Beyond that, she recently announced her third album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, to be released May 17, 2024. She spent the days leading up to the announcement building excitement by adding all of her Instagram followers to her “Close Friends” list. Eilish had the most Instagram followers in 48 hours…with her count increasing by 7 million followers total.
While her debut album, when we all fall asleep…where do we go?, was a chart-topper in its own right, it landed Billie every GRAMMY it was nominated for at the ripe age of 18…Eilish has solidified herself as one of the most revered and sought-after popstars in the world.
Eilish recently caught media attention for quietly revealing her sexuality. In an interview with Variety, she states that she’s always liked girls…and assumed people always knew that. In a viral snippet from her new song, LUNCH, she details a love affair with a girl.
But people don’t only adore Billie for her catchy tracks that consistently top the charts. It’s not just her songwriting ability and unique vocals that keep us hooked. People love her because she’s unafraid to speak her mind.
Whether it be complaining about too many influencers being at an awards show, or calling out other artists for using unsustainable practices…Billie does not hold back.
Billie Eilish On Sustainability
Eilish home
rethinkingthefuture.com
The Eilish home is iconic for many reasons: it’s where Billie and Finneas recorded her debut album, countless other songs, and EPs, in an effort to conserve water there’s no grass, and the roof is covered in solar panels. And being environmentally conscious extends beyond the four walls of their home.
When the hottest young talent is discovered at such an early age like Eilish, record labels are chomping at the bit to sign them. It’s like when a D1 athlete is ready to commit to college…you have your pick.
But what Eilish and her mom, Maggie Baird, were looking for wasn’t about money or label-perks…they were seeking a solid sustainability program. And while that may seem like standard practice, most labels didn’t bring up environmental policies during these meetings at all.
After signing to The Darkroom via Interscope Records, the struggle didn’t stop there. Billie Eilish and her family have been consistent contributors to the fight against climate change.
Maggie Baird has since started Support + Feed, which focuses on the climate crisis and food insecurity. Support + Feed helped Eilish’s 2022 Happier Than Ever tour save 8.8 million gallons of water through plant-based meal service for the artist and crew members.
During Billie’s 2023 Lollapalooza performance, she aided the launch and funding of REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project – which guaranteed all battery systems used during her set were solar powered. The MCD’s overall mission is to lower – and eventually eliminate –the music industry’s carbon emissions.
But more recently, Billie Eilish called out other artists for releasing multiple versions of vinyls in order to boost vinyl sales. In an interview with Billboard, she says,
“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging … which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money and gets them more…”
Artists convince fans to buy different versions of their albums by offering exclusive features on each vinyl. Take Taylor Swift, for example, who released five separate vinyl versions of Midnights, each with a different deluxe “Vault” track.
While Billie may not have been trying to shade one artist in particular, the point is that she’s fed up. After being the rare artist in the industry who go out of their way to remain environmentally conscious, Eilish sets the bar high.
How Eilish’s New Album Is Sustainable
Billie for "Hit Me Hard and Soft"
William Drumm
Social media users were quick to claim Eilish was hypocritical by announcing that HIT ME HARD AND SOFT will have eight vinyl variations. However, each vinyl is made from recycled materials – either 100% recycled black vinyl or BioVinyl, which replaces petroleum used during manufacturing with recycled cooking oil.
This just illustrates that Eilish wasn’t directing criticism towards other artists for using vinyl variants to gain album sales…but she does think there are better ways to do it that benefit the environment without hurting their sales.
Americans have always had different interpretations of patriotism. Even the Founding Fathers couldn't agree on what it means to be a "good" democratic citizen: While Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin encouraged citizens to question or even rebel against an overly intrusive government, John Adams believed that publicly criticizing the government could put the welfare of the country in danger. The lines are no less fuzzy in modern history. Was Joe McCarthy a patriot? Is Edward Snowden? Colin Kaepernick? It depends on who you ask.
Judging by our favorite 4th of July movies though, you'd never know that American patriotism was so nebulous or complex, perhaps because the rah-rah films touting individualism and liberty—including favorites like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Forrest Gump, Patton, Independence Day, and Saving Private Ryan—aim to please rather than make us think. These films may go down easy, but they can also be unrealistic, representative of only a small fraction of our population, tacitly xenophobic, or even downright creepy (Birth of a Nation, for example).
We may never come to a definitive conclusion about what it means to be an American patriot, but perhaps that's not the point. Meaningful debate, critique, and reflection could be a healthy antidote to our current culture of division and broad generalizations. So, if you're looking for something that will make you think this 4th of July, here are 10 films, from political thrillers to dramas and biopics, that show America in all its shades of color, not just red, white, and blue.
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Robert Redford plays a CIA agent, code-named Condor, who must hide out after he finds his colleagues mysteriously murdered in their New York City office. Unsure of where to find safety, he persuades a woman (Faye Dunaway) to hide him in her Brooklyn apartment, where the two of them fall in love and together uncover a government conspiracy, discovering that the line between enemy and ally is dizzyingly blurred.
Do the Right Thing (1989)
On the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn, racial tensions flare between the Italian owner of a pizza shop and his mostly black clientele. Spike Lee's classic summer film captures a slice of New York City, and race relations in America, by weaving together different characters and plot lines. We all have to live with one another, but that doesn't always mean we'll go through the trouble of learning how to get along.
Into the Wild (2007)
Based on the true story of Alex McCandles, a young idealist who wanted to live a self-reliant life a la Thoreau in the great American west, Into the Wild asks crucial, and difficult, questions about American individualism: what does it really mean to be self-reliant? How can we find a sense of connection amid a corrosive culture of consumerism? The movie paints McCandles' romantic idealism in a sympathetic light, but refuses to make him a martyr.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
This visually stunning film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson tells the story an American oilman (Daniel Day Lewis) at the turn of the 20th century who persuades a small town in California to let him drill for oil on their land. About the relentlessness of our capitalist spirit, greed, and the twin rivers of oil and blood, There Will Be Blood offers an unsettling vision of American history.
Milk (2008)
Sean Penn gives an Oscar-winning performance in this 2008 biopic about Harvey Milk, the groundbreaking gay rights activist and politician in San Francisco who was killed while running for office in 1978. A moving tribute to those who have moved the needle on LGBT rights, and those who are still dedicating their lives to making progress 50 years later.
Hurt Locker (2008)
An elite team of specialists led by the sometimes-reckless Sgt. William James, are tasked with defusing improvised bombs in Iraq in this suspenseful film directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Hurt Locker does not romanticize the traumas of war, including those experienced at home and shows a war hero in a more complicated, even unsavory, light.
Selma (2014)
In this historical drama directed by Ava DuVernay, Martin Luther King Jr.'s march from Selma to Montgomery is seen from a different angle. The film shows the backroom dealing and planning that went into the march—including discussions with Lyndon B. Johnson as he wavered on passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965—to show us how history is really made, in fits and starts rather than sweeping, epic moments.
The Big Short (2015)
Based on Michael Lewis's nonfiction book, The Big Short is a cutting, tragicomic re-enactment of the financial players involved in the 2008 housing bubble and eventual financial collapse. A scathing indictment of big banks' greed, the movie still manages to entertain and even explain subprime mortgages, as Margot Robbie does while languishing in a bubble bath, in ways that actually make sense.
Brooklyn (2015)
Based on the book of the same title by Colm Toibin, Brooklyn tells the story of a young Irish immigrant who movies to New York in the 50s during a famine that ravaged much of the Irish population. At first homesick, she soon starts a relationship with a young Italian-American mechanic, and is torn between the possibilities of her new life, and the one she left behind. A tear-jerking but uplifting story that speaks to the immigrant experience in America.
O.J.: Made in America (2016)
This ESPN series is a five-part special about the life and trials of football star O.J. Simpson. Director Ezra Edelman doesn't just focus on Simpson and the murder of Nicole Brown, but also examines the impact of fame and race on matters of justice, and how Simpson's story parallels 50 years of racial conflict in the US, including instances of police brutality. Edelman forces us to question what is "true" in a society where truth and justice are not always aligned.