January 26, 2020 — I don’t have network TV, so this afternoon into the evening, I kept doing little searches to find out what’s going on with the Grammy’s. My girl, Lana Del Rey, was nominated with best song and best album, Norman Fucking Rockwell (the song and the album). Ordinarily, I would want her to win, but I didn’t think those were the best. And a caveat, or an apology, not sure which, both maybe, but the Grammy’s are heavily pop now. Rock has its own day — the day before, and honestly, I haven’t listened to the best rock song yet. What I was really anticipating though was Billie Eilish.

I honestly like her. I like that her music partner is her brother. If you haven’t seen her on Carpool Karaoke, she’s super human in that, and I don’t mean star-like, I mean, human. She sings a Beatles song too. So, so much for her not knowing things like Van Halen. Beatles, nothing really trumps the Beatles.

I think her songs are interesting. There’s one, the subject of an interview I watched with her and her brother, where they were talking song structure. My foray into music should have started with that video. The brother, his name is Finneas, talked about song structure, the normal verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus (or similar variations, and substitute solo for bridge in a rock song). The song they were talking about — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, has a crazy structure: hook, verse, drop, hook, … a whole bunch of things, not really even a chorus. I love this no structure thing, just kinda go for it, a poem, literally a poem, to music. I loved that song when I first heard it. Loved it. Probably because it dispensed with structure entirely. Finneas said, about the song, we’re just doing whatever we want now. That song (When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go) is also the name of Billie Elish’s debut-breakthrough album too. The album, and the most-radio-friendly song, Bad Guy, from the album, were both up for album of the year and song of the year, against my precious Lana. And Billie won in both categories. In best new artist too , as well as best pop album and best record (not sure the difference between song and record though, but apparently there is one). Finneas won as producer too. The album is really good, to me that is. Oh, and Billie? She just turned 18. The youngest person ever to be nominated in so many categories. Over-achiever, much?

What I like about Billie, other than the out-there-ness of her music, is sort of intangible too. It’s this sort of lack of emphasis on the pop of it all. No feuding with other pop women artist. No bodysuits for outfits. No attracting attention to her sexuality, just her music. Sure she has a sort of style, her crazy nails being the example, and honestly I think they are kinda cool too … except not for an aspiring guitar player; for her, cool. I like it that her voice is sort of simple, not belty, not pop diva. Her songs makes it seem like anyone could take their own poetry and set it to music in the privacy of their own home and have the record become song of the year and album of the year. In case you think I’m exaggerating, that’s exactly what they did — Billie and Finneas; they wrote the record in Finneas’ room in their parents’ Los Angeles house.

So there you have it. A girl with a dream, who never left her house, who never got into it with anyone else, who just did it. I feel like that’s the American Dream, music-style, if there ever was one. Way to go, Billie. And Finneas. Congratulations.