“everything i wanted” was released on November 13, 2019 during a time when anxiety and depression in young generations are at an all-time high. According to various studies and  hospital records, admissions for suicidal teenagers have nearly doubled over the past decade. With a culture of high expectations/pressure, social media, and increased breaches of safety across the nation raising anxiety rates in America’s youth, the music industry has recognized mental health as an emerging crisis in society. The increase of losses of musicians to the battle of mental health issues and substance abuse, such as Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, and Mac Miller, have opened the industry up to be a prominent platform for addressing mental health. 

 

Billie Eilish has recently become the face for embracing mental health issues in young generations, as the 18 year old interweaves chilling, pessimistic sound and lyrics to create an overarching darkness that resonates greatly with teens experiencing mental health issues. In her first album, “dont smile at me”, many of her songs incorporate the duality between self-loathing and coming to terms with one’s true identity. Eilish is candidly open about her “inner monster” and the insecurities that haunt her as she emerges into adulthood. The single “everything i wanted” continues to address the more complex and raw parts of Eilish’ struggle with depression. Unlike her previous album, the song depicts the support and light that conversely comes with being open about depression. Eilish challenges the audience to being more normalized to the reality of mental health issues as she references thoughts of committing suicide as she sings, “Thought I could fly / So I stepped off the golden / Nobody cried (cried, cried, cried, cried) / Nobody even noticed”. Although hundreds of artists reference their internal struggles, Eilish pushes boundaries by providing direct details of her internal struggles, airing them out in the open, and then continuing the rest of the song beyond it. By providing blunt, descriptive imagery to encapsulate these struggles within the context of a beautifully, well-produced sound, it forces the audience to enjoy the idea of sharing those experiences; it’s an effort to endorse comfort in expressing that relatability – “a famous celebrity is singing about the same struggles I go through, maybe I can talk about this more freely” is the idea. In a sense, Eilish is trying to elevate the already prominent topic of mental health within the music industry by owning her darkness and making it “trendy”.