Abel Tesfaye: The Legend of “The Weeknd”
A telling of the story of my generation’s biggest star
The mysticity in which The Weeknd operates shrouds his undying stardom in pop culture. The melancholic persona that he portrays (pictured above) adds to the allure and mystery of one of the biggest stars in the last 10 years. By demystifying this character, we can see just how prominent his rise to stardom has been. From here, we dive into the life of the self-dubbed “King of the Fall”.
Sex, Drugs, and…Love?
The penultimate struggle of the millennial — trying to find love in an inebriated and untrustworthy world — is a central theme in all of Abel’s music. You could close your eyes and pick a song and sure enough it will fall under either sex, love, or drugs; most of the time, all three. I believe this is why The Weeknd’s signature sound is so alluring. He makes the addiction to sex, money, drugs, and love sound almost romantic in its influence to the listener. That is, those things being a singular physical entity, something that can pressure us just like a good (bad) friend.
Sex, as a topic in music, is often referenced in conjunction with the loss thereof, or the longing for a deeper connection to potential love interests. A rather uncoupled explanation for overt sexuality in music…
