No matter how hard her fans and the music press campaign to make it happen, Grimes will never become the true pop star they want her to be. Although her otherworldly, Ableton-assisted music is crammed full of hooks fit to sit alongside Rihanna and Taylor Swift in the Top 40, the Canadian musician/producer born Claire Boucher feels her place is and forever will be as an outsider.
"I'm a pop artist in a broad sense," she says in an email. "Most music with traditional verse, chorus and bridge structures can probably be considered 'pop.' But I think most people think about Top 40 these days when they use the word 'pop,' and I'm emphatically not from that world."
Grimes might not ever reach the mainstream, but she has achieved phenomenal success as an independent artist. For example, she impressed Jay Z, who personally signed her to a management deal with his company Roc Nation; she has toured with Skrillex and Diplo, Lana Del Rey, and will join Florence & the Machine later this year; and indie music bible Pitchfork Media ranked her song "Oblivion" No. 1 on their list of "The 200 Best Tracks of the Decade So Far." Outside of her musical accomplishments, Boucher has also become an advocate for equality in the music industry and a DIY fashion icon in her own right.