Bump this thread when you come across somebody hugely popular you didn’t know about

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Benson Boone, UK number one, 130 million streams.

Dan Worsley, Friday, 22 March 2024 19:19 (one year ago)

I blame Tik-Tok.

Dan Worsley, Friday, 22 March 2024 19:20 (one year ago)

Noah Kahan

I painted my teeth (sleeve), Friday, 22 March 2024 19:38 (one year ago)

Does it count when it's popular in a faraway place? I just learned about Karen Mok but I probably don't know most of the popular singers in China

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 23 March 2024 20:35 (one year ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-Khs3hsVg

mark s, Saturday, 23 March 2024 20:39 (one year ago)

Noah Kahan

This was definitely one for me a couple of months back. "Sold out Red Rocks? Who the fuck is this guy?"

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 March 2024 20:39 (one year ago)

yeah I encountered him in Charlottesville last June when I was walking on the downtown mall and saw a line for a show that evening that went for at least 6 city blocks, of course I had to ask.

there was a recent New Yorker bit on him as well

I painted my teeth (sleeve), Saturday, 23 March 2024 22:03 (one year ago)

Around the age of 39 I started noticing bands I'd never heard of selling out big rooms.

Now I'm 47 and the schedule for those same rooms are, like, 2/3rds bands I've never heard of.

After hanging in there and keeping up on new music for much, much longer than most people, it has become very clear to me over the past 10 years that I'm falling out of touch. Like, I can see it happening in a very gradual, steady, unmistakeable way. It's much more *tangible* than I expected. And it's a bummer!

alpine static, Sunday, 24 March 2024 05:34 (one year ago)

probably one that will only mean anything to others living in Scotland, but I hadn't heard of Gerry Cinnamon until I saw a poster for him playing two consecutive nights at the national football stadium.

lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 24 March 2024 12:22 (one year ago)

lmao i just started up a noah kahan video and was getting in the mood and then he opened his mouth and started singing folks what is this

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 March 2024 12:26 (one year ago)

The male equivalent of the bananies and avocados meme

Maresn3st, Sunday, 24 March 2024 12:32 (one year ago)

"stick season" was #1 for 7 weeks in the uk? y'all like that kinda music now?

dyl, Sunday, 24 March 2024 13:57 (one year ago)

probably one that will only mean anything to others living in Scotland, but I hadn't heard of Gerry Cinnamon until I saw a poster for him playing two consecutive nights at the national football stadium.

― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 24 March 2024 12:22 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

He is legit huge but its not just kids. I know plenty of 40-60 year olds who go to see him. He's a genuine phenomenon. I cant understand it myself.

Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Sunday, 24 March 2024 14:03 (one year ago)

holy christ this song ("Stick Season") sounds like it was made in a lab to torment me. Horrendous, indefensible music

Paul Ponzi, Sunday, 24 March 2024 14:48 (one year ago)

i guess it's just the stadium shit i don't recognize. we got a couple mid-sized venues. the roseland has chelsea wolfe. mom jeans. ..shrek rave. "cool is dead! who cares? it's dumb just come have fun!" prestige wrestling. panchiko, who... i mean i guess that's as good a way to get a following as any, right? just have your demo cd from 30 years ago found in a random thrift store? blind guardian. static-x / sevendust. violent femmes. (i've always hated their name. these dudes are neither violent _nor_ femme.) dethklok. idles. real hipster shit, y'know?

the crystal ballroom has... oh shit they got the clothing swap in two weeks again. cool. an anyway. sleater-kinney. sampha. steel panther. micro wrestling all stars. two door cinema club. an orchestral rendition of dr dre 2001. i mean i don't literally know who "BOYWITHUKE" or "los huracanes del norte" are, but i can guess.

now, the moda center... i don't know any of them.

luis miguel. tom segura. amon amarth. amon amarth are a stadium band? really? chris tomlin. bryson tiller. lizzy mcalpine. i mean the oldies bands like blink 182, the postal service and death cab for cutie, pearl jam. those i recognize. olivia rodrigo i recognize. mitski i recognize. idk. i feel like i recognize a lot of acts for as completely out of touch as i am. i feel like the music scene around here is mostly old, mostly oldies shit like blink 182. that newer acts aren't getting traction. i regret that. i wish there was more music i had no idea about, because i _shouldn't_ know this shit. i mean is that what the kids are listening to? i mean god bless panchiko but gen z, i mean, i'd like their own voices to be front and center, and they don't seem to be.

i mean british shit has always been a different universe to me. none of it has ever made any sense.

Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 24 March 2024 14:53 (one year ago)

amon amarth. amon amarth are a stadium band? really?

As someone who first saw Amon Amarth in the middle of a seven-band bill in a club holding maybe 300 people in 2003, and has seen them at least four times since then, in bigger venues each time but none bigger than a 2000-person club, this has surprised the shit out of me.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Sunday, 24 March 2024 15:06 (one year ago)

Just a wild guess here, but nene they're popular as a soundtrack for video game/rpg streamers?

I looked at the big local venue's calendar and that was one of the few names I recognized, along with Alvvays, Umphrey's McGee, Michael Franti (still?!), Mars Volta, Trey Anastasia, etc (I guess the jam bands are doing well). And of course the myriad Taylor Swift Dance Party pop dj events.

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 24 March 2024 15:28 (one year ago)

nene = maybe

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 24 March 2024 15:28 (one year ago)

Just a wild guess here, but nene they're popular as a soundtrack for video game/rpg streamers?

― Jordan s/t (Jordan)

my guess is that it's because they're the only metal band whose name is actually readable in their logo

think of all the people who'd see cattle decapitation live if they could figure out what their name was by looking at their logo

Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 24 March 2024 23:03 (one year ago)

Around the age of 39 I started noticing bands I'd never heard of selling out big rooms.

Now I'm 47 and the schedule for those same rooms are, like, 2/3rds bands I've never heard of.

My equivalent of this started with not recognising the bands at the bottom of festival listings and as the years go the unknows-to-me move to take up higher and higher portions.

Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 March 2024 11:38 (one year ago)

i don't know if this counts but sometimes somebody younger than me will link to something that's hugely popular and, like... it's comedy music, it's memetic music, but it's also, like. music. i don't know if this guy is touring mid-sized theaters but if panchiko is, i mean, why can't this guy? right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--9kqhzQ-8Q

also, again, not hugely popular but a couple years back everybody was sharing memes about how "i listen to girl in red" was a synonym for "lesbian" and since i was reasonably new to the sapphic lifestyle at the time i figured that they were, like, some classic old school shit like the indigo girls that i just missed out on. which in retrospect was silly of me. her first songs came out in '17.

and of course in '21 somebody on rym is saying

"i used to love girl in red when i was younger; she was able to capture a sort of immature young love (wlw too! gotta love the representation-- part of what is so enjoyable abt this) that was applicable to me and i could associate with my own life. part of this is because of how few songs there are that explicitly talk about wlw love/relationships, much less the more sexual or lust-orientated aspects of it. though a bit repetitive and also musically its rather simple (which, sadly, seems to be apart of her formula), i still think its good lol."

so girl in red have been, like. an oldies act. since 2021. apparently.

Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 25 March 2024 21:33 (one year ago)

the amon amarth thing.. they're playing a big-ish venue here headlining over cannibal corpse and obituary. i was like who? but chalked it up to being pretty clueless about metal. i checked them out, they sound more melodic and cheesy than i like though i bet the show would be fun. how that kind of music gets stadium big in 2024 does feel very mysterious to me. what platform does that even happen on, is it a netflix series? the axe-throwing tiktok community? is metal making a comeback? is heavy progressive shit kind of cool now? or am i projecting because i'm personally coming around to that stuff big-time lately (yes).

he/him hoo-hah (map), Monday, 25 March 2024 22:46 (one year ago)

Amon Amarth is not groundbreaking stuff but they’re a very solid live band that just kept touring and growing their fanbase.

The fanbase of Obituary and Cannibal Corpse is at least ten years older, they don’t come out in the kind of numbers anymore that warrants a higher place on the bill.

Siegbran, Monday, 25 March 2024 23:44 (one year ago)

Circa Survive

brimstead, Monday, 25 March 2024 23:52 (one year ago)

How did that godawful unpleasant Benson Boone song become a massive transatlantic hit? I try to be open minded but the top 40 is such a bizarro world nowadays.

Josefa, Monday, 25 March 2024 23:57 (one year ago)

The male equivalent of the bananies and avocados meme

― Maresn3st, 24. marts 2024 12:32 (two days ago)

holy christ this song ("Stick Season") sounds like it was made in a lab to torment me. Horrendous, indefensible music

― Paul Ponzi, 24. marts 2024 14:48 (two days ago)

otm otm otm

rolling worst music 2024

corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 08:47 (one year ago)

the faux-sincerity of it... vomit emoji

corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 08:48 (one year ago)

I don't know a thing about them and seems like they are pretty new so that might explain why I didn't know about them... but it suddenly seems like I can't avoid seeing The Last Dinner Party pop up every fucking where.

Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 4 April 2024 22:05 (one year ago)

the kids have spoken, they are also in my radio station top 20

I painted my teeth (sleeve), Thursday, 4 April 2024 22:24 (one year ago)

Festival bills are like vision charts: the more acts you recognize, the younger you must be (and the better your eyes).

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 April 2024 22:30 (one year ago)

lol

I painted my teeth (sleeve), Thursday, 4 April 2024 22:39 (one year ago)

ten months pass...

Benson Boone, UK number one, 130 million streams.

― Dan Worsley, Friday, March 22, 2024 2:19 PM (ten months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I blame Tik-Tok.

― Dan Worsley, Friday, March 22, 2024 2:20 PM (ten months ago) bookmarkflaglink

So, Benson Boone performed at the Grammys, and apparently a lot of people were like "who tf is this guy."

Ryan Broderick:

There were lots of big moments at the Grammys last night ... But the most important, I think, was the appearance of someone called Benson Boone, who no one seemed to know anything about. As one X user wrote, “Riverdale name. AI-generated song. Netflix original face.”

Boone makes what I like to call “Los Angeles music,” which is typically performed by very talented people (living in LA) but usually sounds like it would play behind a commercial for erectile dysfunction medication. And the fact he had a massive hit on short-form video platforms last year which failed to convert into any real name recognition feels like a good snapshot of the kind of influence those platforms are generating. Which is to say, less and less.

Max Read:

Like a lot of decadent coastal intellectuals, I had not heard of “Benson Boone” until this week, when the musician’s athletic Grammys performance of his song “Beautiful Things” hit the top of every platform’s algorithmic feed.

When I say I had not heard of “Benson Boone,” I meant I was not aware of the existence of the person in this video, who looks a bit like Paul Mescal if he was playing Freddie Mercury in a touring production of something called Bohemian Rhapsody: The Live Experience and also was taking 300mg of Wellbutrin daily.

The song, however--I know the song, even if I did not know its title until I began to write this post. (“Beautiful Things”) I suppose until this week I assumed it didn’t even have a title--that it was a prototype, engineered in a remote Walgreens lab dedicated to building the perfect drugstore song. Boone seems like a nice guy and is a committed and dynamic performer; I wish him personal happiness. However I would be happy to never hear this song again in my life, or anything that sounds like it.

The funny thing is that I definitely know the name Benson Boone simply because I was aware that someone with that name had a hit song last year. Without looking it up, I'm not sure how it goes, although I'm sure I've heard it on the radio. (For whatever reason, I mentally categorize him alongside Teddy Swims and Hozier.) So, it's not very surprising to me that he would be performing at the Grammys, even though I don't know anything about him personally.

jaymc, Wednesday, 5 February 2025 17:23 (six months ago)

I knew him because his hit stood out from the general top 40 flow as being particularly abrasive and unpleasant

Josefa, Wednesday, 5 February 2025 17:40 (six months ago)

ok, I'm listening now and I'm genuinely unsure if I've heard this or not. the start of the chorus sounds vaguely familiar, but maybe just because it's so generic.

jaymc, Wednesday, 5 February 2025 23:35 (six months ago)

i must've taken your listens. i've heard it a billion times. we generally flip around between about 10 SiriusXM channels in my car, and half of them have been playing it constantly for the past year or so.

alpine static, Thursday, 6 February 2025 00:12 (six months ago)

Shaboozy (sp.?)

henry s, Thursday, 6 February 2025 00:30 (six months ago)

I actually emailed max about this also but surely the benson boon record is the most successful ever song that seems clearly and directly inspired by “heart shaped box”

ok (D-40), Thursday, 6 February 2025 00:35 (six months ago)

ha, maybe that's why I got a twinge of familiarity there

jaymc, Thursday, 6 February 2025 00:48 (six months ago)


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