Grimes
When I met Grimes — the project ofDIY musician, writer, performer, and producer Claire Boucher — after her recent Nashville concert, our first exchange was one of unabashed praise. “Your voice,” she said to me. “It is exceptional.”
As a grown woman with the distinctly high-pitched (frequently mimicked) speaking voice of a 3-year-old on Christmas morning, Grimes’ compliment was utterly validating. Naturally, I cried a little, thanked her a lot, and proceeded to truthfully share my gratitude for her work with the same utter sincerity that she presents within her own striking musical oeuvre.
Grimes is completely unapologetic in her art production and presentation of her own self-engineered pop stardom. The musician conjures visions of a sci-fi galactic queen warrior. She is a keen engineer of sound and lyrical structure and possesses vocals both angelic and strong. She discernibly curates her production and openly admires alternative or esoteric music, such as Tool and Marilyn Manson, while also drawing from ultra-pop sensations like Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey. Her personal brand is one of bubblegum and subversion and reflects her incredibly nuanced musical tastes, which she claims grew from a post-Internet upbringing and the “access to everything” it afforded.
Grimes opens both her latest record Art Angels and her recent live shows with a musical intro featuring the influence of Classical music paired with iridescent, Enya-like vocal layerings, all of which is submerged in video game audio effects and J & K-Pop beats. Boucher is lovingly obsessed with a multitude of musical genres and her refusal to label anything a “guilty pleasure” is not just refreshing but also empowering.
Although every time I listen to a Grimes album, and with each subsequent release of her work, I feel my personal voice is affirmed, the artist has faced criticism. Much of this backlash is steeped in the sexism that pervades the world of pop music, including the overarching fallacy that women can’t genuinely perform and produce music. Music critic and Rookie contributor, Jessica Hopper, eloquently nailed this in a recent Pitchfork review of Grimes’ latest album, calling it a, “a gilded coffin nail to outmoded sexist arguments that women in pop are constructed products, a mere frame for male producers’ talents—that because their music is immaculate, they are somehow not authentic.”
But her music can be divisive for the casual listener in other ways, too — many of whom seem quick to judge the artist based on their obedience to existing musical hierarchies. Reviewers often fail to value the elements of her work that aren’t dark or more outwardly unconventional, and some of the more shallow critiques completely gloss over her broad spectrum of musical references.
This idea of a musical hierarchy — that underground sounds are more valuable than those loved by the masses — is a compelling dilemma that many popular musicians have previously faced. Bob Dylan faced plenty of vitriol for going electric and Blondie was rejected by CBGB punks after crossing-over into an amalgam of new wave dream-disco that was just too damn loved by the masses.
To be fair, there are of course some insanely nuanced and positively productive criticisms of Art Angels. Will Butler of Arcade Fire, for example, investigated his initial, instinctive feeling of repulsion and evaluated from where that reaction might have stemmed.
“My problem — my personal problem — is that I grew up prejudiced against 2000s pop.” he wrote. “Grimes is a genuine world-builder. She could make worlds big and convincing enough to change lots of people’s perception of the actual world.”
No matter others’ opinions of her, though, Grimes continues to refuse to isolate her influences to one particular genre. As she reflected in the Guardian, “Pop is just another genre. Some of my songs are influenced by pop music. Some of them are not. The whole purpose of Grimes is that it’s genreless.”
Instead of feeling alienated by Grimes, mainstream music, or the mixing of different kinds or levels of art, therefore, I think we should realize Art Angels is a groundbreaking deconstruction of mainstream acceptance. As Grimes sings in her song “California,” it’s okay to question the criticism of others, and to proudly wear your artistic interests like a badge of honor, because, “This, this music makes me cry/It sounds just like my soul.”