Emma "I'm A Musician, Not A YouTuber" Blackery - Part 3

[Notveryfunny31]

She needs to stick to being a vlogger because music is definitely not something she's got a future in. Her songs are forgettable

The issue with that though is she doesn't really care about vlogging - so she's kinda stuffed.

[MsMaybe]

She really is forcing this song on Instagram complete with cringe lip syncing videos (remember that being cool in 2007).

Did take me out even chart? She must have thought having a photo of her on the apple speech was going to make her the next Taylor Swift and she was going to sell out madison square garden and have millions of screaming fans worldwide (anyone else get really confused when she says SHE sold out the o2 arena...or wherever it was...Busted sold it out not her)

Emma hun, big labels aren’t SERIOUSLY interested in YT music. They’re just in it for a quick cash grab...like Zoellas party book. They aren’t going to be interested if your songs barely scarp the top 200

[Sabranan]

Interesting stuff happening in the comments section:

[Leksa]

That thing she does with her voice ALL the time, the vibrato (that's how it's called, right?) annoys me so much because it feels super random.

[DaylightAmy]

Interesting stuff happening in the comments section:

"This video has been removed by the user"

[fighead]

Interesting stuff happening in the comments section:

"This video has been removed by the user"

What video was this?

[Guest]

Interesting stuff happening in the comments section:

"This video has been removed by the user"

What video was this?

It was a video of Emma, Patty, Luke and Jason (veeoneeye) eating a clove of garlic. Emma was going off on twitter about not liking that channel and not liking people reuploading her deleted stuff. Her stans were in the comments of the video bitching about it and telling the person to take the video down.

[FireJ02]

Interesting stuff happening in the comments section:

"This video has been removed by the user"

What video was this?

It was a video of Emma, Patty, Luke and Jason (veeoneeye) eating a clove of garlic. Emma was going off on twitter about not liking that channel and not liking people reuploading her deleted stuff. Her stans were in the comments of the video bitching about it and telling the person to take the video down.

They were trying to take the entire channel down, not just the video. I commented saying to just take down that specific video, not the entire channel, so as to not be associated with veeoneeye, but still to have the videos up “for the entertainment of others”. That’s why the channel existed in the first place—apparently it was a selfless act for other people to watch old comedy videos that weren’t available now. I dunno.

Anyways, apparently they listened, because the video is gone now.

[Sabranan]

FireJ02 after your message she said she’d be up for a compromise. I forget exactly which videos she listed but basically she most wanted the one with Jason and the one with her sister and I think a couple others gone. That video I linked disappeared along with the others she was talking about shortly afterwards so it looks like they’ve come to an agreement.

[MsMaybe]

in the background of her Instagram she has a picture of herself on her wall. I do not believe for one second she is insecure. Girl is so in love with herself it’s unfeal!

[ladylulu]

This may be pointless to point out but homegirl made a tactical error having her album come out the same day as Troye Sivan's album. However, it's made me think about both of their careers and there is an interesting parallel to be drawn here. Troye did what Emma wants to do. He successfully transitioned from YouTuber to full time musician. Articles written about Troye rarely highlight or preface his YouTube career or his childhood acting roles. Rather, they talk about his growth as a musician from his first album till now, his songwriting, etc. While it's easy to say, and I think Emma has before, that Troye is a fluke/ exceptional case, I would counter with the fact that it's not totally unheard of for a famous person to gracefully transition from one industry to another. Take for example Ariana Grande. She was first known for being on Nickelodeon but she stopped being known as an actor by at least her second album.

If you'd told me back in 2010 that Cat from Victorious and this YouTuber from Australia with 16k subscribers would eventually make a song together that got 46 million streams on Spotify in three months I wouldn't believe you. The key is that they grew beyond who they were in 2010. In 2018 they are not "Youtuber Troye Sivan and Nickelodeon Actress Ariana Grande", they are simply mainstream musicians. This is the key similarity between both of their effective transitions and it is the thing Emma is been unwilling to do : completely giving up what first made them famous. Troye stopped doing Youtube and Ariana stopped acting. Yes they are both talented and yes they both got lucky but I also think there was some branding savvy there.

Emma is not without talent but she certainly lacks that savvy. She's trying to sell an album in a singles market and is going on a CD signing tour in the era of streaming. And then she has the audacity to tell us in an IPOAD that "oh, I've had label interest but they'd want to build me up with singles but I know that I'm ready to release an album". This girl was featured during an Apple presentation that got her in front of millions of new eyes and lots of mainstream attention but her album is still going to flop because she has no idea how to market herself and has no idea how to leverage that opportunity or any of her past viral moments into anything solid. She's had so many chances to grab onto and has fumbled them all to instead do what? Make video after video rehashing the same old tired nonsense and shouting at people on twitter for daring to call her a YouTuber when that's all she is.

[MsMaybe]

She got to 9 in the Philippines and is saying she “knocked arianna grande” out of the top ten and then captioned it with “guess I’m not a flop”

Aye and Zoella knocked JK Rowling off the top spot...emma you must be obsessed with this forum to make that about here.

[HippoFriend]

I'm not writing this to mean but I found it really sad that she celebrates her record release alone in bed. Imagine finding this new artist who just released something you like, checking their social media and they are playing with their cat.

I find her more comparable to Tessa Violet. Except Tessa put a shitload of work into the album, the video, her social media. She even asked people for support on patreon but it all seemed authentic and that she was really in it from the buttom of her heart while Emma sometimes seems as if someone kindly asked her to sing some songs and she went "yeah, whatever".

[Guest]

And as ladylulu said (very good post!), Tessa also stopped uploading as often on her YT channel, encouraging a gracious transition between « just a Youtuber making music » to an actual « musician ».

Anyway, once I'll get home I'll give a listen to her album. I had even forgotten the release date....

[NoMythologies]

What are your initial thoughts on "Villains"? I'm actually surprised it turned to be great, better than expected for what the singles have showed us (in fact, "Agenda" and "Take Me Out" are the weakest here).

What really stands out is the personality aspect of the songs. In "Villains pt. 1" she is overpowered by pain, turning her to a merciless human which becomes happy when disgrace happens to the ones she felt neglected, and in "Villains pt. 2" she drowns herself with her sorrow while realising that her defensive personality was only hurting no one but herself. Those were the main standouts of the album lyrical and interpretation-wise. The other track that takes the spotlight is the 80s-influenced "Third Eye", which by the snippets of IPOAD it already felt like it was going to be a strong one, and it sure is: from start to finish it is a rush of adrenaline and the euphoria of the chorus is genuinely incredible. The thing is that she can easily adapt her voice to the personality she's choosing to represent in each song, and doesn't fail making me cringe, but I end up believing her role in here.

A song that left me dissapointed was "Petty" if I have to choose. It has a both chill and sassy vibe, but the instrumental break of the chorus is painfully generic, and what is really sad is that the voice harmonies the song has are maybe the best in the album, and thanks to that break they pale; I like it though, but it could have been better. Another song that I like, but fails to captivate me, is "Burn the Witch"; it's a great song actually, and her backing vocals in this are beautiful. But the downside is that it feels like a Taylor Swift's 1989 leftover (it also reminded me of "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry, which is not a bad thing at all, but it doesn't feel original).

Maybe the critique I'll give to it is that she still has to find her own sound, but she is well on track for now.

1. Villains pt. 1 8/10
2. Dirt 8/10
3. Agenda 5.5/10
4. Fake Friends 6/10
5. Icarus 7/10
6. Take Me Out 5/10
7. Petty 6/10
8. Third Eye 9/10
9. What I Felt with You 7.5/10
10. Burn the Witch 7/10
11. Villains pt. 2 8.5/10

Overall is a strong 7, and I would encourage her to follow the synthwave sound the closer has, since it amazingly suites her voice; a more atmospheric, dreammy, dark sound, something like the band Chromatics (they're pretty cool if you guys want to check them).

As for her YouTube career, I feel like this is going to be her last year on the platform. I dunno why, but by the end of the year I believe she'll do a review of her 2017 resolutions and then a video saying goodbye. It all depends of where she will be standing by the end of her European tour, and, if she really is taking a break, how that affects her perception with YouTube. But now that she released her debut album, I feel like she has come full circle with the platform.

[Guest]

I agree that Take Me Out, Agenda, and Icarus are probably the weakest tracks. Agenda being the one I personally dislike the most (What I Felt with You being close second).

Overall the tracks I like the most are :
- Fake Friends : I think the bridge is nice, I like the slightly psychedelic vibe and I think this track is just fun and easily enjoyable
- Petty : I love her voice here and the way she decided to deliver the lyrics. This song has a very basic summery vibe that I kinda enjoy aha. it's a song I would listen to again which isn't something I can say about the rest of the album.
- Villains pt 2 : I love everything about this song. The lyrics, the voice, the delivery, everything. It is relatable, emotional and gave me chills at first listen. The level of this song is way over the others imo.

The tracks I disliked the most :
- Literally all the singles except Dirt which is an alright/meh song.
- What I Felt With You : Really, really don't like her voice and the lyrics

It's not really my style of music and I have a hard time with her voice (very bland imo) so I don't think I'll follow her in the rest of her musical endeavours. However, Villains pt 2 makes me feel like her next songs could be really, really great. The thing that annoyed me the most in the album was probably the lyrics. They made me cringe more than once and like... as a non-native English speaker, English lyrics very rarely makes me cringe lol

[ladylulu]

Villains pt 2 has me floored. Absolutely floored. If all her stuff was this style I'd buy all of it and give copies to my friends.

[CyanideSilence]

Villains Pt. 2 is probably the best track on the album for me. I've had it on repeat all day. I just love the ending where she's screaming. You can feel the emotion. Love the sound of the song overall and the lyrics.

[MsMaybe]

I had a listen on Spotify because I’m nothing if not fair. I like some of them, some of them I wouldn’t mind as background music and I don’t like some of them. Some of them seem like they don’t fit with the rest of the sound but that’s not good or bad. That’s just a comment.

I think somewhere between this album and magnatised would be a nice middle ground for her.

Villains Pt1 isn’t actually bad- quite like the lyrics but I think i was expecting it to go differently so there’s something about it that I’m not 100% sold on but that’s probably on me because I thought it was going somewhere different with the tone but it’s not bad. It’s definitely better than the singles

Dirt sounds like someone made a Taylor Swift parody. It’s a bit too on the nose for me, but I’ve recently had a friend snake on me so I can see the humourous side (don’t think she meant for that) Shouldn’t have been the lead single. I view it the same way I view the google plus song. It’s a funny song but not the kind you release as a single.

Agenda- Some lyrics are a bit off. Yet again it seems like another Taylor parody. I like the tempo but not the weird Sesame Street counting and it’s better suited to an album track

Fake Friends - Should have be a single. Much better than the singles she chose. Surprised this was so catchy because I think Dirt set me up to think it was going to be a full on rip of of Reputation (not TS best album) I like the backing beat most of all. The lyrics are more fun here too.

Icarus - Nice backing sounds and the production was well done clearly. I think the lyrics here are good (even if they’re not really subtle). Again I kept expecting it to go somewhere else and have more of a drop but again that’s on me. One of the better singles.

Take me out- Im not keen. I think the chorus should have been a bit different. I felt the you are the LI-AR I am the FI-RE would get grating on multiple listens but like the agenda spelling. The marketing of this via music.ly lip singing from fans on Instagram made me psychically cringe.

Petty- actually really like this one. Think it could have been a single. It’s got fun lyrics and it’s quite easy listening. Nothing much to say, I like this one.

Third Eye- I like the disco-ish backing. It’s a nice song, and her voice sounds good here. Should have been the lead single.

What I felt with you- it seems like it doesn’t really fit with the album until the last third but I like it because of that. It’s a nice listen and kind of like a break. Only nitpick and it’s a small thing is I think she only referenced the colour blue because of Halsey in Colours.

Burn the Witch- Solid song. Actually really like it. Don’t have any criticisms really. It’s a fun tune, I like the words, I think it’s a much better song about being petty and friends than Dirt. Would have been a good single and more subtle.

Villains Pt2 - better than part 1- the shouting at the end reminds me of another song I really like (that I can’t remember the bloody name of). One of the best on the album.

I think Emma or her manager chose her singles poorly which is why they really didn’t do well and didn’t chart. I think pushing out single after single was a mistake and I think Emma banging on about just being a musician then backtracking turned people off her. It made her seem obnoxious.

I think Burn the Witch, Fake Friends or What I Felt would have been much better singles. Or maybe even Villians Pt2 because then people would wonder what part 1 was and it would generate interest.

Better than I thought - 7/10. Wow this was longer than I intended.

[StandInTheShade]

definitely agree with a lot of the things said here - some of the songs on her album would have been better as singles than the ones that were released. i mean my first impression of the album was dirt and agenda and i really don't like either of those songs. icarus was okay when i listened to it, took me a while to get into it but i rather like that song. i thought that this album would be much the same and i wouldn't like most of it but i couldn't properly give my opinion if i didn't listen to the whole thing. so.

after listening to the album, i think it some of those songs would have been better as singles instead of dirt and agenda (especially dirt, tbh). actually really like third eye and what i felt with you. petty comes in close to them too, all three have a nice sound and her vocals on them are good (in comparison to the "you are the li-ah, i am the fi-ah", which i cannot listen to and take seriously, i just... don't get it). the second half of her album is stronger than the first half to me, the first half has all the songs i don't like (apart from villains pt 1 and icarus, i like those ones) but after that i get into it, burn the witch is strong and villains pt 2 is as well, i just really quite like them.

yeah, got the wrong impression of the album based off the singles but after listening to the full thing i think a few of the songs i'm adding to my playlist.