Grimes released seven new music videos on Oct. 5: four of her own and three with best friend and collaborator HANA for a 38-minute long epic, super video. Grimes’s videos are available individually and include songs from the 2015 album “Art Angels.” HANA’s videos include “Chimera,” “Underwater,” and “Avalanche.”

I’m waiting for someone to talk about Grimes selling out again. It’s inevitable.

She shot the videos while on her “AC!D Reign” tour in Europe. She did not use a big camera crew, makeup or lights. She described the project in a tweet as filmed “a la realti.” They’re totally beautiful, completely surreal and totally expected of the fabulous, true-to-herself artist. She does not care. I appreciate it.

Grimes is an odd woman in the indie music world. She’s definitely successful as her own producer, and is critical of her own work but admiring of others. She’s a fierce hurricane on stage, an almost one-woman-band as she jumps from her mixing table, to the guitar, to singing. She also screams — an inhuman, earth shattering sound. Seeing her live is an experience.

But the amount of times I’ve had to defend “Art Angels” to angry basement hipsters screaming “sellout”  — like they actually know the definition — is astronomical.

Grimes is unpretentiously herself: tweaky, almost apologetic at times, but defensive of her music and her sound when misrepresented. There are things she likes about her sounds, there are things she doesn’t like. She’s a true artist. She writes, produces, mixes, and masters all of her own stuff and yet is constantly crucified for it. It bothers me. I’m not easily bothered.

The argument goes like this: “Art Angels” sounds different, so Grimes must be a sellout. “Art Angels” is popular and Grimes is selling out stadiums, so she must suck.

Yes, “Art Angels” does sound different. The mastering is much more professional; the songs are much more accessible. Instead of listening like personal diary entries, anyone can relate to “Art Angels.” It’s an album that takes a few listens to get into but is less eclectic than her earlier work, and more poppy.

Grimes cannot be a sellout because she does everything. She’s the one producing the sound, writing the music, filming the videos. She’s not a record company and a pop princess buying some poorly-manufactured, poorly-written song about partying all the time and all the countless dudes that are in love with you.

She’s not putting her personal values or the way she’s writing aside to make money — she’s just changing her sound because she’s talented. It’s called a progression because if artists didn’t change the way they sounded, adapted and aged, there would be no point in listening to them. Repetition is boring.

Furthermore, the girl has got to eat. Fun fact: artists need to make money or they stop making music. It’s not a hidden secret that she’s popular, and she’s talented. Occasionally, talented people make money making great music. We actually need more of them.

The bottom line is this: instead of insulting musicians for doing what they love, maybe we should just enjoy the fact that they’re still around. There’s nothing wrong with being successful. There is something wrong with the fact that we can’t seem to celebrate it.

Emera Riley is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at elril100@syr.edu.

Published on October 11, 2016 at 9:24 pm