I honestly don’t hate Grimes. In the last few years, Grimes betrayed her fanbase by dating and having a child with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk while ignoring his problematic billionaire status and also his general ignorance on Twitter. However, after her breakup with Musk, she was caught by paparazzi reading the “Communist Manifesto” in a Grimes-esque get-up. Some fans think that she is returning to her roots, and some fans think that this is a publicity stunt. I personally don’t care either way.
Grimes is most notably a 2014 grunge Tumblr artist. She can be grouped with Lana Del Rey, Melanie Martinez, and The 1975, not by genre but by circumstance. Her fans made grunge edits with grainy filters and talked about depression through cheesy Tumblr posts. Sure, in her past, she could have been described as politically inclined or even a communist, but her stardom originated from her obscure indie-pop style that spoke to the teenage masses.
Then, she started dating Elon Musk. Suddenly, Grimes was a class traitor and a cop-out who bent to the will of an older rich man. I’m shocked at this critique of capitalism. Grimes is a wealthy musician, so she was never part of the bourgeoisie anyway. Are we really angry at a millionaire for dating a billionaire?
Grimes and Musk get along because of their obsession with AI and technology, not politics. According to her Instagram, her current political views require “crypto and gaming.” Grimes is not a Communist anymore — that much is true — but what did we expect her politics to be? Maybe this is disappointing to some fans, but her political views make perfect sense to me: Grimes is a rich lady with a knack for robots.
Personally, I love a lot of Grimes albums. Her recent Musk-era album, “Miss Anthropocene,” is admittedly not as good as her previous albums, so at the very least, I’m happy that she and Musk broke things off so that her music can return to normal.
Her recent photoshoot is silly — no one can doubt that. However, I love Grimes for her music and aesthetic, and I’m willing to ignore some of her slip-ups for the sake of that edgy melody. After all, didn’t Lana Del Rey get canceled like three times in the last year? And yet people still listen to her music because it’s just too good.
Whether you love or hate Grimes for dating Musk, it’s worth it to at least reevaluate how you criticize rich musicians and artists for their behavior. I’m not saying that Grimes is a good person, but I certainly don’t hate her even after her shenanigans these past couple of years.
Karen Larionova is from Eden Prairie, Minn.
Her majors are Russian and English.
