Line #23 Music/Bjork


1	[[quoteright:307:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bjork_swan_dress.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:307: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WFTHpOw8Y "You shouldn't let poets lie to you."]]]]
3
4	[floatboxright:
5	Influences:
6	+Music/KateBush, Music/JoniMitchell, Music/DollyParton, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/ClaudeDebussy, Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, Music/KarlheinzStockhausen, Music/EllaFitzgerald, Music/GrahamMassey, Music/PublicEnemy, Music/MarkBell, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/RolandKirk, Music/SunRa, Music/BrianEno, Tricky, Music/ElisRegina, Music/{{Timbaland}}, Music/AmaliaRodrigues, Music/AphexTwin
7	Influenced
8	+ Music/ArcadeFire, Music/{{Aurora\|Singer}}, Music/CharliXCX, Music/ChristineAndTheQueens, Music/{{Kana}}, Music/LadyGaga, Music/AlanisMorissette, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/TravisScott, Music/HikaruUtada
9	]
10
11	->''"If you ever get close to a human\
12	And human behaviour\
13	Be ready, be ready to get confused"''
14	-->-- "Human Behaviour"
15
16	Björk is what happens when you dress a cat in Alexander [=Mc=]Queen, teach it how to type, and use the results for lyrics. OK, not really. But kinda.
17
18	Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965) is a woman from UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} who's famous for several things: her distinct voice, her experimental (but [[CrazyIsCool awesome]]) music, her unique fashion taste, her {{surreal music video}}s, her acting in the film ''Film/DancerInTheDark'', her accent, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick that one time she beat up paparazzi]].
19
20	From 1986 to 1992, she was in the alternative rock band called The Sugarcubes, who were the first Icelandic musical act to ''ever'' gain ''any'' sort of success outside of Iceland (mostly in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} UK]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates American]] alternative radio), mostly from the endorsement of beloved Radio 1 DJ/indie tastemaker Creator/JohnPeel. After they broke up, Björk went on to have a vastly more successful solo career.
21
22	Her music cannot be shoehorned into one category. She's not just an [[ElectronicMusic electronic]] artist; she has dabbled in many genres, including: {{a cappella}}, {{jazz}}, pop, {{alternative rock}}, [[ClassicalMusic classical]], orchestral, folk, and [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]].
23	----
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Studio albums and soundtracks:]]
27	* ''Björk'' (1977) [[note]](an Icelandic-exclusive album released when she was 12; has since been long out of print, and is now obscenely rare)[[/note]]
28	* ''Gling-Gló'' (1990) [[note]](with Trio Guðmundur Ingólfsson)[[/note]]
29	* ''Music/{{Debut}}'' (1993)
30	* ''Music/{{Post}}'' (1995)
31	* ''Telegram'' (1996) [[note]](''Post'' {{remix album}})[[/note]]
32	* ''Music/{{Homogenic}}'' (1997)
33	* ''Selmasongs'' (2000) [[note]](the soundtrack to ''Film/DancerInTheDark'')[[/note]]
34	* ''Music/{{Vespertine}}'' (2001)
35	* ''Music/{{Medulla}}'' (2004)
36	* ''Drawing Restraint 9'' (2005) [[note]](the soundtrack to the film of the same name)[[/note]]
37	* ''Volta'' (2007)
38	* ''Biophilia'' (2011)
39	* ''Bastards'' (2012) [[note]](''Biophilia'' remix album)[[/note]]
40	* ''Vulnicura'' (2015)
41	* ''Utopia'' (2017)
42	* ''Fossora'' (2022)
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Filmography:]]
46	* ''Literature/TheJuniperTree'' (1990) as Margit
47	* ''Film/DancerInTheDark'' (2000) as Selma Ježková
48	* ''Drawing Restraint 9'' (2005) as the Occidental Guest
49	* ''Film/TheNorthman'' (2022) as the Seeress
50	[[/folder]]
51	----
52	!!Her work provides examples of:
53
54	* AnimatedMusicVideo:
55	** "I Miss You" had one, animated by [[Creator/JohnKricfalusi Spümco]].
56	** Also, "Pagan Poetry" which was [[MoralGuardians banned by MTV]] for its sexual content even though it was rotoscoped and not all that explicit (and if it were, it's nigh-incomprehensible.)
57	** And again in "Family", the last third of "Black Lake", and "The Gate". It could be said that her most of collaboration with Andrew Thomas Huang falls under this.
58	* BaseOnWheels: The music video for "Army of Me" features a tractor trailer so large that the wheels themselves are taller than most people.
59	* BewareTheSillyOnes: Despite her sweet and innocent {{Cloudcuckoolander}} reputation, Björk has attacked two journalists, one in 1996 and one in 2008.
60	* BigScrewedUpFamily: If she's the OnlySaneWoman...
61	* [[BreakupSong Breakup Album]]: ''Vulnicura'' was recorded during her separation from longtime partner Creator/MatthewBarney; notes in the album booklet detail when the songs were completed in regards to their breakup (i.e. "3 months before," "2 months after.")
62	* BrokenRecord:
63	** "I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him" and "She loves him, she loves him, she loves him, she loves him" from "Pagan Poetry."
64	** The ending of "The Modern Things" has a looped phrase that's probably Icelandic. It's hard to make out exactly what it is, though.
65	* CanonDiscontinuity / OldShame: She doesn't acknowledge her 1977 album. Not to mention that she named her 1993 album ''Music/{{Debut}}''!
66	* CatchPhrase: "Alt sem hann sér" (and variations thereof,) which means "everything he sees" in Icelandic.
67	* CarefulWithThatAxe:
68	** She screams a ''lot'' in [[{{Irony}} "It's Oh So Quiet."]]
69	** Some versions of "Army Of Me" -- particularly her version with music provided by Music/SkunkAnansie, where, nearly three minutes in, she ''flips the fuck out'' and screams the chorus at the top of her lungs, drowning out the band.
70	* ChangedForTheVideo:
71	** The video for "All is Full Of Love" uses the "Radio String Mix" instead of the album version.
72	** Also "Big Time Sensuality", which uses "Fluke Minimix" instead of one in the album, "Alarm Call," which uses faster, censored "Radio Mix," and "Who is It" which switches a capella version with "Bell Choir" version for the video.
73	** It also should be noted that in her ''Greatest Hits'', the video version of "All is Full Of Love" and "Big Time Sensuality" are in the compilation instead of the official ones.
74	** The earlier "Stonemilker" video uses the string mix of the song.
75	* ChildPopstar: Her first album was released when she was ''twelve''.
76	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: To put it lightly, the swan dress in the page image is one of the ''least'' weird things she's done.
77	* ConceptVideo / SurrealMusicVideo: Virtually all of her music videos fall under this trope. When she's not a lesbian robot, she's turning an audience into plants, leaving her cat husband to go out partying and then coming back hung over, secreting red thread out of her nipples, travelling on a buffalo in a river with a backpack demon, dressing up as a pinecone and then being attacked by blob thingies, blowing up a museum, or squirting mucus out of her nose and eating it. Specifically for ''Vulnicura'', she also made a VR music video ("Stonemilker"), and another one that brought us ''inside her mouth'' ("Mouth Mantra").
78	* CoverVersion:
79	** "It's Oh So Quiet" was first performed in 1951 by comedienne/singer Music/BettyHutton.
80	** Björk has also recorded a cover of "The Boho Dance" for ''A Tribute to Music/JoniMitchell''.
81	** From her 1999 "Live At the Chapel" live recording, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UDYWD1SYE&ab_channel=BjorksMusic "Anyone Who Had a Heart"]], written by Music/BurtBacharach.
82	* DerangedAnimation: The video for "I Miss You." But that's what you get when you hire the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' [[Creator/JohnKricfalusi guy]] to make a music video for you.
83	* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: While in UsefulNotes/{{China}} for a tour, she performed "Declare Independence," and screamed, "Tibet! Tibet!" multiple times... Naturally, [[BannedInChina she's not welcome back into the country]].
84	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: As of ''Biophilia'', her stage setup includes a ''giant tesla coil''. As a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8WFtffuaE percussion instrument]].
85	* EatenAlive: Human Behaviour's music video ends with her being SwallowedWhole by a bear, and the last shot is her trapped in its stomach.
86	* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
87	** She seems to have started doing this since ''Music/{{Post}}'', with the aggressive beats of "Army of Me" fading into the tranquil strings of "Hyperballad," as well as "Cover Me" also neatly transitioning into "Headphones."
88	** Also "Unravel" into "Bachelorette" on ''Music/{{Homogenic}}'', interestingly since the two songs have a very different tone. "Pluto" and "All is Full of Love" as well.
89	** "Frosti" --> "Aurora," on ''Vespertine''.
90	** ''Music/{{Medulla}}'' has "Öll Birtan" which fade into "Who is It," in the midst of a cappella, just like that!
91	** This trend seems to stop at ''Volta'', which uses a lot of ambient as a transition point. The prominent example are "Earth Intruders" into "Wanderlust," then, "Innocence" into "I See Who You Are" into "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" into "Pneumonia" into "Hope" ''into "Declare Independence!"''
92	** Back at it in ''Utopia'', where "Blissing Me" ends with the same flute melody that begins "The Gate", then a string of seamless transitions (but only with the CD track order): "Body Memory" into "Features Creatures" into "Courtship" into "Losss".
93	* FlyAwayShot: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htobTBlCvUU closing shot]] of the "It's Oh So Quiet" music video has her fly away together with the camera.
94	* GenreMashup: ''Vespertine'' effectively marries classical music with IDM/glitch and ''Medúlla'' is essentially a capella electronica. Its most notable track is "Triumph of a Heart", an a capella ''dance song''. And [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic it is awesome.]]
95	* GenreRoulette: ''Music/{{Debut}}'' and ''Music/{{Post}}'' jump between dance-pop, trip-hop, jazz and other stuff. She's the only primarily electronic artist whose most famous song is a big-band cover.
96	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Some of her songs have lines in Icelandic, and a couple are even sung entirely in it. Several tracks on ''Medúlla" have Icelandic titles, too.
97	* HiddenDepths:
98	** [[http://grapevine.is/Author/ReadArticle/Letter-From-Bjork-About-Magma-Energy She has dived]] [[http://grapevine.is/Author/ReadArticle/Bjork-Responds-To-Ross-Beaty-Again into Icelandic politics.]]
99	** [[Music/{{U2}} Bono]] finds her intellect scary. This is a man that can intimidate world leaders with his extensive knowledge of facts and figures, and Björk ''puts him in awe''.
100	* HiddenTrack: "Play Dead" on ''Debut''. There's about 30 seconds of silence after the song before it, so it would be understandable to think it's the end of the album.
101	* IconicOutfit: Her swan dress.
102	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: {{Downplayed}}, but every main album's name [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness except]] ''[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Debut]]'' has a Greek or Latin root and illustrates a scientific or philosophical concept.
103	* {{Instrumentals}}:
104	** "Frosti" and "Batabid" from ''Vespertine'', "Paradisa" from ''Utopia''.
105	** And, in a cappella sense, "Öll Birtan" and "Miðvikudags" from ''Medúlla'', as well as "Komið" from the Japanese edition.
106	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Since ''Vulnicura'', she has struck one with Music/{{Arca}}, 24 years her junior. It paved the way for both ''Utopia'' and Arca's self-titled third album.
107	* KryptoniteFactor: Not so much her, but her music: as mentioned above, nearly all of Björk's music is guitarless. One must think her music sheets fear the guitar....
108	* LighterAndSofter: After the brooding ''Vulnicura'' comes ''Utopia'', album about finding love again. It features lighter beats, harp, woodwinds and sweeter lyrics.
109	* LoonyFan: She was almost the victim of one around 1996 named Ricardo López. He began his obsession with her in 1993, becoming infuriated with her relationship with English DJ Goldie, and over nine months he made a video diary musing about her while making a [[YouGotMurder letterbomb rigged with sulfuric acid]] to send to her with intentions of killing or maiming her. On September 12 of that year, he mailed the package to her home before [[SnuffFilm filming his suicide at home]]. After his body and the evidence of his deeds were found, the package was successfully intercepted. However, López's tapes are still easily accessible on the Internet.
110	* LyricalDissonance:
111	** "Hyperballad" is about throwing things off a cliff, and imagining what it would be like to jump off too.
112	** "Submarine" is dark and intense, but actually a motivational song Björk wrote for herself.
113	** "Virus", which [[{{Yandere}} with a distinctly stalkerish vibe]] details a parasitic relationship just about to kill the host, to the sounds of cutesy plinks and twinkles...
114	** "Lionsong" is quite upbeat and you could dance to it, despite its subject matter.
115	* MamaBear:
116	** Björk is ''very'' protective over her children.
117	** The reason why Björk attacked a reporter in 1996 was because the reporter stuck a mic in her son's face and started asking him embarrassing questions.
118	** Following the media sensation around Ricardo Lopez, a LoonyFan of Björk, she stated that she was most fearful for the safety of her son, going as far as hiring security to escort him to school.
119	* MagicalMysteryDoors: Happens once in the museum scene of her clip for ''Army of Me''.
120	* MusicBoxIntervals: Much of ''Vespertine'', including "Frosti", which is entirely a music box interval.
121	* NewSoundAlbum: Björk started out as a unique dance-pop artist. Her albums after ''Debut''... Well...
122	** ''Music/{{Debut}}'' was a departure from her work with The Sugarcubes with its electronica-based sound.
123	** ''Music/{{Post}}'' explored new sounds, like the {{Industrial}}-ish "Army of Me" and "Enjoy", the big band/jazz "It's Oh So Quiet", and the tribal "Isobel".
124	** ''Music/{{Homogenic}}'' is a fusion of strings, crunchy electronic beats, and misc. things (accordion, glass harmonica etc.)
125	** ''Vespertine'' brought back the strings. Also featured are the harp, a choir, music boxes, and chilly electronic sounds that make a wintry album.
126	** ''Music/{{Medulla}}'' is virtually all ACappella. It mixes a capella versions of familiar genres (pop, electronica), voice techniques (a choir, throat singing, beatboxing...), and Björk's ever-present avant-garde style.
127	** ''Volta'' features brass sounds and loud percussive beats. It may be her most aggressive album overall (it certainly is her most in the '00s). There are also more HipHop influences, since about half of it is produced or co-produced by Music/{{Timbaland}}.
128	** ''Biophilia'' is her becoming more abstract and minimal with her lyrics and focusing on certain musical elements and using more electronics opposed to natural instruments. Recorded on a iPad.
129	** ''Vulnicura'' is more direct and personal lyrically whilst fusing the minimalism of of ''Biophilia'' with the strings of ''Homogenic''.
130	** ''Utopia'' retains the production of ''Vulnicura'', albeit substituting the strings with real and synthesized woodwinds in order to create a naturalistic, uplifting feel that sounds at times like birdsong. Some ''Volta''-esque beats go in hand with the political themes present.
131	** ''Fossora'' fuses harsher beats taken from gabber music and bass clarinets. Lyrically, it concludes the conceptual trilogy of ''Vulnicura'' and ''Utopia'' by focusing on themes of human connection, family, loss, and inheritance.
132	* NonAppearingTitle: A minority of her songs, including "Jóga", "Bachelorette", "Pluto", "Heirloom", "You've Been Flirting Again", "Hyperballad", "Pneumonia", "Domestica", "Frosti", "Batabid", "Ancestors", "Dark Matter", "Moon", "Cosmogony", "Stonemilker", "Mouth Mantra" and "Lionsong".
133	* NonindicativeName: ''Debut'' isn't actually her debut...
134	* OlderThanTheyLook: She looked a lot like a teenager until she hit her 40s, and even then she still looked good for her age.
135	* OneWomanSong: "Isobel", "Jóga".
136	* OnlySaneWoman: If what she says is true, her family is even weirder than her.
137	* PantyShot: The "Oral" video has her and Rosalia's deepfaked body doubles doing martial arts and backflips in loose skirts. Naturally, there's several.
138	* PerfectlyCromulentWord: ''Fossora'' is the ungrammatical feminine form of the Latin word "fossor" ("digger").
139	* PimpedOutDress:
140	** Everything she wears on stage and in the videos, from swans to bells to jellyfish and harps, with the utmost disregard towards functionality.
141	** Brought further when she sang "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Canm7glYFgg Oceania]]" at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She wore a voluminous light blue dress that slowly unfurled, in order to become an enormous sheet that covered all athletes standing in the middle of the stadium.
142	* ThePowerOfFriendship: "Headphones", "Jóga" and "Who Is It".
143	* PrecisionFStrike:
144	** If "Alarm Call" is anything to go by, despite not being a ''fucking'' Buddhist, she can recognize enlightenment.
145	** She recently experienced a vivid compressed version of "every single fuck" she had together with her lover in "History of Touches".
146	** And ''twice'' in notably lighter album ''Utopia'', in "Body Memory" and "Sue Me".
147	* RealityWritingBook: The music video for "Bachelorette" revolves around this theme.
148	* RecycledLyrics: Björk wrote a song called "Bedtime Story" for Music/{{Madonna}}, which used the lyrics "and inside / we're all still wet / longing and yearning" and "and all that you've ever learned / try to forget." Björk reused these lyrics for her own song "Sweet Intuition" (with a variation of the latter lyric -- it became "all that you've learned / try to forget it").
149	* RemixAlbum: Has several:
150	** ''The Best Mixes from the Album Debut for All the People Who Don't Buy White Labels'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title says]], is collection of remixes from ''Debut''.
151	** ''Telegram'' collects remixes from ''Post''.
152	** ''Army of Me: Remixes and Cover'' collects 17 different remixes of the song "Army of Me".
153	** ''Bastards'' collects remixes from ''Biophilia''.
154	* SceneryPorn: The video for "Jóga".
155	* SerialEscalation: Björk's gonna top everything she has done with a series of concerts that'll promote ''Biophilia''.
156	--> [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bjoerk-to-debut-new-biophilia-songs-at-residency-in-england-20110317 "These performances are a meditation on the relationship between music, nature and technology and will feature live music as well as multimedia elements including installations, performance art and apps for mobile devices. Special instruments [have been] conceived and constructed specifically for these concerts, including custom-built digitally controlled pipe organs, a gamelan-celeste hybrid and a]] ''30-foot pendulum that harnesses the planet's gravitational pull to create musical patterns.''"
157	* ShortTitleLongElaborateSubtitle:
158	** "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)."
159	** "Vulnicura Strings (Vulnicura: The Acoustic Version – Strings, Voice and Viola Organista Only)", her acoustic mix of ''Vunicura''.
160	* SigningOffCatchPhrase: Enjoys ending letters with "Warmthness, Björk".
161	* SingingSimlish: She sometimes sings in a mixture of Icelandic and gibberish or just plain Simlish.
162	* TheSomethingSong: "The Anchor Song" and "The Comet Song".
163	* SummonBackupDancers: The video for "It's Oh So Quiet".
164	* TextlessAlbumCover:
165	** Almost all of Björk's albums have this, with rare exceptions being her pre-''Debut'' releases, as well as some non-studio live albums, remix albums, box sets, ''Music/{{Vespertine}}'', and ''Music/{{Medulla}}''.
166	** ''Vespertine'' takes it a little further than that, because the spine of the album, which would normally have the artist name and album title on it, is textless and pure white. There's a hype sticker on the back with that information plus a list of the songs and copyright info, but if you chose to remove that, the back cover would similarly be blank and white.
167	* ThematicSeries: After the relatively impersonal ''Volta'' and ''Biophilia'', the albums ''Vulnicura'', ''Utopia'' and ''Fossora'' form a conceptual trilogy reflecting the singer's own personal life and state of mind. ''Vulnicura'' chronicles the heartbreak after her separation from Matthew Barney and the immediate aftercare, ''Utopia'' is about finding love again and dreaming of a better future, and ''Fossora'' is "coming down to Earth" and reconnecting with family and the land. On the musical side, all three albums feature contributions by Music/{{Arca}} on production duty.
168	* TitleTrack: Notably averted. 2017-release ''Utopia'' finally plays this trope straight as does 2022's ''Fossora''.
169	* TranquilFury: One could say that every song in ''Vulnicura'' is this. Its central track, "Black Lake", plays this trope very well.
170	* TrrrillingRrrs: She notably uses it as a default when talking and singing, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools not that there's anything wrong with that]].
171	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Her [[PimpedOutDress Pimped-Out Dresses]] are an integral part of her eccentric personality.
172	* WordSaladLyrics:
173	** "Pagan Poetry".
174	** Also, "[[http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bjork/suninmymouth.html Sun in My Mouth]]" from the same album.
175	** You could actually say most of her songs apply to this trope.
176	* WorkingWithTheEx: After her breakup with Stephane Sednaoui, she asked him to direct her video for "Possibly Maybe", a song about him.
177	* YouGotMurder: Averted. An acid mailbomb sent by a mad stalker was intercepted by the post. The tape detailing it, however...

Context Music / Bjork