Final Article and Writing Annotations

Rising from the Shallow End

Bathed in the flood of fluorescent lighting, Billie Wells observes her surroundings as we speak - eyes flickering from the wall, to my face, back at the wall, and finally towards the swinging light above us. Restless, her hands tap at the table, posture alert yet expression cool and relaxed. Which is not surprising considering the sheer amount of bubbly energy she confines. Loved not only by critics, but by fans spreading globally, 2 albums nominated for indie awards, and 4 singles gaining more than 30 million views between them on Youtube - it's hard to believe that Billie Wells ever stooped under the depths of depression, stress, and a severe lack of self confidence.

 "The music world is a game but the opposing players are always way ahead," she explains, "if you can't handle the pressure of the game then you're dropped out and another rises to your place. It's a very stressful career choice - something I never saw coming when I first started." Starting at an age as young as twelve-years old, Billie first started a career in music through the power of Youtube. "It's embarrassing to think about it now, sitting in front of a camera like that with the fuzzy background noise andfffriendly intros about my day. They were so unprofessionally recorded and I dread to remember sitting there and begging for subscribers. But if it wasn't for Youtube, I wouldn't be here today. Youtube gives people a chance that they wouldn't have been given before. And if it meant my music being heard by others, I was willing to stand up for that."

 It was during these fuzzy videos, that Wells became a sensation, scoring over a million views on even the earliest of her songs. But the game wasn't over yet. After being signed on by a local record label, Wells was faced with the stress of fame and the high demands of the label. "All of a sudden, they want you to dress a certain way, act a certain way, and sing a certain way," she tells the Untouched team. "The stress to change and fit in becomes real. You’re always trying to keep up with their ideal views," she shrugs, "otherwise you could lose out on everything."

All hell broke lose when Billie Wells was dropped from the publishing company. "In that moment, I was ready to give up," she declares. Depression had smacked Wells like a tidal wave, putting the career on hold as she desperately tried to grab hold of every opportunity. 2 years, Billie Wells' dream of being an indie star was put on hold, as family problems arose and the life in the music career began to look bleaker and bleaker at the crippling emotional wound left from being turned out into the street. But through the support of others, she's back. "Mostly, it was music that helped me. In those two years, I visited gigs, wrote songs, and turned to the music of other's in order to pull myself back on track. Emotional support from family and friends can help you a great deal, but deep down I felt as though the music had been what brought me back in reality." Suddenly she was back on track, quickly pulling together her career and setting off where she left.

"The rejection was quite a blow, but now I've learned that this world is hard and full of situations such as the one I faced. But this doesn't mean the end. Don't give up after being turned away once. Just simply learn from your mistake, improve, and start again."

Final Article Annotations

To write this article, it needed to suit the style of other indie genre magazines. I adopted the deeply descriptive type of writing from Q magazine, the Florence & the Machine article that I analysed in particular. This meant using descriptive terms such as 'bathed', 'flood', 'bubbly', and 'fuzzy'. It also meant writing an article describing past troubles with the artist and re-visiting dark or happy moments like the Florence & the Machine article did. I wrote an article like this because in my questionnaire, this was the type of article that the majority of the questionnaire takers wanted to read.

I also wanted to create a professional appearance to my article so I spoke of things related to the music world such as the publishing company and the bad quality of most unprofessionally recorded Youtube videos. This was to show even a basic well-knowing of the music world to make the article sound more real.

I also adapted the article so it suited the expressions of the model in the image. She looks both sad and angry so I wrote the article to be about hard times in her life and moments where she was betrayed. It's important that the images portray what's going on in the image so the blend together well. 

Also, because it's an indie magazine, I kept the controversial topics away as this kind of writing would be more associated with young adult magazines or the rock genre. The mentioning of depression and the struggles of life isn't normally seen in an indie magazine article, but I wanted to create a troubled atmosphere that matched the model's expression on the image.