Written by Thelonia
That Poppy is basically a robot that got a record deal - but her music is a lot more auto-tune machine gone rogue than Daft Punk.
While lurking deep on the weird part of YouTube the other month, I fell into a downward spiral of conspiracy theories. One of them was of a pop singer I had not heard of until then, That Poppy. The video started by playing one of her songs, which I found catchy, if a bit 'meh'. But I can appreciate a good creepy video set to happy go lucky music, so I enjoyed the video and moved on with my life.
But after hearing her songs a few times in stores and thinking about why her act bugged me a bit
Poppy is a robotic girl from a vague background (we know she wanted to be a Rockette and her father was a drummer in a band) who is more concept than person. From her name "Pop-py" to her bland, pretty demeanor and middle of the road songs, she seems to be the perfect pop star. And yet, once you look at anything beyond her music, there's something kind of creepy about That Poppy.
Always a great sign when people start talking about
themselves in the third person.
Her social media presence starts suddenly in 2015, and since then her various accounts have been churning out strange and vaguely unsettling videos and pictures.
😬
And yet, none of her content, for all its imagery and cult-ish references, aren't surprising to me, because this is far from the first time this act has been done. The Illuminati symbolism has been done to death over the past decade (with Lady Gaga in particular driving the final nails into that coffin), and the robotic tone to her singing and personality is very reminiscent of another group
Here's her video for "Money," which is one of the 4 songs on her first and so far only EP, Bubblebath, which she released earlier this year.
Here's her video for "Money," which is one of the 4 songs on her first and so far only EP, Bubblebath, which she released earlier this year.
Compare that then to this single by Japanese duo act FEMM, "F**k Boyz Get Money" which was released in 2014.
FEMM is a pop act made up by mannequins RiRi and LuLa, and their "managing agents" Honey-B and W-Trouble, who are considered the leaders of the "FEMM Agency Syndicate," which is an agency that supports the rights of mannequins (the theme of their first video).
The two real-life women behind these characters, Hiro Todo (a Japanese Idol), and Emily Kaiho (a Japanese-American actress and singer), have no presence in the act as it is - the act is all encompassing. Their robotic demeanor is maintained from video to video, album to album, and is even maintained in live performance (which are surprisingly elaborate considering how slow they move most of the time, because, you know, mannequins).
The two real-life women behind these characters, Hiro Todo (a Japanese Idol), and Emily Kaiho (a Japanese-American actress and singer), have no presence in the act as it is - the act is all encompassing. Their robotic demeanor is maintained from video to video, album to album, and is even maintained in live performance (which are surprisingly elaborate considering how slow they move most of the time, because, you know, mannequins).
So all in all, the concept that That Poppy is pursuing can (and has) been done. What remains to be seen is if That Poppy is able to maintain the mask for more than an album.
Speaking of which, you may have noticed by this point of the review that almost nothing has been said about That Poppy's music. And there is a reason for that - while That Poppy's stage persona is interesting in at least its concept, her music tends to be the kind of easy listening that would be playing in the background at a mall. It's not challenging, not particularly interesting, but it sure does sound good when you zone out checking out perfume samples.
Personally, I'm usually a fan of sad songs parading as happy songs, but a gimmick like being a literal robotic puppet (as well as heavily referencing the Illuminati) only gets you so far - here's hoping That Poppy gets a bit more interesting in any future projects.
Ssh Poppy, you're not helping.
You can find That Poppy on Vevo, Amazon Music and iTunes.
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