Goth-pop Electronica, Dark Wave, Witch House... I'm enjoying all of these genre names. I have increasingly gotten interested in Grimes, moniker for Canadian artist, Claire Boucher. Now that I've played through her catalog and joined in the internet's curiosity with her, I've come to like her...more than her music.
She's got a little impish grin, an endearing lisp, genuine humility that is so refreshing, tons of creativity and talent spread over many disciplines - singing, layered music composition, live shows, dancing, drawings, paintings, video concepts and directing and style - she reflects what I believe defines this emerging generation, more an any other artist out there.
"More than any other artist out there?" Those are big words and big shoes to fill. Well, not really. It's not the Hall of Fame, it's just a sign of the times. She reminds me a little of Tavi Gevinson.
This is the first generation that has grown up with the internet as part of their psyche. They know no world without this information depot a finger's length away at any second. They've spent their free time, their aimless teenage hours, browsing the net, finding bands, and clothes, and pop cultural movements, scrolling through infinite collections of pictures and snippets on sites like Tumblr and Reddit.
Elders like to point fingers and claim "today's kids have no attention span!" That might be true, but there are benefits and drawbacks to everything. The next generation has an unprecedented amount of information swirling around in their brains.
Intelligent ground breakers like Grimes personify this mix in the best possible way.
Represented in her style, music, and videos, there are shades of pop culture from every country, from every era, and from every angle: elements of Japanese anime, mainstream low-brow humor like The Simpsons and Family Guy, fringe Goth movements from the 90s like Marilyn Mansion and the ravers, beach and surf culture, hyper-sexualized Bubblegum pop from the late nineties, R&B divas like Mariah Carey, then there's Russian Literature and classic avant-garde film, underground hip-hop and noise bands, it goes on and on.
Her influences are so disparate that a decade ago she would've been a blip on the fringe of society, but today, because her experiences mirror so many of her information-saturated peers, the interpretation of these influences through her art is mainstream relevant.
She's able to funnel all of this into something new and creative. It is truly interesting, mainly because you can tell she finds it really interesting. Even though, honestly, I don't love her music, I find her style and videos like a black hole of goodies that want to be explored
According to an interview this video is supposed to be based on her interpretation of religion as she saw it as a child who was simultaneously watching loads of anime.
