What 
do 
an 
R&B 
singer-

songwriter, a genius playwright, a 
rock ‘n’ roll legend and a California 
hitmaker all have in common? 
To any practical person, they are 
all insane. But they’ve also come 
together as subjects for the four-
part docuseries “Song Exploder,” 
hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, 
which emerged from the popular 
podcast of the same name. Each 
episode focuses on one of these 
iconic musical artists and takes 
fans 
on 
a 
televised 
journey, 

revealing how their most beloved 
songs were created.

The guests chosen for the 

series are Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel 
Miranda, R.E.M. and Ty Dolla 
$ign. At first glance, these artists 
and their creations have little 
in common. Yet, there is one 
underlying commonality in their 
operations: feel first, build later. 

The core of being an artist is 

absolute lunacy. It’s to stumble 
upon something — a feeling — that 
just works, and to try to deliver 
it to an audience in a fathomable 
way. There’s nothing about it that 
makes any rational sense, and 
that is precisely what makes it so 
profound. 

Whether 
you’re 
a 
creative 

yourself or just a music fan, it’s 
difficult not to be moved by how 
much genuine passion this series 
is built with. Besides hosting the 
podcast and show, Hirway is a 
musician and composer, and his 
love for the craft is always evident. 
He asks questions that are strictly 
about the music, gives himself 
as little screen time as possible 
and ends each episode by playing 
the song being examined in its 
entirety. The people who make this 
show aren’t concerned with cheap 

gimmicks. They’re just as big of 
fans as we are, and they’re dying 
to get inside the minds that have 
created such monumental works 
of art.

Nobody 
encapsulates 
that 

honest love for music more than 
Alicia Keys. So it makes sense that 
she was the chosen guest to kick off 
the show. In her episode, she breaks 

down her 2020 song “3 Hour Drive” 
which features younger R&B artist 
Sampha. For Alicia, songwriting 
is a joyful process. She explains 
how adding fewer instruments can 
actually make a song “feel bigger,” 
a remark that captures the stripped 
down beauty of her music. 

She and Sampha begin by 

singing out words to a composition, 
until they finally land on the phrase 
“three-hour drive.” The small line 
strikes a chord with both of them 
for very different reasons. It’s a 
complete instinct, and they chase it 
down until they emerge victorious 
with a full piece.

If Alicia’s songwriting process 

can 
be 
described 
as 
tender 

and honest, then Lin-Manuel 
Miranda’s is completely manic. 
The brilliant rapper-playwright is 
a lovable dork, absolutely obsessed 
with finding just the right feeling. 
In one of the more memorable 
moments of the show, he recounts 
how he thought of the idea for the 
Hamilton standout song “Wait 
For It” while riding the train to a 
friend’s party. While fast-walking 
through the streets of New York, 
he quietly and shakily sings the 
chorus into his phone, hastily 
trying to get it down. When he 
arrives at the party, he leaves after 
half a drink. 

Breaking down the intro track 

to his debut album, Ty Dolla $ign 
talks about how important the “car 
test” is to him. He is driven by the 
need for everything to sound just 
right, and to do so, he’ll go through 
five bass players until he finds one 
he likes. To make a bigger sound on 
his song “LA,” he spent $75,000 of 
money he did not have just to hire 
an orchestra for one part of a single 
song. 

Artists are crazy. 
To make something great, you 

have to be willing to chase down 
a shapeless idea that may not 
make sense to anyone else. And 
you have to be willing to commit 
to it. There’s no right way to do it. 
There aren’t any steps to follow 
that will guarantee you arrive at 
your destination. To many people, 
operating in that gray area is 
terrifying. But to an artist, that 
pursuit is the only thing worth 
doing.

“Song Exploder” celebrates the 

tremendous amount of time, effort 
and human emotion that goes into 
everything an artist does, and how 
insane you have to be to do it well.

Contributor Ben Servetah can be 

reached at bserve@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
12 — Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Live music in the age of 
COVID-19: an evolution

2020 was supposed to be 

the most revenue-generating 
year the live music industry 
had ever seen. In fact, live 
music revenue is predicted 
to double by 2030, and this 
long-term growth is expected 
to stay consistent despite the 
75% drop in revenue this year 
due to COVID-19. Looking at 
the numbers, investors and 
analysts have an optimistic 
view of live music and firmly 
believe that the industry will 
rebound as soon as people can 
safely gather once again. While 
it’s easy to say that live music is 
simply hitting a slight bump in 
the road from a bird’s eye view, 
this temporary hold on live 
shows is slowly changing the 
live music scene and testing 
what consumers are willing 
to pay for when it comes to 
watching their favorite artists 
perform.

At the start of the pandemic, 

artists 
were 
quick 
to 
get 

creative and utilize the limited 
tools they had to engage with 
their fans. As artists canceled 
shows, many took their talents 
to social media where they’d 
host livestream performances 
from their living rooms. We 

saw big acts like The National 
host weekly livestream shows, 
Miley Cyrus’s Instagram talk-
show “Bright Minded” and we 
even saw smaller artists like 
Jordy Searcy take a similar 
approach through his weekly 
livestream shows as well as his 
surprise “house shows” where 
he would perform for fans 
in the Nashville area at their 
doorsteps. As the pandemic 
dragged on, however, the artist 
community realized that live 
streaming free performances 
was not going to pay the bills, 
and suddenly ads for paid 
livestream “concerts” emerged 
on many artists’ platforms. 

In fact, we can look to some 

of the strategies implemented 
by artists and see how this 
new situation is changing the 
way we think of live music and 
how artists run their brands. 
At the start of the pandemic, 
Erykah Badu took her music 
to her own platform, Badu 
World Market, where she set 
up her own virtual concert 
experience independent of any 
venue or concert series. What’s 
fascinating about Badu World 
Market is that it was set up by 
Badu and her team exclusively 
and 
also 
incorporates 

merchandise and music sales. 
Badu’s website, which enables 
her to keep every aspect of her 

brand centralized and under 
her control, offers a model 
for other artists to follow in 
which they can own more of 
what they make instead of 
dividing their brand among 
various streaming platforms, 
merchandise 
vendors 
and 

concert venues. 

Strict 
limits 
on 
social 

gatherings 
also 
raise 
the 

question of when big artists 
will be able to return to large 
stadiums and concert halls. 
Prior to COVID-19, big names 
in music —Taylor Swift, Drake 
and Harry Styles, to name a 
few — were selling out massive 
stadiums 
and 
arenas, 
but 

whether fans will be able to 
return to those venues in the 
foreseeable 
future 
remains 

uncertain. While these artists 
have had to take a break from 
performing, there may be a 
new opportunity for smaller 
artists to take advantage of 
this lull.

Quinn 
XCII 
jumped 
on 

this opportunity to expand 
his following by performing 
“drive-in” 
concerts 
in 

Cleveland. 
Videos 
on 
his 

Instagram show dozens of cars 
spread out across a parking lot 
with fans singing along from 
the trunks of their cars. While 
watching a show from your car 
is nothing like a true in-person 

concert experience, it’s clear 
that fans will jump at any 
chance to go to an in-person 
show in whatever form that 
might look like. Quinn XCII’s 
drive-in 
shows 
sold 
out 

quickly, and other artists have 
jumped on the bandwagon and 
scheduled outdoor, socially-
distanced concerts like Lauren 
Daigle’s “Autumn Nights,” a 
drive-in concert experience in 
Nashville.

While 
artists 
seem 
to 

be finding their way amid 
the 
chaos, 
concert 
venues 

themselves 
have 
not 
been 

faring 
well. 
In 
fact, 
The 

National Independent Venues 
Association predicts that 90 
percent of their 3,000 members 
will go out of business by 

the end of the month. We’ve 
already seen the harsh effects 
of the virus on the live music 
industry 
as 
major 
music 

venues have closed their doors 
permanently, 
including 
the 

Majestic Theater in Detroit. 

Though artists have some 

flexibility 
and 
creative 

liberty to find new ways to 
generate revenue, the closing 
of live music venues could 
be devastating to the music 
industry in the future. Already, 
artists are competing for spots 
at venues booking all the way 
into 2022, making it difficult 
for up-and-coming artists to 
catch a break and have the 
opportunity to perform live. 
Like everything else we’ve 
seen through this pandemic, 

the music industry is becoming 
increasingly competitive, and 
as artists fight for their time 
on stage, the smaller, less-well-
off acts could get left behind or 
have to work harder to build 
a following and make those 
in-person 
connections 
with 

fans.

Yet at the same time, artists 

have already surprised us with 
their resilience and creativity 
when it comes to engaging 
with audiences, and perhaps 
the challenges that lie ahead 
will be opportunities for them 
to get creative and evolve the 
music industry as we know it 
even further. 

Daily Arts Writer Kaitlyn Fox 

can be reached at kjfox@umich.
edu. 

KAITLYN FOX
Daily Arts Writer

RCA RECORDS LABEL

Five-year-old TikToker’s 
album is a post-ironic win

Emily Montes is 5 years old, 

TikTok famous and may have 
just dropped one of the most 
important albums of the year.

Not much is known about 

Emily. I heard about her 
through my friend Brad, and 
I have no idea where he heard 
about her. According to Emily 
on her song “Untitled,” she 
“blew up on TikTok.” However, 
take a short look at Emily’s 
TikTok and you will see that 
her videos are more along the 
lines of a kid who took her 
mom’s iPad on a road trip and 
is now filming out the window, 
rather than content that would 
cause her to go viral. Her most 
viewed videos have around 
26,000 views, which is still 
modest for someone claiming 
to have “blown up,” and it is 
impossible to tell whether 
these views came before or 
after her debut album. As 
you’ll 
come 
to 
understand 

throughout 
this 
article, 

though, if you want to ask 
questions, you’re completely 
missing the point.

The self-titled album Emily 

Montes is 14 songs and spans 
five total minutes. Five of 
those songs are also titled 
“Emily Montes.” 

Throughout 
the 
album, 

Emily’s 
high-pitched 
voice 

is heavily auto-tuned to the 
point where it is sometimes 
difficult to listen to, and the 
beats push the typical musical 
boundaries, mixing electronic 
sounds with hard-hitting 808 
drums. What is so strange is 
that, musically, this album is 
right in line with the trap-

hyperpop sound that has been 
festering in the depths of the 
internet and is now coming to 
the surface of popular culture 
through artists like Charli 
XCX and 100 gecs. For a five-
year-old girl to be able to 
hone in on that unique sound 
seems unlikely and, truthfully, 
impossible. However, as I said 
before, the more questions you 
ask, the more you’re missing. 
Who cares if she purposefully 
crafted 
an 
album 
whose 

tone matches this growing 
electropop scene? I hope it was 
an accident. That would be way 
funnier.

Created during the COVID-

19 pandemic, each song is a 
small vignette that explores 
themes 
of 
loneliness, 

existential dread, complete and 
total arrogance and everything 
else that comes with being five 
years old in quarantine. In 
one of her songs titled “Emily 
Montes (Breakup),” she sings 
over a piano, “Laying in my 
bed / Voices in my head / A 
broken heart / I’m missing 
you.” The next song, titled 
“Emily 
Montes 
(Corona 
is 

Crazy)” transports us to a trap 
beat where Emily raps “This 
virus is crazy / It’s the end 
of the world! / Boom, Boom, 
Boom.” As quickly as it starts, 
the song ends and “Frozen” 
begins, in which Emily asks, 
“I’m outside, it’s frozen / But 
where is all the snow?” In just 
three songs that amass to 45 
seconds, 
Emily 
investigates 

mental 
health, 
her 
broken 

heart and climate change (I 
think?). It is these disjunct 
and sometimes contradictory 
messages that make the album 
so impactful. So often during 
this strange time period, I 

have felt as though I couldn’t 
control anything around me, 
and this album feels just like 
that. You never know what 
version of Emily you’ll get 
next. She may be depressed, 
spirited, hopeful or angry. She 
may be completely neutral. She 
may drop a diss at Travis Scott 
and Chance the Rapper for no 
particular reason. She may just 
rap about how much she loves 
Roblox. You have no say. Emily 
runs the show. 

While 
the 
sound 
is 

distinctive and the message 
powerful, my true obsession 
with “Emily Montes” is that 
it really feels like the product 
of all internet culture ever. 
Complete vulnerability layered 
behind nonsensical tangents 
and the absurd fact that this 
was all created by a five-year-
old girl perfectly encapsulates 
the diluted sense of irony 
currently 
defining 
internet 

culture, 
which 
now 
feels 

impossible to decipher between 
authenticity 
and 
complete 

sarcasm. The response to the 
album only serves to highlight 
this point. Her fans on Twitter 
vehemently argue that Emily 
Montes is the album of the year 
and that she has reinvented 
the rap scene. The tweets 
themselves seem genuine, but 
the fact that they are tweeting 
about a five-year-old girl’s five-
minute album in the first place 
creates a clear level of irony 
within them. These people, 
like me, may actually love the 
album. And these people, like 
me, might be totally joking. 
And likely, both are true. 

LEO KRINSKY

For The Daily

ROUTENOTE

NETFLIX

Podcast-turned-TV show 
is an ode to artists’ lunacy

BEN SERVETAH

For The Daily

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

“Song Exploder” 

celebrates the 
tremendous 

amount of time, 
effort and human 
emotion that goes 
into everything 

an artist does, and 

how insane you 
have to be to do it. 

