a widespread problem. Things like the media coverage of the legalization of marijuana has made marijuana more popular than ever, yet the effects of marijuana on undeveloped minds is a problem. As one’s brain matures at age 25, using drugs like marijuana can have negative impacts on the unstable minds. This can also easily lead to addiction, and compromise the lives of a great portion of the youth population. This song also brings up another, often overlooked point: how the upkeep of substance addiction adds up. This spending of money furthers the problem of debt, especially in the youth, as student debt is worse than ever before, crippling the lives of many as they slave over trying to pay back these loans. This leads to a vicious cycle of unhappiness, which then causes people to turn to substances, which uses up even more money, which then they struggle to make, which then leads to further unhappiness. This can easily lead to mental unwellness and often unstable relationships, due to personal discontentment. 

As such, another effect of addiction and being mentally unwell is to isolate oneself from others. This song brings awareness to this as a potentially unhealthy behavior, as it showcases the unhappiness that comes along with self-isolation. Especially since phones and social media has led to a virtual world that if often used to interact, sometimes more than in the real world, it has become easier than ever to isolate oneself from others, and to wallow in negative feelings without a break. This further compounds things like body dysmorphia, and a proclivity towards drug use, as the youth may further use social media as a way to sit and escape from their life, like a drug, and can become addicted to being constantly stimulated by social media. This also leads to an unhealthy lifestyle, which furthers unhappiness, a detriment to society.

All these factors can lead to feelings of despair, covered by the song in:

Have you heard the news

That you're on your own?

Have you heard the news?

You got nowhere to go, go, go, go, now

In this, the narrator thinks that they are unable to do anything on their own and they think they can’t go anywhere in life. These negative feelings are then likely subsided by drug use in: 

Well, I'll fly to the moon again

Well, I'm sleeping with clothes up on my head

I'll fly to the moon again

I'm dying in a hot tub

I'm dying in a hot tub with my friends

which denotes how the drugs have led the person to start hallucinating friends, as the previous verse they talked about being alone. This is compounded especially in the next verse as the person starts hallucinating even crazier things, making their brain unable to function to take them out of their depression and hallucinations. 

The subsequent verse furthers all these ideas:

Have you heard the news

That you're on your own?

I'll grab you a noose

'Cause you got nowhere to go, go, go, go, now

All these negative feelings mixed with a bad drug trip, where the hallucinations are getting too much and too real, leads to suicidal thoughts in order to escape feeling so horrible. And thus the title of the song reflects this sentiment in being called, “Dying in a Hot Tub” and perhaps relating to the imagery of self-harm in a tub in the song “Oh Ana” by Mother Mother. In “Oh Ana,” Mother Mother sings of slitting their wrists in a bathtub, to watch the blood evaporate, revealing mental illness. This is in first verse of “Oh Ana,” when Mother Mother sings:

I'll be God

I'll be God, I'll be God, I'll be God today

Hold my head under that bath and breathe away

Slit my wrists and watch that blood evaporate

Being this godly can't be good for

Ana's safety, Ana hear me

In this mantra throughout the song of “I’ll be God”, reveals the narrator’s wish to take control over their life, much like a god takes control of its creations' lives. 

Whether by inadvertently including this wish for self-control and to get better, “Dying in a Hot Tub” by Palaye Royal reveals the immense personal strength and will that must go into helping one become well once again- needing a God like effort that is truly challenging for many. And perhaps it is impossible for many, as shown by how “Dying in a Hot Tub” never directly demonstrates the narrator getting well, instead going further and further into the drug trip and deleterious thoughts. Perhaps I tried to write in a happy ending that this narrator never got- especially since the song is titled “Dying in a Hot Tub” which may reveal the death of the narrator.

All people are worthy of living happily ever after, yet with so many negative influences in society, will the youth ever make it to The End?

[thestargroove]

Billie Blog

Artist Profile on Billie Eilish

Scanning through the Instagram profile of Billie Eilish reveals different eras of Eilish’s career. 

Image Credits: knock, knock

Eilish started with her silver locks, synonymous with her “don’t smile at me” era, in her debut song “Ocean Eyes” that shot her to popularity. Eilish, along with her older brother, Finneas O'Connell, usually work together to make songs. Naturally-blonde Eilish wrote her first song at five years old and then went on to write songs for Finneas’s band. Finneas is a singer-songwriter and a record producer, who had a band but has since gone into record producing for artists, including Eilish (duh) and his solo career. 

Eilish and Finneas’s mother, Maggie Biard, who is a singer-songwriter and actress, taught them singing and songwriting. This expertise first culminated in 2015, when Eilish recorded the song “Ocean Eyes,” first written for Finneas’s band, and Finneas helped to upload it to SoundCloud. Over a few months, the siblings were brought to stardom as the song got millions of streams, even getting airtime on the radio. In just two years, the RIAA certified the song Platinum. Thus began the reign of Eillish’s somber style taking the pop music industry by storm.

In this same era, you have a flurry of singles and hair colors, some with music videos, such as “Bellyache” depicting a sunny environment yet still with Eilish’s moody twist. However, many of her songs did not have music videos, but that does not mean they were totally unpopular. Eilish sported lavender, baby blue or grey blue, white and teal hair throughout 2018 to 2019. Yet perhaps most monumental was when Eilish released “lovely” with Khalid in 2018. With it’s great success, it cemented Eilish’s spot in the pop music scene with the validity brought by collaborating with Khalid. 

In this time, you have a solidification of Eilish’s aesthetic, including sleepy eyes and a dark edge. Her baggy fashion choices were a defining aspect of Eilish, until her 2021 Vogue cover and Instagram posts of her in lingerie and more formfittings looks at events like the Met Gala or the LACMA Gala. Eilish is an advocate for nonconformity to social standards for women, in choosing not to wear form fitting or revealing outfits. She brought this topic to the public eye with her heralded and criticised looks, spanning from big puffer jackets to lose Chanel outfits. The idea of dressing how you feel comfortable, and not needing to reveal a woman’s body in order to be considered beautiful formed another aspect of Eilish’s identity, as an activist working against societal double-standards. She took this battle head on, and the feedback, where people would shame her for not showing her body but then once she posted her lingerie Instagram post, was faced with comments on how revealing the looks were, showing this double-standard. Thus, I believe I remember her posting in her Instagram story about this, saying something about how you cannot make everyone happy, and addressing the irony in the response to her looks. Afterall, if you try to make everyone happy, you will make no one happy, especially yourself. 

The next era came with her dark blue/navy hair, perhaps most noticeably in her hit song, “Bad Guy.” On the cover of the album, which this song is in, “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” you see this dark hair, and white baggy outfit. In this time, you have music videos really depicting this dark aesthetic, which greatly characterized Eilish with a gothy image and idolized Eilish as a mental health advocate. With themes of depression, with Eilish suffering from depression herself, and sad notions, such as suicuide, Eilish represented a youth generation battling with these issues in daily life. Even beyond this, in her music videos, you see environmental consciousness which really set Eilish apart to a small group of artists who brought awareness to environmental concerns, without having those big groups of artists, obviously told by their managers or labels that they need to support the environment in this campaign, and then never bringing that topic into anything else. In this way of acting to bring awareness to issues she finds important, Eilish has endeared herself to fans, beyond just the youth who appreciate her novelty in an often toxic industry. 

Following this era is her iconic black and neon green hair. This look has become an image of Eilish, being so distinctive that it essentially has become the EIlish look. She had this hair for a while, from July 2019 to March 2021, attending many events and touring extensively. This look was the longest she has had her hair in one style, which perhaps adds to the reason for it to be so iconic. This hairstyle is revealed to have emotional significance to Eilish in a tweet responding to ‘fans’ making fun of her hair color, where Eilish said that it showed that she was no longer depressed. She revealed that changing her hair color was a coping mechanism for her depression, so having that one style for a while revealed her finding happiness and mental stability. 

The next, and current, era was brought in when Eilish revealed her blonde hair on Instagram. This hair change, mixed with her aforementioned controversial Vogue cover set the ground for a new image for Eilish. You see this in the music videos of songs in her album, “Happier Than Ever,” such as the title song “Happier Than Ever” or “Billie Boss Nova.” Gone are the days of baggy clothes and colorful hair, ushering in a new era for commentary on being female, and the challenging the fashion associated with being a girl. As can be noticed from the title of her album, “Happier Than Ever” reveals her mental state in this time, in which she is happier, and focusing on self-love and growth, like in her song “Future.”

Between making music for movies, like “No Time to Die” for the new James Bond film, topping Billboard Charts, and making history as “the youngest artist in Grammy history and second overall to win all four general field categories—Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year—in the same year,” Eilish is taking the world by storm. While this blonde Billie era has just begun, I cannot wait to see what backwards notions she challenges next!

[thestargroove]

Not the Vibe: A Pianist Interview

Here lies an Interview with my roommate, a long time piano player, on piano, clout chasers, and widespread technological invasions of privacy. Wrapped up with our current favorite song! 

Welcome to two besties, with less than one brain cell (in total), trying to have a conversation that has a shred of academic value.

--

How did you get into playing the piano?

We have a piano in our house because my parents grew up playing the piano and still play every now and then so it was something that was there for me for as long as I can remember. When one of my parents would play, I would sit on the bench with them and would try to duet with them, like I saw them do together, but I would just be banging on the piano. So it was something of a family trait that I picked up because they did it. I also did ballet until recently, and was going to go pro but couldn't because my knee got injured. But since piano and ballet are so closely interwoven, they really became part of the same passion. Although I refuse to play pieces that I have danced to. Too much PTSD haha

What inspires you to play?

I love the feeling of being able to create music. Especially when you get to the point where you can just play a song straight through - no mistakes - and can just really vibe with the music. It just makes me feel so - happy I suppose. Don’t know how to describe it.

Have you seen those TikTok or Instagram videos of people “showing you” how to play a part of a song, but then they are not giving the correct notes? They basically just fake it for clout. 

YES! And it’s literally so stupid. Like bruh, it's not even hard to give the correct notes. You don’t even have to know how to play to be able to do just a few notes together like that. They legit will have a full orchestra playing with a piano dubbed over their stupid video. 

I don’t even play piano but it annoys me to no end. It’s such a blatant case of people abusing others through faking things on social media for their own gain. Like, dude, people could be actually trying to learn from you. There’s already enough trickery in the world, no need to do even more of it for absolutely no reason.

It doesn’t even make sense though, like if you can’t play the piano, why try to make videos about it? There’s so many other, more trendy things to do to get views.

Do you think piano playing is not trendy on social media?

Well, I think that compared to doing the dances to audios or doing something funny, it definitely has much less trending potential.

I agree but even I get these on my feed, but our algorithms are probably similar so that might be why we have both seen them. But I do feel like, if not an actual video of piano playing, the sound of the piano is very popular in many TikToks, do you find this true too?

Actually yeah, but it makes sense since the piano is so beautiful and such a popular instrument.

Do you think there is another reason piano is so popular on social media?

Could be that people think the piano is bougie so they want to use that - image?

I think so too. I mean, you see how everyone wants to seem so rich and perfect. I guess the piano gets abused for that. Although I love the piano too, so it’s not the worst crime because we get to enjoy it haha. A lot of people probably just enjoy the sound of the piano like we do. If we are gonna blame Instagrammers and TikTokkers, we should blame them for killing people’s mental health.

It’s so sad. 

I bet now that we just talked about pianos we are going to get crazy ads for them and our feed will have just straight piano stuff on it haha. Be prepared

Actually though! It’s so creepy how phones will listen to you and then spam you with ads for whatever the thing was.

It’s truly scary. Google probably knows more about us than we do. 

Yea, it’s so not the vibe.

“Caught a vibe~~~” (we dissolved into singing “Meet Me At Our Spot”)

--

We often hear the piano used online, so much so that we can become deaf to it. However, it is very visible when there are social media posts teaching you how to play the piano. Social media, and the internet, is wonderful for learning new things, sharing ideas, and spearheading the creation of knowledge by conversing and sharing opinions with others. After all, two (or more) minds, working in conjunction, can come up with better ideas than just one. In this respect, people can learn how to play the piano, or virtually anything else known to man, through videos online. Yet, some people abuse this wonderful tool for a cheap and easy attempt at personal gain. As we talked about in the interview, there are people who post videos teaching you how to play songs on the piano. Check out this parody video about this. Although it is greatly exaggerated here, it really is not much different from what people will actually post. In this way, we can see one example of how social media has lost all credibility. If you see or read something online, do not trust it at face value. Even well known news sources are subject to bias, whether it be political or for institutional gain. This lack of objectivity makes consuming news and knowledge tricky, as with all these perspectives constantly being thrown at you, how do you find some shred of truth to base your perspective on?  It’s so not the vibe.

[thestargroove]

The Scene of The New Pop →  Billie Eilish + Quarantine = A New Moody Pop

How Billie Eilish was able to create a new sad pop, and this scene reflecting the troubles of the youth.

Photo by Wikipedia

Relatability shoots young artists to stardom as showcasing emotions of the American youth drives music popularity. The COVID-19 pandemic quarantine of 2020 featured a widely discontent youth, isolated to a social media world and stumbling blindly through an unprecedented 21st century teenage experience. Teenagers normally feel lost in the marathon in finding oneself and the pandemic exacerbated this. Billie Eilish’s top selling album of 2020, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? reflected these disconcerting emotions, with heavy lyrics and moody melodies. These spiraling emotions also mimicked the spiraling economy where you have people memeing the moody economy, with job loss and stimmys as the common jokes. Being thrown into a social, monetary, and existential crisis, where everyone was fearing for loved ones, led to downcast emotions. Even introverted personalities, finally condemned to hypothetically ideal solitude, were not content with lives at stake. 

The album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, clearly reflects common culture. People do drugs when discontent and while they may not be popping Xanax, the CDC reported a thirteen percent increased stress induced drug usage and a spike in overdoses during the pandemic. The hyper-normalized drug culture in social media and subsequent overdoses created further tragedy that weighed upon the youth.  You can see Eilish directly reflecting this drug-craze trend in “xanny” by rejecting it in saying “I don’t need a xanny, to feel better” while “my strange addiction” caters to the culture in using drug language (exemplified in the title) to express a romantic relationship. You can also see this in another top selling album of 2020, called Legends Never Die, which is the first posthumous album by Juice WRLD, who died by drug overdose. The popularity of the album highlights this drug consciousness and youth angst. Juice WRLD’s heavy lyrics represent the downtrodden youth, where those friends and peers killed by toxic societal norms stay in the youth’s consciousness. 

Photo by Amazon.com

Similarly, the juxtaposition of relatable elements to youth, like Eilish using Invisalign in “!!!!!!!” or directly referring to LGBTQ+, a topic in the center of the public eye, in “wish you were gay” attribute to the album’s popularity. “you should see me in a crown” relays the “girl boss” trend, with female rights, and civil rights, being in the forefront of 2020 social issues. The increasing environmental consciousness of the youth is seen in the music video of “all the good girls go to hell,” in which Eilish struggles to fly with oil logged wings. You probably remember this from the PR nightmare for BP (British Petroleum) with their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil-covered birds unable to fly. (btw they are still spraying copious amounts of Corexit (an oil-dispersing chemical banned in the UK (BP home turf) in the Gulf today to keep the oil out of plain sight but we are already seeing horrendous environmental and health impacts with this - it's seriously messed up). 

Upper logo image from 10.gstatic.com

Image of bird from National Geographic

Moving on from things that should be illegal, the use of sound clips from “The Office” in “my strange addiction” spoke to homebody, quarantine trends, where existing and emerging streaming services gained more users than ever before in which “Americans spent 44% more time streaming video in the fourth quarter of 2020 than they did a year earlier, according to research firm Conviva.” This resulted in that section of the stock market reaching unprecedented success and gain, attributing to the pandemic stock market investing craze. On the other hand, “listen before i go,” a song about a person about to commit suicide, resonated with how the “rate of suicide among young people aged 10 to 24 increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018, according to a new CDC report”. Suicide is extremely relevant to the youth, where virtually all teens have experienced suicide related loss. With degrading mental health due to social media, perhaps some even struggle with suicidal thoughts daily. Thus, the narrative of “listen before i go”, “ilomilo”, where Eilish worries about death taking more friends, or “bury a friend” hits a sorrowful nerve in youth.

Another trend of normalized toxic behaviors in romantic relationships, “hooking up” instead of dating, and infidelity is represented in “when the party’s over,” showcasing this type of common relationship. “i love you” reflects this in how this hookup culture has resulted in fear of expressing feelings, because most just play around. With no explicitly happy songs, the album's popularity attributes to the youth’s common emotions. Even the trend of creating concept albums is highlighted in these songs leading into one another, or even being solely composed of other songs from the album, as seen in “goodbye.” 

Overall, the album by Billie Eilish, a nineteen-year-old artist, represents her fellow discontent youth of the quarantine. Her raise to fame with this gothy, sad aesthetic has created a new type of pop. Before Eilish, pop generally consisted of mathematically perfect, big production upper songs that were often about being happy. Eilish started a trend of bedroom records, or more organic songs that sound like they were recorded from home, being chart toppers, such as “Driver’s License” by Olivia Rodrigo. This new pop, most visible by the impact and scene of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, is the new anthem of a youth battling with growing-pains and a pandemic. 

All I know is that I can’t wait to see the next act of our new pop scene.

[thestargroove]

You are the bad guy, and so am I - duh.

Track aural aspects commentary on Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy”

We find the worst parts of ourselves called out in the best way possible by Billie Eilish in her dark and moody hit “Bad Guy.”

On the surface we have a haunting song about Eilish parading being a bad guy. Going a little deeper we find themes of misogyny and sarcasm. At the heart of it we find ourselves gazing right back at us. But how did Eilish hit us with this surprise soul-searching sesh?

The 808 bass is actually doing a lot of work, with its 8-bar chord loop keeping us grounded especially after being blown out to outer space with the mind-melting bass-boosted synth bass. You can practically see the douchey-but-hot-so-it-aight bassline snubbing and smirking while leaning on a wall that has respectably large signs on it that read, “Do not lean against” and “No smoking,” and you know what, that dude is surely smoking too. Smokin’ hot ;P. Nah jk smoking is a no-no kid and douches are so gross but this bassline makes the song more multi-dimensional, especially with the sound of ASMR-esque amplified finger taps taking the place of the kick drum and hammering home this sick heartbeat beat. 

For the first ¾ of the song you have a BPM of a nice brisk jog, hopping along at 135 BPM. Then you get catapulted into the cosmos in that wonderfully cynical last quarter with the BPM of 60 to really just help you into a soothing-brain-seizure in the best way possible. This song is super dynamic, as instead of the finger taps, you may find the beat has changed to different clipped audio, whether it be snaps or a clipped voice. You may even find ear-piercing dental drills or an Australian crosswalk sound, safely connecting you into the next verse. The half-spoken chorus ingeniously calls everyone out on their BS in her sarcastic, “I'm that bad type / Make your mama sad type / Make your girlfriend mad type / Might seduce your dad type / I'm the bad guy, duh.” In this she sees how everyone poses as a fake, cellophane-packaged version of themselves and says, “If you wanna act like that, so can I.” 

Photo from SoundCloud

She’s not really a bad guy, she’s just calling herself one like others do. Eilish makes us think about how we often put on a facade to conform to silly social norms. We even now have a habitat for all this peacocking, in the land of the social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. From fake private jets, to Photoshop, we all want to seem like we are the most socially desirable individuals. However, we are stranded from true personal growth and fulfillment when we stray from our true selves. If you are not acting like you, how can you see things in yourself that are good or that are detrimental? And of course everyone puts on a facade, but it shouldn't be so. It is so hard to stay true when others are not doing so, and even when trying not to, you might act like a bad guy out of frustration with the overt fakeness and lack of authenticity you find in many people. But think, if we all make the effort to stay true, and try to do what we love and be happy, not what others think make us happy, couldn’t we all easily become the good guys?

Gosh - all this insight, and some sick beats??? It couldn’t be anyone but Billie Eilish.

We get these dirty electropop/ dance-pop/ "pop-trap"/"nu-goth pop" beats in the key of G minor that puts you into the enticingly dark mood that Eilish wants you to be submerged in. Vocals ranging between F3 to C6 and a crazy-good, clean syncopation like when she is singing: 

“White shirt now red, my bloody nose

Sleepin', you're on your tippy toes

Creepin' around like no one knows”

is the icing on the cake of this overall minimalist production that gives the song a cutting-quality, making you focus in on listening. Really sitting down and listening to what is being done in this song makes you respect this song so much more because you can tell that a crazy amount of work went into it. To top it off, the synthesizer riff really makes this song insurmountably delectable, but everyone knew that when it topped multiple countries’ charts and “ended the record-breaking 19-week run of "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.”

Photo from Spotify

I don’t know what the O'Connells were feeding Billie and Finneas, but those siblings really know how to take over the world, slap everyone outta acting stupid, then drench it in black. Duh

[thestargroove]

Stu[dying?]

Is silence dying?

Why do we need music to study when students in previous generations did not have it? Is it unnatural to work while listening? 

My parents often berate me, telling me to listen to silence, to not listen to music. They quip how the increased use of smartphones have led for the youth to need constant stimulation. I wonder if we have become addicted to stimulation, as our brains have been rewired to crave going on our phone, or to listen to music to sate our crippled minds, riddled with boredom as we do assignments. I do find that sometimes I prefer silence when studying, but I also have a proclivity for taking little phone breaks while working. To try to combat the urge to do something more fun than work, I like to listen to music to put me in a good mood and to keep me from utter boredom, thus increasing my focus and ability to work. 

I think almost all of my friends and acquaintances listen to music while studying for the same, or a similar reason. Our addiction to phones, and subsequent addiction to music, has made us often unable to stand listening to silence. Just today, I talked with a friend who said that when it is silent, their ears hurt because they are used to being with family, friends, or listening to music all the time. Constant stimulation. Now while music may inhibit short-term memory performance and reduce productivity, many youths still prefer listening to music for any, and every task. 

It makes me wonder if silence is dying.

That being said, here are some songs that I love to listen to while studying!

These songs are all subdued enough to not be distracting, while still being absolute bangers that help me get through any type of assignment. 

Disclaimer: because these are songs that I’ve specifically picked out, they have enough personality to actually be a little distracting while working but they serve well as a pick-me-up. 

“Lobster” by Boy Called Cute just has immaculate vibes. It is a pop song that feels like a techno dream of a Californian-sunrise. Boy Called Cute are a five person indie pop/alt pop band. 

Solid song. Vibes check out. 

While “Lobster” felt like a Californian-sunrise, “I Can’t Handel Change” by R.O.A.R. feels like a wholesome dream of a Californian-sunset. “I Can’t Handle Change” talks about how not every bad thing that has happened to you is your fault and how it can lead to you being in places filled with toxic energy. This toxic energy can be found from a lack of peace with the world around you, and the silence that it can offer. If we cannot accept reality, and instead have to be soothed by music all the time, will we be truly able to grow? 

“Stars (Interlude)” is a pop song by Killkiyoshi. 

I love how in the beginning he starts singing and stops, as if he made a mistake and came in early. 

In the song, Killkiyoshi sings: “Elevate your mind with your own finds.” In this we find a need for true self-reflection and a space to really think about yourself, and get to know yourself. Perhaps silence is necessary for reflection, as to be truly in tune with how you feel, you need to fully listen to what your mind and body tells you.

“YKWIM?” by Yot Club. Read my blog post for the full run down. 

“YKWIM?” is a lo-fi song by Yot Club, the lo-fi band of Ryan Kaiser, who made this TikTok popular song.

It definitely generates a dopamine-overload. 

“YEAH RIGHT” by Joji is a R&B/soul song that talks about fucking up his life, partying, to get over a girl. Joji is a 29 year old singer, songwriter, and comedian from Japan who used to be a YouTuber.

I love the bass in the song. I think the idea of distracting yourself from something you do not want to think about, such as listening to music during homework, can be a poor way of dealing with problems and perhaps it requires you looking at what is the root of the reason of why you feel you need to be distracted. 

“this is what falling in love feels like” by JVKE is a dance/electronic pop song that aims to express its name in song form. JVKE is a 20-year hiphop/rap singer who made a few TikTok famous songs, including “Dandelion” and most popular “Upside Down” with over 70 million streams on Spotify.

Link to YouTube

Photo credits: Genius It feels like a math equation, a perfectly square song. The part where JVKE sings “This is falling, falling in love” sounds just like the Christmas song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid when it goes “Do they know it's Christmas time at all?“ and since I love Christmas, I’ll excuse the copy catting. (Lmk if they actually got permission for this)

These songs come together to set my mind in a peaceful-enough yet delighted state, to help me get through the loads of work I have, with a mediocrely sane mind. 

While I know that my phone has corroded my brain and that some researcher in the future will find that I’m probably murdering my mind as I listen to music for many tasks, good music is good music and good music needs to be listened to. It would be a crime not to listen. And in this devout nature of being a music lover, I’ve come to wonder: are we stu[dying?]

Here’s a link to a playlist of the songs! -> Creative Writing-Blog 4

[thestargroove]

Trapped: A Live Review of “Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber”

Will we escape from fantastical performances?

“Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” is a musical tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s career and perhaps collateral for flop movie, Cats. It was performed in the Paper Mill Playhouse, in Millburn, NJ and was only performed from January 30 to March 1 of 2020, likely cut short due to the Covid-19 quarantine. The show had a cast of thirteen, a mix of men and women, who were the leaders of this circus. 

Credit: Paper Mill Playhouse

Other reviews focus on how bad the occasional video snippets of Andrew Lloyd Webber were, and yes they were bad, boring, and painfully awkward, but that was not the biggest offense. The order of the songs and the seriousness of the play made it, at times, a fever nightmare. To be able to make someone who loves music, beg for a lifeline to save them from drowning in their own unfulfilled hope to get some shred of a narrative that would make the procession of the songs understandable is a feat unique to Unmasked. After all, Webber, in one of those videos that seemed to greatly offended some journalists, said that the most important element of any good play or musical, is having a narrative, a story, because that is what engages the audience, and makes them choose to believe in the fantasy of a play. Webber, please take your own advice and stop torturing us. But Webber focused for a bit on the idea of an audience choosing to believe in a story, in which it is obviously a phantasm, and they know that, but they are willing to believe in the narrative and thus, make it real. We see the same phenomenon in the highly curated and edited social media posts of content creators, in which we often choose to believe in the fantasy depicted by the photos. We even choose to believe in these narratives, of people with “perfect” bodies going on vacation everyday, living the life, and we base our own self-worth off of it. As we spend more and more time on social media, we forget about photoshop, and believe we should look and be doing just as the content creators do. This phenomenon has led to a young generation with cripplingly low-self esteem. However, with no respite, no curtain close on the show, will the young generations be able to escape from the after-effects of this fantastical social media performance?

What was not fantastical, were the costumes. Perhaps the costume designer was going for a more intimate impression, having the cast wear (presumably) their own black clothes, but the fashion was so terrible I found myself distracted, staring at their clothes in distaste. Like come on, if you are not going to give us a story, at least tell a story with the clothes or just have them wear something socially acceptable. 

Yes, those outfits really did greatly add to my annoyance with the show. But for stage wear using personal clothes, my tap teacher always focused on how the shades of black needed to be the same. Seeing outfits like the blond’s below would probably have driven my teacher out of the theater.

Credit: Paper Mill Playhouse

You may look at this and think, the outfits are not so bad, but when you are towards the back of the theater, where you find yourself surrounded by aged people who have a penchant for falling asleep during any type of entertainment, the outfits really looked as dead as the audience was. 

Now while I just slung dung at this musical for, well the whole review so far, I will say those money numbers, the “‘Til I Hear You Sing” or the “Memory,” when the stage lights are low, perhaps just one soft, glowing beam directing your spellbound eyes, and the magic of theater is most intoxicating, you fall in love. Chills. Your eyes well up. Gorgeous. Sublime. 

As you walk out of the theater, weary and traumatized, those moments made the whole two and half hours worth it. The show actually felt much, much longer than that. And perhaps the show is extended to your bed, as you lay, ready for sleep, and you willingly go back to the awed stupor those songs compelled. 

Was that too much? Perhaps, but those songs are meant for performance, to be listened to and to be personally felt, to help you continue to believe that you can get through the rest of the performance and Webber’s quips from odd camera angles. 

Credit: There Ought to Be Clowns

Now what really made me cringe is perhaps due to my personal interests. The violinist in me didn’t care for the “Theme and Variations 1-4 (From Paganini’s Caprice in A Minor, No. 24)” or “Variations On Variations” which are interpretations of Paganini’s famous caprice. The way the drums mixed with it was okay, but the electric guitar developing into some weird rock, then saxy jazz, then techno digital rendition of the song just made me sad. Listening to it now, it's not so bad but in the moment, I just got beaten down even more than I already was. At one point in the show, they took a person playing the double bass (quite badly, sorry) and put them upside down. I think they did it three times. The big, beautiful double bass is not meant for flight. I wanted to sob in fetal position each time they went back to brutalize that poor bass. It was almost as bad as when I watched La La Land and nearly yaked when they were tapping outside, on the pavement, with tap shoes. I know there are outdoor tap shoes but the indoor tap dancer in me felt like it was watching two dingdongs commit a federal crime. You do not - and I mean NEVER - wear indoor tap shoes outside. I shudder just thinking of flying cellos and destroyed tap shoes.

But as we devolve into more interesting things then this long-winded swank, I wonder, are we still trapped in the performances? S.O.S.

[thestargroove]

Doping off Lo-fi: An Album Review of Yot Club’s “Bipolar”

Yot Club’s lo-fi melodies represent the widespread sentiment in youth of trying to just feel okay as social media makes self-love and positive mental health a challenge.

Yot Club is the lo-fi band of Ryan Kaiser, who made the TikTok popular song “YKWIM?”

This song is part of Yot Club’s 2019 album, Bipolar, that includes 6 songs. However, none of the other songs from the album have reached the popularity of “YKWIM?” with over 87 million streams on Spotify.

Lo-fi music is more popular than ever before, as a pacification for those living in our increasingly dynamic and stressful world. The lo-fi genre started in the 1950s as a term for low-fidelity as young musicians with lower quality equipment created songs. As social media has led to an epidemic of body dysmorphia and spiraling mental states, lo-fi music, like “YKWIM?” has reached unprecedented levels of popularity, and rightfully so.

The joy in Yot Club is that his music is relatively simple- no crazy beat drops, no changes in melody mid-song- and all of the songs have the same mix of instruments. His songs favor a guitar paving the melody, whether it be a plucking surfer rock or a lazy synth dream, with drums offering a clean beat that wonderfully complement his signature distorted vocals that blur into echoing techno. The exploration of these same instruments brings continuity between the tracks and albums and allows for the listener to relax, and just accept the songs as they are. To peacefully coexist and flow with the melody and beat, rather than to strain for meaning or importance. His lyrics follow this ideology, as he brings relatable feelings of melancholy into light but offers easy-going wisdom, effectively both addressing the problem and solution, to leave you in a sated state. 

Now while I say that his music is simple, I mean that the songs won’t particularly trap you in its emotions. The music lets you flit between subdued melancholy and contentedness, and to just accept that that is how you feel in the moment, and then to move on. These kind-hearted melodies settle you in comfortably neutral emotion, while being constant enough to make focus on work easy. As a lo-fi band, Yot Club excels at making songs to release your dopamine, which improves focus and happiness. Due to this lo-fi-effect, many go to this type of music for studying or doing work. In this sense, Yot Club’s PG lyrics are perfect for anyone, of any age, to listen to when trying to get their focus on.

The first song in “Bipolar” is “Landlord,” which narrates an insomniac who is dreaming getting sleep.

This song features many of the elements of “YKWIM?,” with the dreamy melody and imagery. The song is something that definitely fits the lo-fi archetype, as the consistent instrumentation makes it easy to listen to the song, but to not actually listen too hard to it. It is inoffensively bland and a solid start to any study session. I find it charming how even the person writing up the lyrics did not know what he was saying at one part, which shows how cathartic the song can be, as you will not be trying super hard to figure out the lyrics, as the slurring dreamy vocals will lull you into dopamine dreamland.

The next song, “Go Slow,” features a higher tempo than “Landlord”, which is ironic considering the title is literally “Go Slow.” This song offers the lots of wisdom I previously mentioned, with delightfully affirming lyrics such as: “Just take your time, you're doin fine.” Today’s digital world can often make people feel inadequate, like they are not working hard enough, or are not as good as others, after seeing the posts of others enjoying their “perfect” bodies or luxury items. According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook even has documents showing that social media platform, Instagram, is toxic for teens. As teens, growing pains and finding your sense of “you” is a struggle that is exacerbated when seeing only the successes or picture perfect images of the highly curated content of influencers. I think this song speaks to the journey of an individual, that cannot be measured against others as everyone is different. Sometimes just hearing that everything will workout can help soothe anxiety about worldly issues.

The third song is - drum roll please- “YKWIM?” and I’ll be honest, I am a sucker for this song. Something about it definitely releases my dopamine. I love the dreamy downcast vibes and I think it acts as a very good counterbalance to the rest of the album, which has more upbeat, techno songs.

The overall flow of the album is very enjoyable, letting you dabble in different emotions, but not to the extent of being overwhelmed. An album of low-key pop melodies, all perfectly not distracting, is unique to Yot Club. Other lo-fi artists that aim to mix in other types of music, such as Joji, have songs in their albums that have more extreme melodies, which break your concentration. Instead of focusing on your work, you are now listening to the music. Joji’s album “BALLADS 1″ has the non-distracting lo-fi songs, such as “YEA RIGHT” but also has “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK,” his most popular song that has more contrast between the versus and the choruses, that makes you listen to the music. 

[thestargroove]

Generation Prescription Kids

As children we idolize young adults, trying to emulate their actions to “be cool.” Kids being on social media has expedited this process by allowing for lots of exposure to current trends. As there has been a strong social media presence as the youth has grown up, will the youth have the worst substance abuse epidemic to date? Let’s see what the music says.

The artist KID BRUNSWICK is on the rise, with his most popular song “Prescription Kid” having over 4 million streams on Spotify. His song features lively rock instrumentals, with a pulsing beat plus powerful drums and guitars that mix with a strong vocal emphasis to create a song that sounds like something a typical teen would blast in their rooms. 

As you can tell from the title, the song, “Prescription Kid” is about a kid who should not be using prescription drugs but does. While this narrative is featured in many other songs, “Prescription Kid” specifically highlights a worrisome trend that we may not think much about. 

“Ruin my life with that American shit

Let’s get high like American kids

If we wanna be cool, we gotta make ourselves sick”

To be honest, I don’t like the song. There - I’ve said it. But I do think that KID BRUNSWICK has lyrics here that make you pause and really think.

Doing drugs to be “cool” - this is not a new concept. There have been many songs over the ages having a glorified use of drugs: from the cannabis-adoring “Smokin’ Reefers'' by Larry Adler in 1938, to the common interpretation of “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles (1967) as a psychedelic, drug-related song. However, when these songs came out, people did not have access to the songs to the degree that we have today. Popular social media platforms, like TikTok, have enabled an unparalleled degree of accessibility and repetition of music clips to the extent that virtually the whole digital generation knows the same songs. However, have you thought about how TikTok has a prolific user demographic of young children? Furthermore, many of those TikToks actively promote drug use as a way to feel better. 

Perhaps even the young adults that grew up with social media have been affected by glamorized substance abuse. Hearing “Prescription Kid” reminded me of some friends I’ve made over the summer. They told me that they smoke marijuana every night when they hang out after work. When I asked one of them why, he said that it was an activity for them to do and that he didn’t know what else to do when hanging out with people. 

Now this was, and still is, a confusing concept for me. I understand the appeal of cigar clubs and bars as a habitual social event with a nuanced culture to bring people together. Yet it is concerning for recreational substances to be integral in a person’s social life. 

For many, like my summer friends, substance use has become synonymous with spending time together. This consistent use has led them to have withdrawals when they don’t hang out for a day, thus forcing them together once more. Being constantly exposed to drug related content on social media has led them to be unable to hangout without it, as it has become hyper normalized. In this respect, due to the accessibility to social media from a young age, addiction to substances could drastically increase in increasingly younger youth, as more and more children flock to act older and “be cool.” 

Now think - how many times have you caught yourself humming ElyOtto’s “SugarCrash!” after scrolling through your feed? Have you ever paid attention to the lyrics you sing?

“Everything I do is wrong

‘Cept for when I hit the bong

Hit the bong, hit the b-b-b-b-b

Feel good” 

After hearing a song once or twice you may not know what it's about. The upbeat, game-like techno style and youthful voice is distracting. However, the amount of times the song repeats while scrolling through your feed makes it hard for anyone, no matter the age, to not know the words.

Therefore, as young kids continue to “be cool” and act more mature, it seems that the glamorized perspective of drug abuse portrayed by social media and viral songs would likely lead to an even greater issue of substance abuse in the new generations. The profound effect social media has on children on their brain development has been addressed in the song “Coco” by PewDiePie, a YouTuber. 

“A billion views a week (what?)

A billion views a week (huh?)

Babies must be viewing when their mommy is asleep

While their brain is developing, before they can talk

They learn to subscribe before they can walk (what?)

Little three year olds with withdrawal symptoms

Mommy, please don’t take away the algorithm”

If a Let’s Play Vlog Comedy YouTuber is pointing out how much kids are being affected by social media, then you know it's pretty bad.

So, as we run out of letters to name the next generations, let’s hope our youth will not be deemed Generation Prescription Kids.