Billie Eilish is perhaps the most talented artist of our generation…and I don’t throw that around lightly. At only 13, Eilish wrote “Ocean Eyes” alongside her brother Finneas and launched her prolific career. And at the fair age of 22, Eilish has 24 GRAMMY Award nominations and nine wins, two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and countless other accolades.
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.
Concussions & CTE — The Dark Side of the NFL
Former American football pros fear they have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy from years of head bashing
Born and bred in the U.S. of A., American Football is widely considered the country's favorite sport. The first American football game — played in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton — has evolved over the past 155 years into a revenue powerhouse. Today, the National Football League (NFL)earns billions annually, with additional billions wagered through licensed sportsbooks, online platforms, and the ever-popular office pool.
But the spectators' pleasure exacts a heavy toll on the players. Broken bones, pulled muscles, dislocated shoulders are par for the course. It's so unfair that one of the most insidious injuries of all can only be diagnosed after death — CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a degenerative brain disease.
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A new study published in JAMA Neurology, according to Becky Sullivan of NPR, “represents one of the broadest surveys to date of former NFL players' perception of their cognitive health and how widely they report symptoms linked to CTE, which is thought to be caused by concussions and repeated hits to the head.”
Sullivan shared a summary of the report: “Of the 1,980 respondents, 681 said they believed they had CTE. More than 230 former players said they had experienced suicidal thoughts, and 176 reported a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or other form of dementia.”
Awareness of the disease has grown over the last quarter-century. “Iron Mike” Webster, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, died in 2002 at the age of 50 of a heart attack — his gridiron glory days were long past. As the NFL website puts it, “Webster’s life would enter into a downward spiral as he lost his memory, got divorced, stopped eating, and was even sleeping in his car.”
The search for an answer to what had destroyed Webster’s life — something that was happening to many other former football players — was found during Webster’s autopsy. Red and brown dots were scattered throughout Iron Mike’s brain: tau proteins that destroy brain cells and lead to “changes in mood, depression, aggression, irritability, impulsivity, and anxiety.”
The 2015 film Concussion — with an exemplary performance by Will Smith that did not yield an Oscar nom — told the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu's groundbreaking research into Webster's case and Omalu's discoveries about CTE. The film brought significant attention to head injuries in football and about the long-term health risks associated with repeated concussions and head trauma.
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As more and more deaths occurred, this sparked much-needed conversations about player safety, concussion protocols, as the NFL's handling of brain injuries. Such well-known footballers as Aaron Hernandez and Andre Waters suffered from CTE and committed suicide.
Researchers are looking for a way to test for the disease in living. That has yet to happen, but criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (TES) was established by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
“(1) substantial exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHIs) from contact sports, military service, or other causes; (2) core clinical features of cognitive impairment (in episodic memory and/or executive functioning) and/or neurobehavioral dysregulation; (3) a progressive course; and (4) that the clinical features are not fully accounted for by any other neurologic, psychiatric, or medical conditions.”
As is the case with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, there’s no cure for CTE. That doesn’t mean one isn’t being sought. Boston University’s CTE Research Center is studying the disease from clinical, pathological, and molecular viewpoints, all in hopes of understanding — and treating — this insidious disease.