In a series called Mondo Appropriato, Culled Culture examines how “on the nose” something is in the pop cultural and/or political landscape.
As the first year to mark Charli XCX’s true, unmitigated Establishment acceptance, it came as no surprise that the erstwhile “fringe” pop star has been honored with seven Grammys (*cough cough* that’s one more nomination than “Grammy queen” Taylor Swift received) at the upcoming February ceremony. So celebrated and at last understood is XCX that she even managed to break into categories that never would have been “open” to her in the past (e.g., Record of the Year and Album of the Year). In fact, the only other times (twice) that XCX got nominated, it was for a “pop duo performance”—“Fancy”—back in 2015 (at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards). A collaboration with, of all people to lead Charli to the Grammys, Iggy Azalea.
In the decade since that moment, XCX has more than proven her musical prowess (though she already had done just that many times prior—and definitely far more than Azalea in 2014). And so, after much blood, sweat and (diamond-encrusted) tears, gone are the days of “riding on the coattails” of Azalea and “Fancy” in order to get to the Grammys. Oh no. XCX is there all on her own. And she’s now the one responsible for getting “fresher” talent nominated on hercoattails. Case in point, the “von dutch” remix featuring Addison Rae being nominated in the category of Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.
Indeed, Rae’s ascendancy in 2024 is, in many ways, attributable to her connection to XCX, constantly promoting and talking Rae up whenever she has a new single out (this year, it was “Diet Pepsi” and “Aquamarine”). And while a solo artist as “seasoned” (at the tender age of twenty-two [going on twenty-three]) Billie Eilish hardly needs XCX’s help when it comes to garnering recognition, it didn’t hurt the former to work with the latter on a remix for “Guess,” eventually featured on Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat.
In fact, the most “controversy” (if one would even go so far as to call it such) that Eilish dusted up all year was thanks to being deemed “predatory” by an internet troll claiming that the lyrics, “Charli likes boys/But she knows I’d hit it” were “too much.” Or, to be more specific, “Billie’s verse on ‘Guess’ is high-key predatory, but y’all blinded by her usual queerbaiting for commercial gain. Ever since the ‘Lost Cause’ controversy, she’s been reducing girls to mere objects, all in an effort to convince the masses that she’s actually into them lol. Charli is thirty-two and engaged FYI.” Eilish’s brother/producer/protector, Finneas O’Connell, quickly came to his sister’s defense, commenting on the video, “What a take you little clown. I got to watch the entire internet slam my sister for queerbaiting for an entire year when in reality, you were all forcing her to label and out herself.”
In other words, Eilish was damned if she didn’t label herself as “queer” and damned if she did. But honestly, probably no one would have thought the latter in 2024, when being queer is probably less weird than being “straight” (à la Charli, who gets street cred despite her hetero nature because she’s a gay icon). In any event, despite the song’s “scandalous” lyrical content, the Recording Academy still took to favoring it as its pick from the Brat (remix) album for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. This in lieu of something, let’s say, more profound. Something called “Girl, so confusing” featuring Lorde. Because, yes, it’s no secret that, although the Establishment has finally seen fit to acknowledge an artist who has thus far been so “peripheral” (by their normie/Swiftian standards), it’s not ready to blow the lid entirely off “tradition.” And tradition dictates that it’s always preferable to choose the less meaningful/weighty song from an album for Grammy consideration. Gravitating instead toward the song with—let’s just say it—the most froth. And “Guess” has that in spades, both in its original and remix form. Including the verse, “You wanna guess the color of my underwear/You wanna know what I’ve got going on down there/Is it pretty in pink, or all see-through?/Is it showin’ off my brand-new lower back tattoo?”
Pitted against the far more transcendent pop duo performance of Charli and Lorde, it was obvious that “Girl, so confusing” never had a prayer in terms of being nominated. The issues it explores—female jealousy, camaraderie and how the two are often intertwined—are far too philosophical for an institution like the Recording Academy to respect more than something as sexually charged as “Guess.” Particularly when it comes to what the RA deems “worthy” of a nomination from a female musician. And if a song isn’t sexy, then it should at least be about unrequited love/pining away for a man. Not the subtle nuances of female friendship and power dynamics. And certainly not the pressures of wanting/“needing” to uphold a particular bodily ideal that only women seem to be a prisoner to.
While, sure, some would try to argue that the Recording Academy nominates Taylor Swift and Beyoncé all the time and that they both have plenty of “profound” lyrics, the truth of the matter is that none of those lyrics cut to the quick/core of any real issues (apart from, in Bey and Swift’s case, being slighted in a romantic relationship, therefore adhering to the aforementioned “pining away for a man” category—though Beyoncé does throw in some occasional “empowered” I’m rich and hot lyrics). Issues as hard-hitting and perennial as the sense of unspoken competition between women—regardless of whether they’re friends, “frenemies” or just outright enemies—is simply still too “anathema” to an entity as old hat as the Grammys.
But perhaps, with XCX managing to use her “claws” (a How I’m Feeling Now song title reference, in case you’re a Brat-exclusive “fan”) to finally finagle a nomination sweep at the ceremony, a shift in what types of subject matters are given rightful attention and due can’t be far behind. After all, it’s also the first year that there are no male artists nominated in the Best Pop Solo Performance or Best Pop Vocal Album categories—another mark of progress.
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