Sometimes we find amazing things in the most unusual places or when we least expect it. Years ago I remember watching some videos on YouTube and a video by the artist Grimes was recommended to me, so I figured why not go ahead and click on it. I feel like we have all been recommended something weird, yet quite equally intriguing by the YouTube algorithm. Grimes is by far one of the most unique artists that I have 
discovered as her music is more EDM but also has tones of anti-pop. Her high pitched and ethereal voice clashes with the heavy electronic beats and sounds that she uses in the background, but once you listen to some of her songs this combination sounds pleasingly imperfect.
Claire Elise Boucher, better known as Grimes, was born on March 17, 1988 in Vancouver Canada. She attended McGill University in Montreal and double majored in neuroscience and Russian, but later dropped out before finishing her degree. Boucher is self-taught in her music endeavors and visual art skills, and started recording music under the moniker “Grimes” in 2007. To this day Boucher has released 4 albums, and is expected to release another one titled Miss Anthropocene in February 2020. Her rise to fame is due to the success of her third album Visions as its two top singles “Genesis” and “Oblivion” blew up around the internet and in the music world. Additionally, her following album Art Angels (2015), which featured several different characters that were supposed to represent the persona of Grimes, was named the #1 album of the year by many musical publications. Recently in her personal life, she started dating Elon Musk in 2018 after making some pun on Twitter, and is now expecting a child.
One of the most intriguing things about Grimes is her passion and dedication to create music that hasn’t been 
popularized before. One could say that she might even be the pioneer of her own genre of dream pop, R&B, electronic music, and hip hop. Her process in making music might be quite extreme and stressful as in one interview she mentions that in the making of Visions she locked herself in her apartment for three consecutive weeks to fully record her entire album. This tortuous recording session included a nine day period without food, sleep, company, and daylight (as she blacked out her windows), and also involved a lot of drugs. She mentioned that this writing process was destructive yet significantly contributed to the album’s success.
Grimes not only combines elements from all of these genres of music but also explores the meaning and visual aspect behind what the combination of sounds represents. In one interview she explains her process of making music as taking inspiration from a whole store of music that has been available and built upon for years and years. She can take a certain guitar riff or melody from one song and use it within her own music to create something entirely different that also shares some of the history or implications of that particular sound. Grimes finds the genre of electronic music very appealing as it does not involve technically playing physical instruments, which allows her to be more fluid in her sound and style rather than sticking to one certain thing.
If you’d like to check out this artist, I’d recommend first listening to “Oblivion,” “Kill V. Maim,” and “Flesh without Blood.” Enjoy!
The process that different song writers go through to release music sounds extremely taxing. However, it’s very inspiring to see an artist teach themselves music and visual art and release albums in their own genre. I look forward to listening to some of her music!
It is really cool to see the in-depth creative process of these artists.
I have never heard of Grimes, but I am intrigued now based on your analysis. I like the idea of being “pleasingly imperfect”, I feel as if artists have lost this ability through auto-tune and other digitized aspects of music.
I haven’t heard of Grimes, but this is definitely something I will check out. I like how you described her voice as “high pitched and ethereal voice clashes with the heavy electronic beats”. I thought that was an interesting outlook and description.
Grimes! I have been trying to get into Grimes, and I do enjoy one of her more famous songs (I think it is called Kill v. Maim?). She is truly an odd person — hope all is well with her and Elon Musk.