#con: of all the music in the show apparently the sia song has to be the one i can't get out of my head this morning

[shapoopy178]

So yeah last night was pretty cool

[i-am-very-very-tired]

Somewhere between Britney and Billie Eilish, liberated by social media and their direct relationship with fans, millennial and Gen Z women claimed the right to be complicated pop auteursRead all of the essays in the decade retrospective

📷 Laura Snapes Mon 25 Nov 2019 13.12 GMT 174

While Billie Eilish has reinvented pop with her hushed SoundCloud rap menace, creepy ASMR intimacy and chipper show tune melodies, there’s also something reassuringly comforting about her: as a teenage pop star, she has fulfilled her proper duty by confusing the hell out of adults. It’s largely down to her aesthetic: a funhouse Fred Durst; a one-woman model for the combined wares of Camden Market. Critics have tried to make sense of it, but when editorials praised Eilish’s “total lack of sexualisation”, she denounced them for “slut-shaming” her peers. “I don’t like that there’s this weird new world of supporting me by shaming people that may not want to dress like me.”To Gen Z’s Eilish, not yet 18, it is a weird new world. She and her millennial peers have grown up in a decade in which pop’s good girl/bad girl binary has collapsed into the moral void that once upheld it, resulting in a generation of young female stars savvy to how the expectation to be “respectable” and conform to adult ideas of how a role model for young fans should act – by an industry not known for its moral backbone – is a con. “It’s a lot harder to treat women the way they were treated in the 90s now, because you can get called out so easily on social media,” Fiona Apple – who knows about the simultaneous sexualisation and dismissal of young female musicians – said recently. “If somebody does something shitty nowadays, a 17-year-old singer can get on their social media and say, ‘Look what this fucker did! It’s fucked up.’”📷 Lunatics conquering the asylum ... the Spice Girls. Photograph: Tim Roney/Getty ImagesFemale musicians have been subject to conflicting moral standards for longer than Eilish has been alive. Madonna, Janet Jackson and TLC knew them well – but the concept of the pop “role model”, expected to set an example to kids, solidified when the Spice Girls became the first female act to be marketed at children. In the 70s and 80s, idols such as David Cassidy primed girls for a monogamous future. By comparison, the Spice Girls were lunatics conquering the asylum. But, given their fans’ youth – and the sponsors that used the band to reach them – they also had a duty of responsibility. Their real lives – the all-nighters and eating disorders – were hidden so effectively that Eilish, born in 2001, thought the band was made up, actors playing the roles of the group in Spiceworld: The Movie.In the late 90s, kid-pop became an industry unto itself: Smash Hits and Top of the Pops magazine pitched younger; CD:UK and America’s TRL aimed at Saturday-morning and after-school audiences; Simons Fuller and Cowell built empires. The scrappy Spice Girls preceded the cyborgian Britney, who was a far sleeker enterprise – until she wasn’t. She was pitched as a virgin: cruel branding that invited media prurience and set a time bomb counting down towards her inevitable downfall. Britney’s 2007 breakdown revealed the cost of living as a virtuous cypher and being expected to repress her womanhood to sell to American prudes. Her shaved head and aborted stints in rehab prompted industry handwringing, and so an illusion of the music business offering greater freedom and care for pop’s girls emerged in her wake. Advertisement Major labels abandoned the traditional two-albums-in bad-girl turn (a la Christina Aguilera’s Stripped). Social media-born artists such as Lily Allen and Kate Nash were swept into the system and framed as the gobby antithesis to their manicured pop peers – until their resistance to exactly the same kind of manipulation saw them cast aside. And if Kesha, Lady Gaga or Amy Winehouse burned out, their visible excesses would distract from any behind-the-scenes exploitation, inviting spectators to imagine that they brought it on themselves.📷 Reclaiming the hard-partying values of rock’s men ... Kesha. Photograph: PictureGroup / Rex FeaturesAt the dawn of the 2010s, social media surpassed its teen origins to become an adult concern, and an earnest fourth wave of activists brought feminism back to the mainstream. Like a rescued hatchling, it was in a

pathetic state to begin with – dominated by white voices that tediously wondered whether anything a woman did was automatically feminist. Is brushing your teeth with Jack Daniel’s feminist? Are meat dresses feminist? Is drunkenly stumbling through Camden feminist? Are butt implants feminist?Pop culture became the natural test site for these ideas – especially music, where a new wave of artists challenged this nascent, often misguided idealism. Kesha reclaimed the hard-partying values of rock’s men to embody a generation’s despair at seeing their futures obliterated by the recession. Lady Gaga questioned gender itself, as one writer in this paper put it, “re-queering a mainstream that had fallen back into heteronormative mundanity”. In a career-making verse on Kanye West’s Monster, Nicki Minaj annihilated her male peers and gloried in her sexualisation. MIA, infuriated by America’s hypocritical propriety, flipped off the Super Bowl and proved her point by incurring a $16.5m fine.📷 Infuriated by hypocritical propriety ... MIA gives America the middle finger during her Super Bowl performance in 2012. Photograph: Christopher Polk/Getty Images Advertisement As a former Disney star, Miley Cyrus stepped the furthest out of bounds. In 2008, aged 15, she had posed in a sheet for Vanity Fair. “MILEY’S SHAME,” screamed the New York Post. She apologised to her fans, “who I care so deeply about”. But in 2013, she torched her child-star image by writhing in her knickers on a wrecking ball, twerking against Robin Thicke, being flagrant about her drug use, appropriating African American culture while perpetuating racist stereotypes.Cyrus’s 2013 transformation bore the hallmarks of a breakdown – especially witnessed two years after the death of Amy Winehouse, who was then perceived as a victim of her own self-destruction. But Cyrus was largely intentional about her work (if, then, ignorant of her racism). She had waited until she was no longer employed by Disney to express herself. Earlier in her career, she said, she struggled to watch her peers. “I was so jealous of what everyone else got to do, because I didn’t get to truly be myself yet.” Despite apparently smoking massive amounts of weed herself, she didn’t want to tell kids to copy her. But she knew the power she offered her peers such as Ariana Grande, who that year left Nickelodeon to release her debut album. “I’m like, ‘Walk out with me right now and get this picture, and this will be the best thing that happens to you, because just you associating with me makes you a little less sweet.’”Pop did get a little less sweet. Sia and Tove Lo sang brazenly about using drugs to mask pain. Icona Pop’s I Love It reigned (“I crashed my car into a bridge / I watched and let it burn”) thanks to its inclusion on the soundtrack of Lena Dunham’s Girls. With its aimless characters and their ugly behaviour, the show mirrored pop’s retreat from aspirational sheen, and the culture’s growing obsession with “messy” women and “strong female characters”: flawed attempts to create new archetypes that rejected the expectation of girls behaving nicely.📷 An explicit rejection of role-model status ... Beyoncé performs at the Super Bowl in 2013. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesA new cohort of young female and non-binary critics shifted the discussion around music: in 2015, when the documentary Amy was released, they questioned how Winehouse was perceived in death compared to Kurt Cobain. They also pushed aside the virgin/whore rivalries of old. In an earlier era, Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey might have been fashioned into nemeses, one sexualised and powerful, the other gothic and demure. Instead, their respective mid-decade self-mythologising showed that female musicians could be pop’s auteurs, not just the men in the wings. Advertisement Beyoncé’s self-titled 2013 album was an explicit rejection of her role-model status. She was 15 when Destiny’s Child released their debut album. “But now I’m in my 30s and those children that grew up listening to me have grown up,” she said in a behind-the-scenes video.

The responsibility she felt to them “stifled” her. “I felt like ... I could not express everything … I feel like I’ve earned the right to be me and express any and every side of myself.”It was the first of her albums to reveal the breadth of her inner life – the coexisting kinks, triumphs and insecurities, showing the complexity of black womanhood. The critic Soraya Nadia McDonald wrote: “Mixed in with songs about insecurity, grief, protest and the love she has for her child, Beyoncé manages to present her sexuality as a normal part of her life that deserves celebration.” “It doesn’t make you a bad mother. It doesn’t make black people look bad, and it doesn’t make you a bad feminist, either.” When Beyoncé emblazoned “FEMINIST” on stage at the 2014 MTV VMAs, she helped reclaim the word from middle-class white discourse.Like Beyoncé, Del Rey countered the idea that female pop stars were major-label puppets. She had struggled to make it as an indie artist but found a home at Polydor – a detail that caused detractors to question her authenticity. Her shaky debut SNL performance revealed the flaw in their thinking: if she was manufactured, wouldn’t she have been better drilled? Her project was potent, but startlingly unrefined. More intriguingly, she opposed fast-calcifying ideas about how feminist art should look: Del Rey’s lyrics revelled in submission and violence, in thrall to bad guys and glamour. It wasn’t feminist to want these things; but nor was it feminist to insist on the suppression of desire in the name of shiny empowerment.📷 Exposing industry machinations ... Azealia Banks at the Reading festival in 2013. Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty Images Advertisement Del Rey’s lusts and designs were her own – pure female gaze – a hallmark of the defiant female pop stars to come. Rihanna said she was “completely not” a role model, a point driven home by the viscerally violent video for Bitch Better Have My Money. Lauren Mayberry of Scottish trio Chvrches refused to be singled out from her male bandmates and wrote searingly about the misogyny she faced online. Janelle Monáe and Solange rubbished the idea that R&B was the only lane open to young black women.They started revealing their business conflicts. In 2013, 21-year-old Sky Ferreira finally released her debut, six years after signing a $1m record deal. She was transparent about her paradoxical treatment: “They worked me to death, but when I wanted to input anything, it was like, ‘You’re a child, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’” When Capitol pulled funding for the album, she financed its completion: it was widely named an album of the year. Facing similar frustrations, rapper Angel Haze leaked her 2013 album, Dirty Gold, and Azealia Banks wasted no opportunity to expose industry machinations.The rise of Tumblr and SoundCloud put young artists in control of their own artistic identities, forging authentic fan relationships that labels couldn’t afford to mess with. Lorde was signed age 12, but her manager knew he had to follow her lead because she knew her audience better than he did. Halsey was already Tumblr-famous for her covers, hair colours and candour about her bisexuality and bipolar diagnosis when she posted her first original song in 2014. It received so much attention that the 19-year-old – who described herself as an “inconvenient woman” for everything she represented – signed to major label Astralwerks the following evening.A new type of fan arrived with them. The illusion of intimacy led to greater emotional investment – and with it, an expectation of accountability. Social media was being used to arbitrate social justice issues, giving long overdue platforms to marginalised voices, and establishing far more complex moral standards for pop stars than the executives who shilled Britney’s virginity could ever have imagined. In 2013, Your Fav Is Problematic began to highlight stars’ missteps: among Halsey’s 11 infractions were “sexualising Japanese culture” and allegedly falsifying her story about being “homeless”.Musicians, particularly of an

older guard, were unprepared. Lily Allen’s comeback single Hard Out Here, released in late 2013, satirised the impossible aesthetic standards expected of female musicians – a bold message undermined by the racist stereotypes she invoked to make her point: “Don’t need to shake my arse for you ’cause I’ve got a brain,” she sang, while black and Asian leotard-clad dancers twerked around her in the video. The backlash was swift. There was the sense of a balance tipping.📷 Refused to let terrorists suppress girls’ joy ... Ariana Grande at One Love Manchester, 4 June 2017. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/One Love Manchester/Getty Images Advertisement Over the decade, female pop stars steadily self-determined beyond the old limited archetypes. But the most dramatic identity shifts were still a product of adversity, women battling for control.In 2015, Ariana Grande provoked mild outcry when she got caught licking a doughnut she hadn’t paid for and declaring: “I hate America.” Two years later, a suicide bomber attacked her concert at Manchester Arena, leaving 22 dead. She went home to Florida in the aftermath, then returned to stage benefit concert One Love Manchester. A victim’s mother asked Grande to perform her raunchiest hits after the Daily Mail implied that the bomber had targeted the concert because of her sexualised aesthetic. So she did. By prioritising her mental health and refusing to let terrorists suppress girls’ joy and sexuality, she set a powerful example for fans that ran counter to the moralising of commentators such as Piers Morgan.Grande appeared to emerge from this tragedy – and the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller – with a renewed sense of what was important, and what really was not. Her next album, Sweetener, defiantly reclaimed happiness from trauma; she swiftly released another, Thank U, Next, abandoning traditional pop release patterns to work with a rapper’s spontaneity. “I just want to fucking talk to my fans and sing and write music and drop it the way these boys do,” she said.Kesha had helped instigate this decade of greater freedom for female musicians – or so it seemed until October 2014, when she sued producer Dr Luke, making allegations including sexual assault. (In spring 2016, a judge dismissed the case; Luke denies all allegations and is suing Kesha for defamation.) She claimed she was told she had to be “fun”, an image that Luke’s label intended to capitalise on, revealing how revelry could be just as confining as its prim counterpart. In 2017, she released Rainbow, her first album in five years. Addressing her trauma, it got the best reviews of her career – a response that also seemed to reveal something about the most digestible way for a female artist to exist. But her forthcoming album, High Road, pointedly returns to the recklessness of her first two records. “I don’t feel as if I’m beholden to be a tragedy just because I’ve gone through something that was tragic,” she said.Taylor Swift’s refusal to endorse a candidate in the 2016 election, and the fallout from a spat with Kanye West, saw her shred her image of nice-girl relatability with her 2017 heel-turn, Reputation. But she rebelled more meaningfully when she leveraged her profile to expose the music industry, alerting the public to otherwise opaque matters of ownership and compensation. She joined independent labels in the fight to make Apple Music pay artists for the free trial period it offered consumers. Earlier this year, she despaired at her former label, Big Machine, being bought – and the master recordings to her first six albums with it – by nemesis Scooter Braun, an option she claimed she was denied. Now signed to Universal, and the owner of her masters going forward, she hoped young musicians might learn from her “about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation”, she wrote. “You deserve to own the art you make.” Advertisement Swift’s formative politesse came from country music, an industry that emphasises deference to power and traditional gender roles. In 2015, consultant Keith Hill – using a bizarre metaphor about

salad – admitted that radio sidelined female musicians: they were then subject to endless questions about tomatogate, as if they had the power to fix it. But that blatant industry disregard freed female country artists to shuck off obligation and make whatever music they wanted. In recent years, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Brandy Clark, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile and Margo Price have all creatively outstripped their male peers.📷 ‘Just me existing is revolutionary’ ... Lizzo. Photograph: Owen Sweeney/Invision/APTheir situation resonates beyond country: greater personal freedoms for female musicians haven’t equated to greater commercial success. Just because a wave of female pop acts have refused old industry ideals, that doesn’t mean control is consigned to the past. There will be young women enduring coercive music industry situations right now – whether manipulation or more serious abuse. Some may never meet those impossible standards, and fail to launch. Others may quietly endure years of repression before potentially finding their voice. There are high-profile female pop acts working today who control their work yet are still subject to grinding suggestions that they change to meet market demands, and noisy women from this decade who have been sidelined. The tropes of the self-actualised female pop star are so established that labels know how to reverse engineer “real” pop girls beholden to a script.But the emergence of a more holistic female star will make it harder for labels to shill substitutes. Their emotional openness has destroyed the stigma around mental health that was used to diminish female musicians as “mad” divas. Charli XCX said she would never have betrayed her vulnerabilities when she was starting out in her teens. “If I’m emotionally vulnerable,” she thought, “people won’t take me seriously … Now I just don’t care.” Robyn spent eight years following up her most successful record because she needed time to grieve and unpick the impact of her own teen stardom. Britney – who in 1999 told Rolling Stone, “I have no feelings at all” – this year cancelled her Las Vegas residency to prioritise her mental health. 📷 More to the floor: the decade the dancefloor was decolonised Read more Advertisement They’ve relentlessly countered the male gaze. Chris refused to simplify queerness for the mainstream; Kim Petras stood for “trans joy”; Rihanna challenged the idea of skinny as aspirational by creating inclusive fashion lines and candidly discussing her own shape. “Just me existing is revolutionary”, Lizzo has said, while Cardi B refused to let anyone use her past as a stripper undermine her legitimacy as a powerful political voice.Where unthinking messiness was valorised at the start of the decade, now imperfection only gets a pass as long as nobody else is getting hurt. This summer, Miley, now 26, apologised for the racial insensitivity of her Wrecking Ball era. Soon after, she posted striking tweets in response to rumours of her cheating on her husband. She admitted to having been hedonistic and unprofessional in her youth. But she swore she hadn’t cheated in her marriage. “I’ve grown up in front of you, but the bottom line is, I HAVE GROWN UP,” she wrote. (To a degree – not long after, she found herself called out again when she implied that queerness is a choice.)In their fallibility and resistance to commodification, the women who have defined this decade in pop look a lot more like role models than the corporate innocents sold to girls in the early millennium. They’re still learning, working with what they’ve got rather than submitting to what they’re told. “I don’t know what it feels like not to be a teenager,” Billie Eilish said recently. “But kids know more than adults.” … as you’re joining us today from South Africa, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5

million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action.We aim to offer readers a comprehensive, international perspective on critical events shaping our world – from the Black Lives Matter movement, to the new American administration, Brexit, and the world's slow emergence from a global pandemic. We are committed to upholding our reputation for urgent, powerful reporting on the climate emergency, and made the decision to reject advertising from fossil fuel companies, divest from the oil and gas industries, and set a course to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.

[killiancygnus]

Serendipitous Melody 12/?

Summary: Everyone has dreams. You might dream of becoming an astronaut or teacher, or you might want to become a doctor and save as many lives you can. Emma Swan’s childhood dream was being a singer. But with life getting in the way and never finding the courage to overcome her fears, she never had a chance to follow it. That is until a little push from her friends lead her to cash on an opportunity; and, who knows, she might even get more than what she’d wished for.

Rated: T

Word count: ~3.3k

A/N:   I LIVE! I know this is super late and I’m very sorry but between writer’s block and the hard time I’m having at uni it took me ages to finish this up. I hope you like it though! I honestly don’t know when I’ll be able to post chapter 13 since exams season will begin in a few days for me but I’ll try my best not to make you wait 6 weeks again. Anyway, comments make my day so if you liked this chapter or if you’ve just started reading this story, don’t be shy! I’m a sweet potato you can ask around :’).

As always, huge thanks to @the-reason-to-sail-home and @londonsbridge, my woderful friends and betas, for helping me with the editing and to all the CS Writers’ Hub ladies.

Tagging some friends: @villains-happy-ending, @stardusted-nymph, @allisonchameron, @kmomof4, @hencethebravery, @katie-dub, @captainwiley, @irishswanff, @thejollypirate, @dassala, @imhookedonaswan, @ofshipsandswans, @legendofthephoenixcs and @mahstatins

If you want to be tagged too let me know :)

(Emma’s song is ‘Human’ by Christina Perry whereas Elsa’s is ‘Bird Set Free’ by Sia)

Links: Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 / AO3

Emma was slowly climbing up the stairs, trying with all her might not to bounce up and down in excitement. She was just about to have a lesson with Killian, her first lesson before the semifinals. She couldn’t believe she had gotten so far in this competition, which was ironic because at first Ruby had to do a lot of convincing for her to even consider doing an audition.

A few days had passed since she last saw Killian. And, to be honest, she’d spent a nice couple of days with him. Yes, him telling her how much he cared for her and them both sharing bits and pieces of their past had been emotionally draining for the both of them, but they had fun. Watching the show with him had been great, even though she had to admit that watching and hearing herself sing on television had been weird. He gave her tips, based on both the others’ performance and hers, he told her stories of what happened behind the scenes and then he made her blush furiously when he went on an impassioned rant about how much she’d improved since they’d started working together and how much of an amazing singer she is.

The days leading to her next lesson were mostly uneventful. They would have been completely quiet if only Mary Margaret didn’t convince her to go out with Ruby. However, what she claimed was a simple ‘girls day out’ turned out being an excuse to drag Emma with them on wedding dress hunt. And apparently, only a few weeks of engagement were enough to transform Mary Margaret in what Emma could only define as a wedding obsessed monster. She dragged both her and Ruby in shop after shop, for the whole day, discussing flowers arrangements, colors themes and the pros and cons of lace and satin dresses. Yeah, it was that bad, but, truth be told, Emma had never loved shopping much. There needed to be a rare astral conjunction to find her in the mood to go around in the city and browse through piles and piles of clothes in different shops. She was one of those persons that shopped with an aim: she would enter a shop, spot what she needed to buy in a few minutes and head to the cashier to pay.

She had to admit, though, that going wedding dress shopping was another matter altogether. It was a bit overwhelming and intimidating entering those beautiful and sophisticated shops, with all those stunning, immaculate dresses hanging neatly along the walls.

Whereas Emma felt quite out of her element there, Mary Margaret- just like Ruby- seemed unfazed by all that luxury. She was a woman on a mission: find the perfect dress, the one which would make her feel like a princess and everyone else cry. She tried on dress after dress, but she never seemed satisfied. Emma had never thought her friend would be so prickly, and she really couldn’t understand why she had been. Maybe it was because Emma wasn’t exactly made for marriage. But, then again, maybe she was more romantic than she cared to admit, and the thought of spending ages looking for a dress was absolutely crazy to her. What was the point, if the only opinion that would matter was the one of the person you were going to marry, who would find you stunning just in your pjs? Well, it wasn’t luckily she’d ever find out anyway. She was no relationship material, as she made Killian understand the other day.

Killian… Now that she thought about it, when he saw her in only a pair of leggings, his faded batman t-shirt and with a messy bun on top of her head, he gave her the same look he always gave her whenever she walked onstage, all dressed up with perfect hair and makeup. But it wasn’t anything like that with him. He was just her friend - probably her best friend - right?

As she took the last few steps to the door, Emma groaned in frustration. Why did all her thoughts have to lead to him?

She didn’t even have the time to knock, that she heard Killian’s voice coming from right behind her.

“Morning, Emma!” he greeted, stopping next to her, with two cups of steaming coffee in hand.

“Hey! You know you don’t have to bring me hot chocolate - or coffee - every time we have a lesson right?”

“Of course I do, but I want to. And look who’s talking!” He gestured to the package she was holding, “What do you have there, Swan?”

Emma teased him, grinning, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” 

”Perhaps I would,” he replied with a cheeky smile on his lips and a sinful look in his eyes that made Emma’s cheeks flush pink.

Emma was ready to punch him on the shoulder but then reconsidered it. That coffee smelled divine; it would have been a shame if he dropped it after she'd punched him. So, for the coffee’s sake, she just rolled her eyes at the ceiling and entered the room. As she put the small bag down on the table, she could hear Killian giggle behind her. He followed her and stopped by her side, putting the coffees by whatever she brought that day.

Emma was fidgeting with the package and internally cursing Mary Margaret for closing it in such an overcomplicated way, while Killian watched her in amusement. When she finally managed to open it, she suddenly stopped, catching a movement with the corner of the eye.

“Ah, ah, ah!” She tutted, moving away the bag from Killian, who was trying to sniff its content. “Step away or I’ll eat them both.”

Killian pouted innocently and took a step away. “And what would they be, Swan?”

“Homemade muffins!” Emma beamed, showing him a perfectly crafted chocolate muffin.

Killian took the pastry and eyed it suspiciously, not daring taking even a small bite, making Emma huff in annoyance at his theatrics.

“You didn’t make them do you?” he asked warily.

“What if I did?”

“Then it’d mean I really had underestimated both your wish to see me dead and your cooking abilities.”

While she gently peeled the cup off her muffin, Emma snorted, shaking her head, “Mary Margaret made them. You’re safe.”

Happy with her answer, Killian took a large bite of his muffin as if he’d never seen food in days.

“What did you get me, instead?” Emma asked, eyeing curiously at the two steaming cups next to him. 

Killian took her drink and gave it to her. “Why don’t you take a guess?”

Putting the muffin aside, she took the cup and sniffed it, before taking a sip.“Uhm…” she hesitated, ”Cappuccino? With... Chocolate?”

“Nope, but you were close,” he smirked, “It’s a latte macchiato with chocolate.”

“Oh, I like it!”

“Good.”

They drank and ate in silence for a bit, enjoying the feeling of the caffeine starting to kick in. It was just when the only things left of the muffins were only a few crumbs, that Killian broke the silence.

“You know, Emma,” he started, hand moving up to scratch behind his neck, “I think I’ve found the perfect songs for the semifinals. Would you like to take a look at them?”

“Sure.” Emma nodded excitedly.

Smiling at her enthusiasm, he walked up to the piano, and browsed the papers inside the folder laying on the stool for then going back to her. She happily accepted the stack of sheet music he offered her.

“Killian,” Emma gasped as soon as her eyes focused on the songs’ titles, “They are perfect! How did you-?”

“As I’ve told you before, love,” Killian interrupted her with a smirk, “Open book.

Days came and went, busy with work, rehearsals and nonstop wedding talk for her utter and unconditional joy. There wasn’t a single day that went by without an embarrassing amount of texts going back and forth between her and Killian, though. They would talk and talk, but truth be told, they were just goofing around most of the time. He especially liked to send her memes and random weird pictures of animals to tease her, to which she’d reply with either the eye roll emoji or the middle finger one. He sent her so many pictures, that by now she was sure she had at least five pictures of goats saved on her phone - yes he was that much of a dork (and she actually loved it). However, as the time passed, her excitement for the next episode they had to shoot grew more and more.

She loved the song he chose for her. It was perfect, considering everything she had to go through, both lately and in the past. She didn’t have to fish the emotions she wanted to show that deep into her heart; they were just there floating on the surface for her to catch and reel into her voice. 

(Wait. Was that a fishing metaphor? Damn girl, your nerves are bad…)

Nerves aside, she was confident in her abilities and determined to win, but only her or Elsa would go to the final, and Emma knew her friend wouldn't go down without a fight. She had heard Elsa sing a couple of times during rehearsals but every contestant, her included, used to conceal themselves a little during group rehearsals. She had heard her audition on telly too, but it was only when Ruby made her watch the show on Monday that she realised how talented Elsa actually was.

When shooting day finally arrived, Emma’s insides were already a ball of jittery energy. A part of her wanted to go knock at Killian’s dressing room door as soon as she got to the studios. As much much as she didn't like to admit it, even just seeing him would have helped her relax, but she couldn't go. She really couldn't. Their relationship had already been much more intimate than what was expected from them; they couldn't be seen hanging around and interacting with each other as they used to. Not there, not ever. If someone were to find out, all hell would break loose. So, Emma disgruntledly willed her feet to walk past the coaches’ dressing rooms and headed to hair and makeup, hoping that a few hours of sitting on a comfy chair while being fussed over would calm her nerves. Elsa was already there too, so, as soon as Emma sat down on her assigned chair next to her, they started talking. However, when Ashley threatened to draw mustaches with waterproof eyeliner on both their faces, they both stopped. Ashley was a sweet girl but it was better not to cross her, so, while Elsa decided to put on her earbuds and listen to some music, Emma focused her attention on Ashley’s movements as she gave the last few touches on her makeup before starting working on a complicated updo.

They were almost ready to go get dressed when she heard Elsa muttering the lyrics of the song she’d sing.

“I'm not gon' care if I sing off key, I find myself in my melodies. I sing for love, I sing for me,”

“I shout it out like a bird set free,” Emma sang with her, making Elsa blush as she realised she had been singing out loud.

“Sorry,” she smiled, taking one of the earbuds off.

“Don’t be,” Emma brushed her off with a smile, “It’s a beautiful song. I think it’s perfect for you.”

“Thank you. I think I’ve got to go get changed now,” Elsa said, taking a quick look at her schedule. “Good luck!”

“Likewise.

It was always hard for him to pretend not to be nervous and excited for his team when shooting, and the uneasiness would only grow when the time for Emma to perform got closer. And today wasn’t an exception. It wasn’t really professional for him, not at all, but he couldn’t help it. She was special, his best friend. The best friend his heart longed for but he didn’t dare make a move on because the timing was not ideal, because he could see the uncertainty in her eyes. Sometimes she would look at him with such love and affection that it made his breath catch in his throat, but then it’d soon be replaced with fear. He couldn't risk it. He'd patiently wait all the time she needed but he wouldn't stop fighting for her. After all, as his brother used to say, a man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets.

Robin was joking around with Tink and Ariel was laughing along as the lights dimmed out, but he wasn’t in the mood to join them. Emma and Elsa were the first to sing and he probably was more nervous than them. The fact that this time around it was Emma’s turn to perform first decisively didn’t help at all, but he was more than confident in her abilities.

From where he was sitting he could see her patiently waiting to climb onstage when announced. Her eyes were closed and her eyebrows knotted in a concentrated frown. As if she sensed the burn of his stare on her, she opened her eyes and smiled at him, nodding as if to say ‘Don’t worry, I got it’. He gave her a soft smile in return just as he heard her name being announced by Belle and the audience go wild. He couldn’t believe he had been so stunned at Emma’s sight in the backstage to not even hear Belle talking.

He followed her with his eyes as she sprinted in the arena, high fiving the people standing next to the short corridor that lead her on the sage. She was radiant, jumping around in excitement and smiling brightly.

She must be enjoying not having to balance on those ridiculously high heels for once, he thought with a chuckle.

Soon, she reached the right side of the stage where a white grand piano was waiting for her. Sitting on the stool after smudging some non existing wrinkles from her navy blue lace dress, she put her hands on the keyboard. A few gold locks which had masterly been left out of the loose chignon on the back of her head, framed her face as she tilted her chin down waiting for the music to start.

The lights dimmed even more, only to leave a single white spotlight illuminating her. It was only when silence fell in the studio that the music began coming from the numerous speakers around the theater. Her voice resounded in the arena soon after, her tone soft and crystal clear as always, while small white sparkles exploded on the screen behind her following the melody coming from her fingers.

He couldn’t help but look at her in wonder - much like everyone else in the theater - as she worked her magic. He was drawn in, placed under a spell as she moved to the refrain. If he thought she had been good at that at the auditions, now it was another thing altogether. Not only did she have much more control on her voice, being now able to modulate it as she pleased, but she could control her emotions better too. She could now channel them into her voice without so much of an effort, avoiding to flow into excess at times. It was a beautiful evolution to watch. She was beautiful to watch.

But I’m only human

And I bleed when I fall down

I’m only human

And I crash and I break down

Your words in my head, knives in my heart

You build me up and then I fall apart

'Cause I’m only human,

As she got closer to the second refrain, the music built in intensity as did the sparkles on the screen. Swiftly, she picked the mic from its stall and got up reaching the center of the stage hitting high note after high note. The stage flashed with white rays of light as she sang, following her voice and the music in a crescendo that lit up the audience. There was all of Emma in there: all the hurt, all the worry, all the battles she had to fight, all the desire to just be Emma.

Then everything went black, except for a single ray of light on the top of Emma’s head. Her voice started back from soft and low to grow in one last crescendo that would lead to the last final high notes, only for it to dye down in a whisper at the end.

Both Tink and Ariel shot up to applaud her as soon as the last feeble echo of her voice resounded in the arena, while Robin clapped slowly pleased and still a bit awestruck. Killian, instead, was grinning proudly at her, clapping along with everyone else. The cheering from the audience was deafening, and Killian could see her cheeks tinging pink as she muttered a thanks. When their eyes met a few moments later she smiled softly, her eyes shining with emotion. Time must had stopped, because the seconds in which they only but looked at each other, lasted an eternity. Their eyes were like magnets, the pull too strong to fight it and try to look down. He hoped he could see the love, the adoration and the pride in his eyes, just as he could see the affection and the adrenaline-induced liveliness in hers. It was only when Belle ushered her backstage to present Elsa’s song that their connection broke.

Elsa got onstage soon after, not looking fazed at all by Emma’s performance. On the contrary, she looked more determined and secure than ever. In fact, she kept up with her teammate more than nicely. She gave everything she had, blowing everyone away with her (until then fairly hidden) talent.

After the second standing ovation of the day, the time for him and the other coaches to vote finally came. It had been hard for all four of them to decide to whom give their point since they all had loved both their performance. Eventually it all ended in a tie, with Robin surprisingly giving his vote to Emma and Killian to Elsa. As soon as he gave his preference though, he saw a flash of hurt and confusion in Emma’s eyes matched by an equally confused and elated expression on Elsa’s face, while boos from the audience echoed in the theater.

Bringing a finger on his lips to ask ask for a moment of silence, he then spoke “I’d like to give an explanation of my vote to you and to everyone else here and watching us. I, as coach to both of you,” he continued, gesturing to Emma and Elsa, “not only got to meet you amazing women, but I also got to see how much you care about this, how much you’ve improved. Tonight both your performances were beyond not only mine, because I know your potential, but everyone else’s expectations. After tonight you both equally deserve to get to the final, and since I couldn’t really find fault in any of your performances, I decided to make you face the audience’s vote next week without any of you having any kind of advantage.”

As he talked, Emma’s expression changed to something undecipherable, and that scared him. She was closing off on him again.

As both Emma and Elsa walked backstage to leave the space to Ariel’s team, he hoped she would understand that he couldn’t give his vote to her again, no matter how much he wanted.

When a last flash of her gold waves disappeared backstage, Killian just prayed she would give him a chance to explain himself when not surrounded by cameras. 

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #22: Tyler and Josh Save 2017 (1/22/16)

This always happens. I’m always wrong about everything. I ought to quit my job as an online band recapper.

...Let’s just get into the update, boys and girls, this week was nuts.

This Week’s TØPics:

HeavyDirtySoul Music Video Announced (Kinda. This Band’s Marketing, Seriously)

Emotional Roadshow Part 3 Begins, There’s Mario Kart

Upcoming: Charlottesville, Allantown, Albany, Pittsburgh, Chicago

Return of the Community Spotlight

Plus: Your Usual Assortment of Blind Speculation and Fanboying

Major News and Announcements:

Obviously, the biggest news of this week was the revelation that, yes, we will be getting one more music video from this album cycle for their latest single, “HeavyDirtySoul”. 

Before getting into it, I must admit fault on my part- in spite of literally having nothing to report on for weeks, I somehow totally neglected to cover in any of the news or Chart Performance segments over the last month and a half that “HeavyDirtySoul” got a quiet release as a single to radio and has been slowly but steadily gaining momentum on alternative stations. I honestly don’t know exactly why I didn’t write anything about it, especially since I trade so much in speculation in these updates. It’s not that I didn’t know about it, which would have been completely understandable. I totally did. Not only did I read a few headlines about the release in my twice-daily browse of Google for TØP news, I’d even heard the song a few times during my own commutes.  

My best attempt for an excuse/explanation about the shortcoming- I still expect the floor to fall out from under this whole enterprise at any moment, because 2016 taught me that nothing good lasts forever. Now, my cynicism still hasn’t been definitively proven wrong- the market is still recovering from a very TØP-heavy 2016, meaning that “HDS”, like “Tear In My Heart” before it, might not see a crazy amount of radio play outside of the alternative market. Indeed, I’d be kind of shocked if the nearly two-year-old track- which I’d consider the most strongly “alternative” song on Blurryface- is picked up by any pop stations. Then again, I was also shocked that “Tear In My Heart”, the pop song of TØP’s discography, didn’t make the leap while the much weirder “Stressed Out” and “Heathens” did, so my understanding of how music becomes widely popular is obviously lacking.

But enough about boring performance data projections that nobody but me cares about- we’re getting a new music video! That’s very exciting news, especially considering that it’s been over a year since the last time we got a full production music video from Blurryface. We don’t know when the video will get released, though we can be pretty confident that it won’t be for a few weeks- the video was only filmed in the last couple of days. Still, a number of images and videos of the shoot have leaked, which has let us know a few things.

There’s a least one wrecked car.

Josh will be playing on a flaming drum kit.

Tyler is wearing white socks, which I guess means Blurryface is over (?).

Keep checking back over the next few weeks for more information. Or, you know, just follow a few update accounts on Twitter. That’s what I’d do.

Another small bit of news before we get to the new Emotional Roadshow stuff: if you listen to SiriusXM Hits 1, the boys will be “hosting” this weekend (I believe they’ve already recorded all of their bits, but they are still in NYC all this weekend, so who knows?). Shout out to @odetotylur on Twitter for compiling all the best soundbites.

Performances, Interviews, and Other Shenanigans:

Speaking of update accounts, thanks to them for helping me to live vicariously through people on the East Coast this week. Basically, the only thing about the upcoming setlist that I was right about was that the new cover medley involving the openers and that it was going to have the same general structure as the last one.

I was wrong about pretty much everything else.

Not only does the new tour feature an impressive upgrade in production with even bigger and clearer video screens, there was some noticeable changes to the overall setlist. I’ve gotta just list ‘em:

They’ve mashed up a few songs- “Message Man” and “Polarize”, “Screen” and “The Judge”.

“Holding On To You” is now accompanied by clique artwork on the screens. When will your fave ever.

“Not Today” was nowhere to be seen, proving me dead wrong for the billionth time. Same with “The Run and Go”. And the full 2016 oldies medley is gone.

There were a few new interval videos, including Josh hearing his Blurryface while driving as well as some b-roll from 2011 of them playing for 15 people and changing their own tires and would you look at that I’m crying again.

Tyler now has the ability to launch a Josh chant to the tune of “Shots” with an accompanying graphical display whenever he wants, including the middle of the Trees Speech in Newark. That’s too much power for any one man to wield.

Josh at one point plays a drum battle with himself on one of the screens, culminating in Video!Josh’s head violently exploding in a shower of blood and gore. It’s probably the most technically impressive part of the show.

"Cancer” now gets played on B-stage. I genuinely never thought they’d play it live. I’m hurting.

The cover medley involved all of the openers playing a variety of crowd-pleasers, including Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping”, Blackstreet’s “No Diggity”, and Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love?” (goodness, has that song just gotten more relevant) before wrapping it up with ol’ reliable “Jump Around”.

The show in Providence had one other special feature that set the Clique off more than anything else. Local radio station WBRU threw a contest where the winner could play video games with Tyler. Apparently, Tyler had bigger plans than a quick game of Mario Kart 64 backstage and convinced them to bring the full experience into the show. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a band do something like this, especially on the scale of an arena show. I don’t even know if it’s legal, tbh, but I don’t care- it’s one of the most unique yet down-to-earth things I’ve seen in a concert. It’s the essence of Twenty One Pilots. Now, Tyler won, and he said afterwords that he wants to preserve his perfect onstage record, but there’s been a significant number of similar contests in radio stations throughout the country, so who’s to say if we’ll be seeing more stuff like this in the future? (I say.)

Oh, and Jim Gaffigan was at the Brooklyn show with his kids. That’s cute!

Another great thing from this week was finally getting some fresh interviews. Highlights ahoy.

Providence, 92ProFM:

Still obsessed with giraffes.

Lot’s of talk about radio, how important it has been to their success, and picking singles based on their dads.

When asked what someone sitting under a rock for a year would think seeing their concerts now: “Massive confusion. What does the sun look like? I’m starving. What happened to... who was big a year ago? Harambe?” -Tyler Robert Joseph

Providence, Fun107

The interviewer starts out acknowledging that they’ve probably heard all of these questions already. Which is nice. (Actually, the interviewer is very nice, I really like this one).

Best part of 2016? Christmas. No mention of their success, just that they got to go home and Josh got a toothbrush in his stocking.

Josh admits to being as much of a tourist as he can be with his busy schedule, but there’s some places they’ve visited that he wishes he could go back to with a little more free time. He specifically mentions Cannes, which they were in for less than 12 hours to attend and perform at  the NRJ Awards last November. (They’re in the market for yachts at the riviera.)

The ol’ “Chicken Sized Horses vs. Horse Sized Chicken” question made a return, though this time it was replaced with a duck, which Tyler noted “could change everything” due to the introduction of a different beak and webbed feet into the mix. 

We now know their preferred sleeping positions- Josh with burrito sheets with pointed toes (“I miss being in the womb”), Tyler with one leg out to release heat and no analog clock (“Every tick’s another second you’re not asleep”). Fanfic writers, get to work.

Bridgeport, 104.1 WMRQ

Tyler talks about the symmetry of “HeavyDirtySoul” starting the album and all the shows and now ending the album cycle.

Tyler and Josh joke about keeping Grammys as pets. Josh pledges to do a backflip if they win (they’d better).

Josh didn’t know Blurryface was the best-selling vinyl of the year according to Forbes. Tyler jokes about hearing it from Uncle Forbe (“What do you mean you named it? Aren’t these just, like, facts?”) and that the sales were probably just from people who like to smash vinyls.

“We do have a Biebs-Marley-Celine Dion fetish.” -Joshua William Dun, 2017

When asked who they’d like to cover their music, Tyler says that he’d like a Sean Paul feature on every track on the next album (start speculating) and then delivers a lowkey but still pretty savage sting at "Cheap Thrills” by saying he’d want Sia to sing the name of every radio station for one of their tracks in order to ensure that it becomes a radio hit. As someone who has heard “Come on, come on, turn KISS FM on” about 100 times during my commutes the last year- thank you, Tyler Joseph.

I can’t tell if Tyler and Josh have somehow forgotten their handshake or if they just were messing with the interviewer. Either way, tragic.

Bridgeport, Star 99.9

Tyler talks more about the use of radio as a platform, and it’s just really interesting to see how much he’s thought about the various pros and cons of “force-feeding” music to the masses.

Their ideal festival lineup: The Chuck E. Cheese Band, Rage Against the Machine reunion, and a crossover, Rage Against the Cheese.

The hardest part of getting married? The ring. Once you get used to that, the only worry is “does she still love me”. What a wise soul, that TyJo.

There was also this short written interview with Metro.us that has drummer boy talking about his favorite candles. So that’s nifty.

Upcoming Shows:

The first full week of touring for 2017 starts tonight, with five shows sprinkled around the United States’ East Coast and Midwest, starting with...

Show 5: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1/22

Capacity: 12,000-14,000

Twenty One Pilots takes a quick southern detour tonight, zipping down six hours south of Newark to visit the good people of Charlottesville, a smaller city in northern Virginia that’s a notable tourist attraction due to its proximity to Monticello and a few other historical landmarks. That would be an acceptable reason to visit the city for the first time by itself, but it’s also a college town, home to the pretty prestigious University of Virginia, which just so happens to be where the boys will be playing at the campus’ John Paul Jones Arena.

Show 6: PPL Center, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1/24

Capacity: 10,500

After veering south, the band has to lug itself back up north to eastern Pennsylvania. Allentown’s the third biggest city in Penn behind Philly and Pitt, but the band hasn’t been able to visit it in person since 2013. That’s a pretty nice treat for the locals (albeit not for the folks in Philly and the rest of the area who might be more used to closer stops).

The PPL Center is the home to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, and the local arena football team, the Steelhawks. It’s a pretty new building. ...That’s all I got, really. Next!

Show 7: Times Union Center, Albany, New York, 1/25

Capacity: 15,300

Following the trend of visiting smaller urban centers that are often overlooked in favor of nearby metropolises (metropoli?), the next stop is the capital of the state of New York. People joke all the time about how those in upstate New York are neglected in favor of the big city (and they’re not really wrong), so it’s cool that Twenty One Pilots are paying what is technically their first visit to the city proper (They played in a concert hall in the nearby suburb of Clifton Park around this same point in the last album cycle).

Albany’s Times Union Center gets a fair bit of use outside of the minor league hockey and college sports it hosts due to its relative proximity to the Big Apple. As of this posting, there are still tickets available that you definitely should nab sooner rather than later if you’re in the area.

Show 8: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1/27

Capacity: 14,500

After New York, it’s a return trip south to western Penn. The lads have visited Pitt six times since 2012 due to its proximity to Ohio. This even included the last leg of the Emotional Roadshow; the city hosted one of the few under-10K shows of that leg (Interestingly enough, they’d played at the same venue, Stage AE, three times before that. Doing a little digging, I discovered that it’s owned by the same folks who owned the LC in Columbus that gave us all of those great early moments in the band’s history- maybe they owed ‘em a favor?) Regardless, for the first time, they will finally be updating to a full arena.

The pretty new and recently renamed PPG Paints Arena is home to the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, simultaneously one of the best and worst mascots for a hockey team around. But, yeah, should be fun.

Show 9: United Center, Chicago, Illinois, 1/28

Capacity: 23,500

Last up for this busy upcoming week is good ol’ Chi Town. The third biggest city in the U.S. has obviously hosted a fair number of shows for our Midwestern band (eleven, if my count is correct). But there’s something about this one that’s going to be very special.

For a certain subset of people, the United Center is the most important building in Chicago, home to the NHL Blackhawks and the NBA Bulls, which, by extension, makes it the home of the legendary second leg of Michael Jordan’s basketball career. For a basketball nerd like Tyler, getting to play in this huge arena is likely to extra special. I’m so excited for them!

Community Spotlight:

I actually had a couple of choices for a good community spotlight, but I’m going to settle for the YouTube channel Immortal Killjoys. This channel is essentially the best Twenty One Pilots archive on YouTube, at least for the moment- I’ve seen a lot of these channels come and go as copyright strikes have cut them down left and right. Still, if you’re looking for that one festival performance or behind-the-scenes feature or other such old video, IK’s the place to go (as you might be able to guess from the name, there’s also a lot of old MCR stuff and a smattering from other bands, but TØP currently dominates). Give it a look.

BLIND SPECULATION OF THE WEEK:

Gosh, there’s so much I could go into, but I think I’ve talked everyone’s arm off enough. Plus, if I don’t say anything about when the video will come out from an assumption that it won’t be this week, it’ll just make it more likely that I was totally wrong and it will! 

Catch you guys next Sunday. Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[hoomler]

It All Keeps Adding Up

What makes Bastille’s very Bastille-y cover of “Basket Case” by Green Day sound at all like superhero vibes? I open up Amazon Music (because I got in when it was 4 months/99 cents, that’s why!) and get smacked with a panel that reads “Bastille | New Single”. I love Bastille’s album “Bad Blood” much more than “Wild World”, so I eagerly click to find out if I’ll like this new single. Sure enough, in this world of artists champing at the bit to attach themselves to the next exciting intellectual property as soon as they can, this single is attached to Amazon’s upcoming reboot / late-to-the-party superhero vehicle, “The Tick”. My interest piqued, I listened.

Huh boy...

In my opinion, from my experience, from my perspective, a cover should add something to the original in some unique way. Covers that accomplish this include the featured song to 2015 film, “San Andreas”. Sia’s cover of “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas adds a vastness and overall grandeur that can’t be found in the original’s sunshine pop sound, taking the source material and building on it. Nouela’s cover of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”, featured in 2014′s “A Walk Among the Tombstones”, strips everything down to a piano and a voice and ironically manages to add something in the process.

Bastille’s cover of Green Day’s song “Basket Case” adds... not a whole lot.

Officially unveiled today, Bastille (stylized as BΔSTILLE) has written and released what will be the theme to “The Tick”. Gone are the pop punk guitar and energy of Green Day’s angst-ridden original, as covers are want to do. They’ve been replaced by Dan Smith’s trademark lilting, strained voice we’ve all come to love and - oh, strings. Smith occasionally asks the three other members of the band to take five while he sings above some session string ensemble to create such hits as “Oblivion” and now “Basket Case”. In my opinion, from my perspective, from my experience, this cover sounds like Smith found the sheet music on musescore.com, transposed it down to his range, transcribed it for strings and handed it to the instrumentalists. He doesn’t even sing the harmonies - again, fine for cover, but a bizarre decision when so much leaves the overall product sounding hollow. I hope his buddies got to join in on the obligatory “Yeah Yeah Yeah!”s or what sounds like chopsticks on a garbage lid that show up in the second verse. Long legato phrases above the rhythmic strings, which began to grown on me, don’t save what the trumpets are determined to ultimately undermine. Trumpets, strings, “Yeah Yeah Yeah!”s - What’s going on here and what part of this is supposed to give me superhero vibes?

I said out loud, “It’s very Bastille.”

I was a fan of “The Tick” ever since the 1994 cartoon show. When it made it’s way to live action on Fox in 2001, my Dad and I would watch the show together. It was a fun counterweight to the superheroes I was into at the time. Now it’s 2017, Amazon managed to get it’s hands on the IP and reboot the whole dang thing starring Peter Serafinowicz as the titular Tick. I am privileged enough to have seen the first episode of the new series (premiering August 25). It definitely seems to me that the show will tackle some heavy subjects in so far as sidekick character Arthur Everest’s history of mental illness. The show’s first episode, featuring Arthur (Griffin Newman) as the main focus of the story rather than the titular Tick, revealed a grim backstory for the popular sidekick, where Arthur witnessed not only the end of his favorite team of superheroes, but also the death of his father in one crushing moment. Then the shellshocked boy was immediately heckled by the villian known as The Terror. Ever since that event, Arthur has battled mental illness, hallucinations, and been considered crazy when he proposed a theory that The Terror faked his own death and secretly pulls the strings of organized crime in the city.

Kristy Puchko references a letter actor Griffin Newman received in her article “The Tick: Arthur’s Tale is a Powerful Message About Mental Illness”. Kristy writes: 

By folding a discussion of mental illness and its stigmas into the series, The Tick has proven a powerful source of representation. At Comic-Con International in San Diego, Newman told CBR how he’s already seen the impact of this. “I read this piece that a fan wrote after the pilot came out, that really meant a lot to me,” Newman said. “It was about how it was the first show they’d ever seen that presented the ‘crazy’ character as the ‘normal.’ You know? That I’m sort of this straight man in this world, despite the fact that I’ve been diagnosed, that I’ve been medicated, that I’ve been institutionalized, and the fact that these aren’t mutually exclusive things.”

Ultimately, 

By choosing “Basket Case” as the theme for this newest and most Arthur-focused iteration of “The Tick” I expect to see a lot of representation of mental illness. This is all too fitting since Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong was suffering from anxiety and panic disorders at the time when he wrote “Basket Case”.

The song choice is fitting. Bastille is a popular band right now. This was not a match made in heaven, but it’s the thought that counts. Unfortunately, I don’t think anybody was really thinking about what I’m giving them credit for. That said, the product is sounds hollow, needlessly rigid and unabashedly Bastille.

Bastille was apparently asked by Amazon to write and perform the cover according to the band’s official Twitter: 

“You can grab “Basket Case” everywhere now. Had loads of fun working on this. Very excited to be asked.”

Let me know if you feel the superhero vibes.