{"id":4165,"date":"2018-12-10T02:05:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T02:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carriagehousemusic.com\/440magazine\/?p=4165"},"modified":"2018-12-16T04:14:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T04:14:16","slug":"grimes-welcomes-the-robot-empire-with-new-single-we-appreciate-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carriagehousemusic.com\/440magazine\/2018\/12\/10\/grimes-welcomes-the-robot-empire-with-new-single-we-appreciate-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Grimes Welcomes the Robot Empire with New Single “We Appreciate Power”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Riley Huff<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny how, back in 2012, <\/span>Grimes<\/span><\/a> seemed like a bit of an underdog figure. The Canadian singer-producer <\/span>spent three weeks barricaded in a room by herself<\/span><\/a> in order to meet the deadline for her first major-label album. <\/span>Visions<\/span><\/i> was the finished product, and she became famous very quickly from it, only to deal with industry figures trying to <\/span>muddy her creative vision<\/span><\/a> once she became successful. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, she has <\/span>signed with Roc Nation<\/span><\/a>, Jay-Z\u2019s entertainment management company. Earlier this year, she announced her relationship with Elon Musk by <\/span>appearing with him at the Met Gala<\/span><\/a> wearing a Tesla choker. Even <\/span>Apple recently tapped her music<\/span><\/a> as a marketing tool for selling Mac computers. With all this corporate support and attention from the elite, she isn\u2019t quite the underdog she used to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grimes\u2019 new single <\/span>\u201cWe Appreciate Power,\u201d<\/span><\/a> featuring HANA, follows on the heels of her rising status as Silicon Valley\u2019s Pop Star of Choice. The song is \u201cinspired by the North Korean band <\/span>Moranbong<\/span><\/a>,\u201d and it\u2019s \u201cwritten from the perspective of a Pro-A.I. Girl Group Propaganda Machine,\u201d according to the track\u2019s press release. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The song is preternaturally poppy. It almost sounds like it could be on Top 40 radio, save for the little details that separate Grimes from other mainstream producers. That is to say, she embraces the abrasive: terrified shrieks and out-of-tune horns puncture the production\u2019s robotic sheen.<\/span><\/p>\n

And actually, the song does have the cadence of a cult chant. Coupled with the industrial churn of guitar, \u201cWe Appreciate Power\u201d is particularly effective as an exercise in using dystopian fantasy to shock listeners. Grimes\u2019 aesthetic often comes off like apocalyptic cyberpunk cosplay, but in this soundscape, the Artificial Intelligence Revolution sounds less like pretend and more like an inevitability. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps Musk put her up to this, <\/span>some will say<\/span><\/a>. After all, the engineer is known for, among other things, founding OpenAI, a company that aims to regulate A.I. research, and promote research that accounts for the risk of an unfriendly robotic super-intelligence developing in the future. Maybe the single was Musk\u2019s idea of a PSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this song, along with the accompanying lyric video (below), feels like Grimes\u2019 singular vision, and her vision of the future is much more grim. As an artist, she is allowed the liberty of visiting the dark corners her significant other wishes to avoid. In the video, she and HANA appear in catsuits, displayed like <\/span>Mass Effect<\/span><\/i> characters, inanimate and compliant against a planetary backdrop. <\/span><\/p>\n