Billie Eilish performs at the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Stewart Park on May 25, 2019 in Middlesbrough, England. | Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns
Billie Eilish, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter redefining pop stardom, recently spoke with the the LA Times about her climate anxiety. It’s taken the form of bad dreams, spooky lyrics, and high fashion: a week earlier, Eilish wore a characteristically oversized “No Music on a Dead Planet” tee to the American Music Awards.
“We’re about to die if we don’t change,” she told the paper.
A year ago, such a blunt message from one of the biggest acts in the world would have seemed like an aberration. In April, Ryan Bassil at Vice argued that musicians weren’t ready to tackle the climate crisis — and wouldn’t be for the foreseeable future. Combining climate activism with a music career isn’t a lucrative stance, especially at its extremes:…