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ABOUT
-Historical Context of the IP
-Rationale
-Remediation Analysis
REFERENCES
ESSENTIALLY
why
Grimes?
Historical Context of the Intellectual Property
Claire Elise Boucher Also known as Grimes was born on March 17, 1988, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her music career began while she was attending Montreal's McGill University to study neuroscience. Later she began to further and further distance herself from her degree and began experimenting with music and performing for friends. Her name originated from the genre grime music, so she later created the name Grimes out of it. She then dropped out of college to pursue her dreams, starting with the release of Geidi Primes in 2010 all based on Dune. It was the first experimental album she ever made. She also designed the cover art, as she does with all her albums. The release was through Arbutus records which Grimes officially left after the release of her second Album Halfaxa (2010) in 2012. Halfaxa was mainly considered a "Headphones" album by the public. With all, its quirky and creative ambient sounds, and combinations. She created it after being on vacation in the city of Halifax in Canada. Soon after, Her Darkbloom EP was released in 2011. According to the artist, it was like a love letter to the city of Montréal. Three words she used to describe it were "Urban Twilight Montreal" because of the beauty of the water glistening in the moonlight. By then she said she finally owned a Juno-G which was a Synth keyboard that was introduced in 2006 by the Roland corporation. The Synth keyboard had a big effect on not only the production of the songs but their quality of them as well. In 2012 she left Arbutus records to then sign with 4AD a very popular record label. That same year, Grimes had just started working on her next album Visions. Visions was a long and difficult recording process using apple garage band and a completely darkened room. She used the cloister method like Hildegard Von Bingen. Except she didn't starve herself for two weeks straight as famously claimed. Her song Oblivion especially gained traction at the time. Later, in 2015 she released Art Angels and began collaborating with a wide array of artists in her work. In her music video "Kill V. Maim" She began using the "Green screen" in her music video filming. In 2020 her latest album Ms. Anthropocene was released. This album focused on the tragedy of man-made climate change and the harm to the environment. It was the first album grimes had produced without worry over what her audience would think. During the filming of her music video "Shinigami Eyes," All of the background effects were shot on an XR Stage. Meaning there was little to no post-production or CGI. This is a new change to the filming process of Grime's music video evolution. Throughout the albums are her music styles and how she combines sounds. Funnily enough, Grimes once labeled her music "ADD music" thanks to its ever-shifting tones and never being able to stick to one set of sounds. She tends to experiment with art pop, synth-pop, electronic, dream pop, R and B, and Dark Wave. Her visual music videos have a personal art to them as well. She tends to use bright bold colors and shifting scenes in her videos. The planning of the elaborate costumes and backstory elements are major element in her work. The artist is working on her sixth album "Book 1" expected to be released in 2023-2024.
Rationale
I first discovered Grimes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in early 2020. During the pandemic, I began to view music as an escape from my abusive family life at home. I would sometimes cry in my room alone and just lose myself in the rhythm. It wasn’t always there for just when I was sad it of course was there for other things too. In Quarantine I had gotten my first iPhone and I finally had an apple music subscription. I was one day on my floor looking at all the new and released music and an album called Ms.Anthropocene happened to catch my eye. I began listening to that album and looking at the artist’s page and digging up more information. I then began to go into a rabbit hole and I listened to her music all the time and before I knew it, it became my favorite of all time. My sister loved grimes too and she discovered her through me, which made it more enjoyable. I would sometimes have a hard time expressing my emotions but I felt grimes did such a good job putting her mind into a visual project, something we as fans could witness. She was the only artist that stayed herself on live tv and elsewhere. She never conformed she never changed herself for the pleasure of others, she was always simply herself. I fell in love with that. I wanted to harbor that philosophy of thinking only for you and doing only what makes you truly happy. Grimes carried this creative spunk that I’d been looking for all of my teenage years. Even now I still look to her as my idol and important role model because she creates all of these albums from the depths of her creative heart. I was so fascinated when I learned about the production process behind visions because I learned that the human mind is limitless. Locking yourself in a room to communicate with your deep inner thoughts to make this album come true was both extreme and passionate. In the music world, being a woman is not easy, especially when grimes made music for the beginning years of her career. Thanks to her feminist acts in the industry, it is becoming more accepted to not discriminate against any gender. In her documentary with Fader about art angels, I felt electrified when she said I don’t want to be the face of this thing I built, I want to be the person that built it. It was like a punch back at standards. Something I was thrilled about. In all of her work the biggest thing that stands out is her connection to thousands of years of human history. No other artist I know out there used so many references to the past as that of grimes. In this day and age, most artists change with fame but grimes never has and I think that’s what I love the most. If there were any three words to describe grimes I would simply say Etheral, perseverance, Original.
Remediation Analysis
Grime’s production of her albums has always been complex from album to album. The albums she produced up to 2012 which included Geidi Primes, Halfaxa, and Visions all were based around her beginnings in the music scene. It was originally made for her close friends and people on my space that knew about her. The production process was using Apple garage band and a Juno-G to improve the sound quality of the music itself. Now her albums Art Angels to Miss Anthropocene focused more on the questions of femineity and new worlds. Her audience also expanded now that she has fame. It now reaches millions of people around the globe. So the care that goes into each song’s meaning is more important. The meaning behind this is questioning the world around us and seeing how much society has truly changed. Each of her albums has its significant meaning, but as each one was released a new inspiration and creative process for the next was forged. The genres of the albums have also changed. For example, Geidi Primes was considered an electronic album to Miss Anthropocene which was considered an Indie/Alternative/Electronic album with elements of K-pop. While both albums were considered Electronic the remixing was also different within each, creating different genres. Despite the slight genre change it is still directed to her fans from the very beginning. Today, even if people didn’t know who Grimes is, her visions album cover is one of the most significant standout pieces of her work. That, or her son X Æ A-12 Musk, or for short X that she recently had with Elon musk. The name was so unique that it gained attention all over the world. People that know they can scour the internet for any information desired. Some fans create YouTube channels dedicated to the artist. Socialization can best be described as the interactions of people and institutions as they produce and distribute texts. Some create reviews of her albums on their channels and thus gain the interest of other fans. When fans communicate and generate opinions on things that Grimes has created it generates community. For example, On Grime's Instagram page there is a comment section. Within that comment section are comments for the adoration of the artist, hate, or positivity. But the biggest thing that stands out every time is the opinions of her fans. This can be in the form of a review, comment, or creation of another genre using the text to gain more attention from the artist. Distribution can best be defined as a deep consideration as to where the texts go and who might take them up. It is also possible that it can also change the original purposes of what the text intended. Grime’s Music is accessible through some of the most popular platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Sound Cloud, etc. Through all these modes of accessing her music, anyone can view them. Specifically, YouTube is where I feel Distribution plays a major factor. Within any artist’s produced music also comes the hidden genre of unreleased music. Someone can create a YouTube channel and start releasing Grime’s unreleased tracks and begin to gain the attention of other people on YouTube. When this happens, the spectators can create different interpretations of the unreleased songs and then try to go along and say this is the official meaning of her song. The only issue is that it is not the meaning of the song because it wasn’t released officially by the artist. This can also go beyond the music that grimes creates and into her personal life and beyond. The audience can contort or change anything they want to. It can be against the artist’s real intentions, but they can never be true unless proven by the source itself. For example, there was an opinion that was circulated on Art angels said that Grimes hated that album the most out of all her other albums. That simply wasn’t true because if she hated it then why would it be mass-produced and created with a lot of pride? So, distribution can also be both positive and negatively connotated. Reception can best be defined as dealing with how the text is taken up by others and used. When Grime’s fan base grew from 100k in 2014 to over 1.2 million people in 2022 on her YouTube channel it influenced the production, and the creativity grimes would put into her work. It didn’t exactly mean grimes would conform to the opinions of her fans but rather she became more aware of her audience and the power they held over her music. People can find out more about grimes through her music platforms and talk to friends about it and try popularizing it more. This helps gain more awareness through time about who she is.
References
Sources for the Home (Grimes) Page:
-Gordon, D. (2022, March 10). Grimes on music, Mars, and her secret new baby with Elon Musk. Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/grimes-cover-story-on-music-and-mars
-Grimes: Claire Boucher insists that anyone can do what she does. if only it were true. Loud And Quiet. (2020, May 5). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.loudandquiet.com/interview/grimes-claire-boucher-insists-anyone-can-true/
Sources for Geidi Primes Page:
-Gabe, JEDowney, Alexander, T., & Nk. (2011, October 3). Grimes - Geidi Primes Review. Earbuddy. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.earbuddy.net/871/grimes-geidi-primes-review.html/reviews
-TEDEducation. (2019, December 17). Why should you read "dune" by Frank Herbert? - Dan Kwartler. YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhYU4ZbLmmk
Sources for the Halfaxa Page:
-Moreland, Q. (2016, April 6). Grimes: Halfaxa. Pitchfork. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21775-halfaxa/
-Halfaxa. Grimes Wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://grimes.fandom.com/wiki/Halfaxa
Sources for the Visions Page:
-Daly, R. (2020, April 20). Grimes reflects on locking herself away to make 'visions': "I did truly go insane". NME. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.nme.com/news/music/grimes-reflects-2012-album-visions-locked-away-insane-2648992
-Zoladz, L. (2012, February 17). Grimes: Visions. Pitchfork. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16211-grimes-visions/
Sources for the Art Angels Page:
-Gemeinhardt, L. (2019, November 12). Another look at lyrics: Art angels by Grimes. Redefining Records. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from http://redefiningrecords.com/rants-reviews/artangels
-Williams, H. (2015, October 28). Grimes shares illustrations for each song on her new album. Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.magneticmag.com/2015/10/grimes-shares-illustrations-for-art-angels/#&gid=ci01dc39162001c80a&pid=grimes-scream-ft-aristophanesjpg
Sources for the Ms.Anthropocene Page:
-Mistry, A. (n.d.). Grimes: Miss anthropocene. Pitchfork. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/grimes-miss-anthropocene/
-pitchforktv. (2020, April 16). Grimes breaks down her albums, from Geidi Primes to miss anthropocene | on the records | pitchfork. YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umoqd0VbRI4
-Miss anthropocene by Grimes. Apple Music. (2020, February 21). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://music.apple.com/us/album/miss-anthropocene/1496782284
Sources for the Visuals Page:
-Halabian, L. (2018, April 5). A complete guide to Grimes's music video style evolution. The FADER. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.thefader.com/2018/04/03/grimes-music-video-style-evolution-guide
-GrimesVEVO. (2022, April 1). Grimes - the making of 'Shinigami eyes' (vevo footnotes). YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQjtsJi3k_I
-Crawford, R. P., Author Details Reshma Patricia Crawford Author Sorry! The Author has not filled his profile. × , Details, A., & Glasse Factory - SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA RELEASE LONG-AWAITED DEBUT ALBUM ‘PARADISE AGAIN.’ (2022, April 26). Grimes unveils technological feats behind groundbreaking music video for "Shinigami eyes". Glasse Factory. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://glassefactory.com/grimes-unveils-technological-feats-behind-shinigami-eyes/
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