Troye Sivan
Most times when I listen to music, I tend to pick and choose songs from artists that I like. Sometimes I do enjoy listening to a particular artist's entire discography. I feel like there are certain albums from artists that I go back and listen to all the time because I thoroughly enjoy, or at least like, every song included on the album.
One of my favorite albums to listen to, particularly when I’m driving, is Blue Neighbourhood by Troye Sivan. This album has been out since December 4 of last year, but I still listen to it often. Blue Neighbourhood is classified as a pop album with its subgenres being electropop and dream pop.
Troye Sivan, born Troye Sivan Mellet, is a 21-year-old singer from Perth, Australia. Troye acted and sang during his childhood, and in 2009 he was featured as young Wolverine in the X- Men: Origins movie. In his later teen years, he began posting videos to his YouTube channel, where he currently has over 4 million subscribers. Troye released singing videos and other comedy-related videos that propelled him into the role of an internet personality. Even though Troye regularly kept up with his YouTube channel and acted in different films (such as the three part Spud series), he ultimately decided to start making music of his own. He released two EPs titled Dare to Dream and Jun Haverly in 2007 and 2012. Troye's third Ep, titled TRXYE, was released in 2014 and hit Number 1 on iTunes. This was the EP that really established him as a legitimate pop artist. Another EP named Wild came out in September 2015 and was essentially a preview of songs that would be on his debut album. His first full-length album, Blue Neighbourhood, was released in December 2015. It received generally positive reviews from fans and critics and debuted at number 7 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
One of the things that Troye Sivan is best known for is being an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Troye first publicly came out as gay in 2013 in a video posted to his YouTube channel. His coming out video now has over 7 million views. Troye has been adamant about being open about his sexuality in his music and in championing for LGBTQ+ rights. On his album Blue Neighbourhood, the song Heaven ft. Betty Who highlights Troye’s struggle with being gay and questioning religion. He released the official video for the song on January 19th, and the video featured a montage of historical black and white clips of the LGBTQ+ community. In the summary for the video, Troye writes, “We have always been here. we will always be here. This video is dedicated to all who’ve come before me and fought for our cause and those who now continue the fight. In dark and light times, let’s love forever.” This song is probably one of my favorites on the album.
I enjoy the Blue Neighbourhood album mostly because it's a different kind of pop music. It's still pop (which one of main genres of music I listen to), and it has catchy melodies and lyrics typical of pop music, but the lyrical content of Troye's music is highly relatable to someone my age. His music deals with falling in and out of love, leaving and missing home, and accepting yourself through the good times and the bad as well. While other pop music revolves around what some would call "vapid" content, Troye's music has meaning without sacrificing interesting and catchy beats and hooks. Something also worth mentioning is that I thoroughly enjoy his aesthetical aspect as well (mainly his album's color scheme/ artwork and his overall presence). His music videos are quite well thought out and directed, with my favorities being his Blue Neighbourhood Trilogy that features videos for the songs "Wild," "Fools," and "Talk Me Down."
