I like some of the Benson Boone backflips!

Happy Memorial Day! I’m throwing my take in the ring regarding the Benson Boone discourse, which has annoyingly taken over my timelines in the past couple of weeks.

I hope everyone is having a restful holiday. I think we all need it because there’s some irritable energy in the air, I think!

The Benson Boone hate has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with everyone on X (neé Twitter) and TikTok giving their hot takes on why he’s bad, inauthentic, or cringe. 

Frankly, I think the reasons why people hate Benson are quite simple: People hate a generic Top 40 pop star. 

We are more attuned to the mechanisms of pop stardom than ever before. We expect big personalities, innovation, and lore from pop stars. Even as we’ve transitioned out of an era of diaristic singer-songwriters into a return to “fun” pop, we still want artists to appear “authentic.”  So in a post-poptimism era of music criticism and consumption, we’ve come back around to hating on “generic” pop music — music that appeals to the largest audience possible with no discernable POV.

It’s cool to like pop if it’s coming from someone “visionary,” “artistic,” or even simply “diva.” We like to hear their niche influences, but don’t want them to come off as stealing someone else’s nachos. But the same people who are saying that Benson Boone is inauthentically referencing Harry Styles and Freddie Mercury forget that people similarly accused Harry of being inauthentic in his own homages to Freddie. Pop fans like to think that they can tell which artists embody their creative direction, and which are putting on a costume — but it’s all just a vibe.

You are entitled to dislike Benson and his music, and the same goes for any artist. I don’t really like the guy’s music and I’ll say that with my whole chest. But I think most people are making up profound reasons to hate him when they just really don’t like his personality, which is… nothing. It’s normie, it’s average, it’s just some dude. Many such cases! 

Benson is only the latest in the tier of mid pop stars that have received huge backlash for being 1) massively popular while being 2) boring, for lack of a better word. Before Benson, people were tearing into Tate McRae (pre-controversial Morgan Wallen collaboration, and post So Close to What album release). Before Tate, they were ripping into Gracie Abrams. The main criticisms that these artists have in common are that they are not particularly interesting people (despite Tate and Benson trying to distract with their on-stage athleticism) and their music is fine. 

Yap Year oomfie Larisha Paul wrote in Rolling Stone that Benson Boone is in the class of pop stars making “The Voice Audition Core” music that is, among other things, a blank canvas. That can propel you to the top of the charts, but pop music fans will view you — rightfully or not — as undeserving. In the worst cases, we take blank slates and project onto them some pretty ungenerous assumptions. 

The worst thing you can be as a pop star right now is mid. Even a bad artist has a perspective, maybe even the potential to be camp. But a well-performing, average musician gives us nothing to root for. In fact, we view those pop stars as disingenuous. 

I have no qualms with mediocre artists. If you can make me move, I’ll give you props. At the very least, Benson Boone has given me a good chuckle with all his little flips. I’ll take it further and say: I like some of the Tate McRae and Gracie Abrams songs! I never really understand the constant, inflammatory discourse over such boring artists because they aren’t even giving us anything to really hate. Pop fans are just inventing new flaws about these people because there’s nothing else to grab onto with them.

Ultimately, I think most people are trying to create a profound, justified reason for their hatred toward certain pop artists when it’s not that deep. People used to say they hated Top 40 and left it at that. Despite popular belief, you can too!

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Something’s in the air since everyone I know is kind of going through it! I made a playlist to match that vibe this week.

In this week’s playlist:

• U Should Not Be Doing That - Amyl and the Sniffers

• STFU! - Rina Sawayama

• Crown on the Ground - Sleigh Bells

• Problem - Natalia Kills

• safeword - Halsey

• Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay) - Sky Ferreira

• Wish You Were Dead - Lola Young

• Kiss With A Fist - Florence + the Machine

Other things I want to share with you.

• Finally watched Overcompensating. Excellent, excellent show and I need a season two NOW. I feel like I haven’t watched a college show that so accurately captures that morally questionable freshman year vibe when you are trying so hard to mold yourself into a new environment. Triggering, but so funny!

• People are loving the latest episode of designer Recho Omondi’s The Cutting Room Floor podcast with Steve Madden. Steve’s candor has captured the attention of millions on TikTok, and the interview seems to have driven thousands to subscribe to Omondi’s podcast. Authenticity prevails again.

• Remember last week when I mentioned that the TikTok-favorite rap group Whatmore was being dubbed the new Brockhampton? Well, Whatmore’s first single is coming soon, and if their teaser visuals are any indicator… perhaps those BH nachos are getting reheated after all. (Although, I did cringe pretty hard at the video.)

• Elf Cosmetics is getting major kudos for figuring out how to send a PR package of food and sunscreen to this viral TikToker who is currently sailing from Oregon to Hawaii.

• Demi Lovato got married ❤️