Can we talk about Troye Sivan for just a little while? If you are not familiar with that name, you’re not alone. Troye is a 20-year-old singer from Australia who released his debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, just this month. You might recognize him as the young Wolverine in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie from 2009. Or maybe not. He’s not exactly famous yet – so you’re excused for not knowing who he is – but he’s quite popular with the young crowd.
With 3.75 million subscribers to his personal YouTube channel and almost 900,000 to his Vevo channel, Troye is an Internet celebrity who publishes video blogs. He released his first major-label extended play (third overall), TRXYE, in 2014. The set’s single, the electropop gem “Happy Little Pill,” introduced Troye to an international audience. Early-adopting youth all over the world, including here at home, fell in love with him in no time. The clip for the song has since been viewed more than 21 million times on YouTube.
Troye is an inspiration, not only because he is a brilliant singer and songwriter, but also because he’s gay. Reportedly, he came out to his family in 2010 and three years later, publicly through YouTube. In his own words, as quoted by guardian.com, “I came into the professional music industry as an out person.”
He didn’t enter the industry masquerading as straight, nor did he ever evade the topic, answer questions in riddles and resort to mere allusions. Like Sam Smith, who has never shied away from conversations or interviews about his sexuality, Troye comes from the new school of self-branding: that of honesty and staying true to oneself.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that the likes of Lance Bass and Clay Aiken, who both came out later on in their respective careers, have been initially deceptive. It was a different time back then and they had to act out the role of straight heartthrobs (or at least, remain ambiguous) in order to survive in the cutthroat entertainment business (at least, according to their managers and record labels).
What’s inspiring about Troye is that, at age 20, he is intelligently using his celebrity to talk about LGBT issues. In a recent YouTube post sponsored by condom-maker Durex, he discussed HIV/AIDS and cleared up many of the misconceptions about the virus and condition, including the one about AIDS being the “gay cancer,” for the benefit of his viewers, most of whom are presumably young and in need of guidance on such topics.
He also released a music video trilogy – for the songs “Wild,” “Fools” and “Talk Me Down” – telling the story of two boys who progress from being childhood friends to teenage lovers, only to be tragically broken up by family issues and hiding one’s sexuality. It’s the exact same situation that a lot of LGBT youth went through in decades past, and probably not too different from what today’s LGBT teens are experiencing.
To see this kind of narrative in music videos by a young artist is telling – that someone has the balls to do it; that in some places in the world, like Australia, music executives are progressive enough to gamble on such a divisive concept; but most importantly, that there are artists who are willing and eager to send a clear message this early in their careers.
But what’s more telling is the success of the effort. As of this writing, the three-month-old clip for “Wild” has just a little under 10 million views on YouTube. “Fools,” uploaded two months ago, has 6.8 million and last month’s “Talk Me Down” has so far accumulated close to 5.7 million plays. These are huge numbers for a new artist. And it goes to show how Troye’s songs and music videos resonate with his large and still growing audience.
There’s a certain “relatablility” and “believability” when you see such a story on the music video of a hot new young star and not on, say, someone like Elton John or on a movie. It makes the story more intimate, more personal, more honest and a lot less manufactured. Then, juxtapose the images with singalong-worthy lines like “You make my heart shake, bend and break / But I can’t turn away” (“Wild”); “Only fools fall for you / Only fools do what I do” (“Fools”); and “I wanna sleep next to you / But that’s all I wanna do right now” (“Talk Me Down”), and you’ve got the perfect pop formula.
No wonder that in its feature on the Blue Neighbourhood album, vice.com’s Nick Levine leads with the headline, “Troye Sivan Writes Hit Songs About Boys That Make Girls Scream,” calling him “an exciting and important new pop artist, one whose success completely decimates the theory that teenage girls don’t listen to music by gay – and therefore ‘unattainable’ – pop idols.”
That loops us back to the fact that we’re clearly entering a new era – and it’s a glorious one.
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