Note: If you read Life in a Shanty Town, you'd know that Billie Eilish was poised to overtake Lil Nas X, and that she's built like a brick shithouse. I'm launching a new paid version of the newsletter, starting two weeks from today. It's only $5 a month. Click here to sign up.
I hadn't heard a Billie Eilish song a day in my life until yesterday, when it was announced that her song "Bad Guy," a tribute to Taxstone, is the new number one song in the country, supplanting "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. The Lil Nas X song had been number one for 19 weeks, breaking a record set by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men back in the mid '90s.
Say what you will about Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, but at least they could sing. I'm surprised at how bad the Eilish song is. In terms of quality, it's roughly on a par with "Old Town Road," except it's not trying to be ironic, that I'm aware of. I wonder how it got to be so popular. I can't imagine that any of the authentically Midwestern people at my job know who she is. Or is it not really that popular, and there's something wrong with how they formulate these charts?
