‘Lucky?’ Halsey Poses Rather That ‘Lonely is the Muse’: An Examination Of The Artist And Their Inspiration 

We love a good wink-wink nudge nudge just as anyone else. Some artists leave flamingo pink ones with decorated swirls in flowery, neon signs just under a unicorn statue. It’s so Lover of them. Others in a held-up poster by their best mate, ‘Please Please Please’ sing song-name scrawled here ___. Or even accidentally slipped off their tongues. But Halsey’s a Tumblr kid at heart, like us. So, of course, it’s bound to be a bit revolutionary. Their URL reads “tiredandlonelymuse,” a blog she started two years ago! And if you were to get rid of the first few words to claim it for yourself, it’s a bit closer to their newest single, ‘Lonely is the Muse.’ 

tiredandlonelymuse.tumblr.com

Tumblr is a staple to Halsey. In a Triple J interview, they recall that it’s the one place where they can reach the entire emotional spectrum, and no one bats an eye. Therefore, there’s comfortability, feeling free to reblog stocktake photos of clovers with the text “Am I the luckiest Girl or what?!?” to miniature think pieces by fans, each scroll taking us further into an artist’s diary. It’s so infinitely rare these days that exploring feels a bit intrusive. It’s also imperative to the song itself. Or the poem? ‘Lonely is The Muse’’s origin, after all, is a stanza-filled musing that somehow outdoos Daisy Jones from Daisy Jones & The Six’s “I am not a muse. I am the somebody.”

The poem, posted on Tumblr, even touched on a moment from the ‘Lucky’ music video. A younger version of themselves, Ashley, sits in front of a mirror—“A full length mirror that I bought / from some consignment store”—copying Halsey’s dance moves. They appear as an early 2000s Britney Spears reiteration (her ‘Lucky’ interlopes the track) embellished with a pink wig. You’d find posters of poses in the era speckling the bedroom and even a Halsey sticker with ‘The End’s question iconography stuck on the mirror. 

The Artist Vs. The Muse

The younger Halsey appears only to idolize their pop star self purely because of their perfect life. But it does draw commentary through the poem that she held a certain ideal of being a muse. She sees the power they have, the allure. It completely contrasts their loneliness in other frames of the music video where she’s by themselves watching television or playing in the yard. Thereby filling their mind with imagination; the “Filled my head with cinematics / where I stumbled upon men. / Take them to the edge of greatness / find a new one, / start again.”

She is in the place of the pursuer, the “artist,” even if the muse is in their orbit and she is masquerading themselves to be desirable enough to reel them in. But at least she’s not forgotten. Compared to the “lonely and forgotten” that wraps around them when she finds themselves in the position of the muse outside their daydreams later on post-Ashley’s bedroom. In the poem, she comments, “You’ll just ignore me in the hallway / but I’ll write my little songs / to tell myself it happened my way.”

‘Lucky’

The similarities between ‘Lonely is the Muse’ and ‘Lucky’ don’t end there either. As stated, the former gravitates toward the inspiration’s perspective, the Halsey that has been fictionalized and cemented through other people’s songs. The latter illustrates Halsey’s artistic side, perhaps the one who does that to their crushes and those who crushed them. Through exploring the artist and their inspiration, we’re examining both sides of the creative coin and, collectively, the familiar isolation one feels no matter what bracket they fall in. 

With velvet vocals twined around the word “lucky” during the stripped-down iteration, the Britney spin-off reads more like an introspection than crossing into love where its inspiration is concerned. There are lyrical parallels to their debut album, particularly ‘Gasoline.’ There are also touches of behind-the-scenes, such as becoming a single parent at their premiere and the revelation of being sick. In the music video, a poignant moment plays out where she sits in front of their dressing room mirror. She removes the y2k-enthused wig and reveals a bald head sparked from their leukemia treatment.

The loneliness in this scenario comes from the perfect facade their younger self was lured into. Through now being in their childhood hero’s position, she recognizes that stardom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The projection of being fine keeps them at arm’s length from the surrounding world. What’s particularly fascinating about the media material surrounding ‘Lucky’ (queue the iconic campaign that flips Halsey back to the early 2000s with a Disney-styled commercial, taking us back to the wand drawn-out emblem, and a Myspace-themed website) is that everything is glossy. It’s a satirical play on junk-food entertainment that lacks real depth but is still fun enough to enjoy. 

‘Lonely Is The Muse’

Whereas with its Evanescence edge and authentic Halsey spitfire, constantly reminding us that poetry isn’t flowery, it’s dark and nuanced and sneaks into our shadowy crevices, ‘Lonely is the Muse’ presents them as a creative God. They’re omnipresent. They’re not wielding the pen but smudged on the paper. In the sounds, the speckles of ambiance surround an arena as the artist sings tales about them. She thrives somewhat because of the joy filling up other people but not having any real agency. Rather, the “apparatus,” she states. It’s simply another tool in the music equation. It’s something to be used and of no real importance.

Here, the artist can take Halsey as an ideal, fictionalizing them until they’re the perfect symbol or even truth that the songwriter wants to curate. Then cashing in, taking the glory because they “Didn’t know you were here.” This circles us back to themes of isolation. It’s the “It’s only awful ‘cause the muse looks just like me.” We never think about the muse as a convention when listening to music until we “reside in a sonnet.” Then we’re prompted to ask, “Where’s the credit?”

It’s a goldmine of visual imagery that sits like a sister single to ‘People Disappear Here,’ where Ashley tells of Halsey’s way of hurting themself for art’s sake. But again, at least she’s not forgotten in the stacks of vinyl flashing someone else’s face over the cover. Thereby having the glory. But with ‘Lonely is the Muse’ strategically ending on “Lonely and forgotten is the” and having the word muse left out, she is not remembered. She doesn’t reap any benefits—instead, they consistently mosiac themselves to fit into someone else’s work. 

Another Easter Egg, You Say?

What are your thoughts on the parallels between ‘Lucky’ and ‘Lonely is the Muse?’ Perhaps we’ll be moving on to a different question soon enough. Another cluing trail via Halsey’s mailing list included the social links forwarded to The Chainsmokers. We won’t start singing about Tucson or blink-182 for you. But those things alone trigger the banger ‘Closer,’ no? And we’d growl, bang our heads, and shake our fists in true rocker Halsey style to experience a second chapter. Give us your best capital letter agreement through one of our socials, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!

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