Benson Boone, 22, was tight and tight on the first night of this year's Coachella Music Festival, his tiny mustache was as tight as he shampooed, shampooed, and shampooed. He was on the stage and performed the wail of glass shaking, cro deep in the abdomen, back flow, front flips and more rear. However, when I watched the live broadcast three Fridays ago, I felt a little uneasy. There was something on Boone's face - the tightness around his plate, his bright smile - showing (at first I thought I was projecting) nerves? shame? Even angry?
After the performance, the source of embarrassment hints at himself: Pop's next boy seems to be learning the limits of his charm in real time. On Tiktok, Boone expressed frustration at the Coachella crowd because he didn't cheer enough to Queen's Brian May. In a review of the festival, forkPaul A. Thompson wrote: "Benson Boone is horrible, just Godawful, and this behavior makes you wonder if the entire medium is worth it." Next week, after his second Coachella setting, Boone addressed his critics on another Tiktok, writing: "If you hate me or my music at least has a good reason."
Boone has been on the track and few musicians will experience it. Last year, his single “Beautiful Things” was the most popular song in the world. He opened for Taylor Swift on the Times Tour, and at this year's Grammy Awards he was amazed by taking off his tuxedo and translating the piano. Title of his upcoming album American Hearthis cover feature is that he hints at what he wants to do when he drapes abs on the Stars and Stripes: uniting the admiration of this country. But in this national confusion about masculinity, there is no long-standing Mullet and the good-sounding guy that can last without controversy.
Boone's biography sounds like a suburban American fairy tale. He grew up in a devout Mormon family in Monroe, Washington, and he had no famous affinity for singing. As a lark, he performed in a high school battle in his senior band (“All girls will be Our," he later recalled thinking, and found him on the stage American Idol- Worth the pipeline. Then he did continue American Idol (Authlete Judge Katy Perry predicted that he would win the entire race), but he quickly quit the show, thinking he could find fame based on his own terms. Dan Reynolds, a former Imagine Dragons, got in touch with mentor Mentor Boone and signed a record deal with Warner Records in October 2021. Boone snipped the song while poked and posed on social media, earning millions of views before the album was released.
When that album, Fireworks and roller skateswhich arrived last year, is both vigorous and universal. Boone and his producers follow a book similar to other 2020s youngsters, such as Harry Styles and Sabrina Carpenter: decades of soft rock sounds that set the star's personality apart from a familiar and gratifying backdrop. That is, the music shows obvious ambitions. These songs are often multi-part journeys, from piano lows to opera highs. "Beautiful things" are vague and sensual, but I must praise it. Every time I listen, the song still surprises me - the frustrating introduction doesn't predict the screams afterwards at all.
What really sets Boone apart is the mismatch between his musical style and his personal identity. Artistically speaking, Boone's most obvious influence was dramatic rock singers from the 1970s and 1980s, especially Elton John and Queen's Freddie Mercury. You will feel their teachings in his eight years of harsh sounds, plod feet speed and sequins blowing to fashion. Of course, these two men struggled to send queer people in their mission to defeat mainstream ideas. Boone, by contrast, is a girl who doesn’t drink or smoke. He wrote songs about topics such as missing his late great-grandmother, and (like “beautiful things”), thanks so much for his life. Last: About the normal charm.
For those who romanticize rock ideas into rebellion, like Boone did at Coachella, the concept of screaming tiktokker wears Freddy Mercury costumes, who did on Coachella, wearing a replica of the singer's royal cape--probably a damn thing. But throughout history, the most solid music also acted as a sports stadium for the masses to pump music. (That's probably why Donald Trump has so easily owned the queen of the tractor and the Maga Songbook of the country man.) In fact, Boone doesn't dilute that much spandex and sequence tradition, but rather he tries to fit in with the tasteless moments of popular rock.
up and down Billboard Hot 100 Now, male avant-garde, guitar-based music is booming. But it's not true to say that rock is not very correct. The 2020s defines sound is a big genre that is enough to include elements of the country, classic rock and sometimes hip-hop. The most unique performers in this vein, such as Shaboozey and Teddy Swimming, have become new stars. But the value of music is usually its sense of anonymity. The purpose of these songs is to stream in the context of a school fundraiser and then to score a social media photo montage. This trend seems to be the opposite of the spicy and spicy flavors of female pop stars like Chappell Roan and Carpenter. It may also be related to the “traditional” turn of American culture. In any case, it encourages familiar masculinity: the gritty and serious singing while wearing Carhartt.
Boone offers a version of this sound – “The Beautiful Things” is the ultimate photo – a montage song while adding softer and drama to both sound and visually. Using a lot of pizazz to provide faithful, utilitarian music, this makes him a name, voice and face that people remember. But it also explains why some viewers regard him as a "talk show." He is slightly out of positioning category and will therefore be seen as a hard work, acting too swing, acting too brotherly, anyway. Scroll through any hostile comment section, or read the infamous fork Review - You can't see substantial criticism of Boone. You just saw him trouble people. Boone's Tiktok addressed his critics, which was hopeless and confusing. "I just read a comment and said, "(I don't even know) why I hate Benson Boone, but it feels right." Like what!
My feedback on him was to write more interesting music - although in the speech, I hope he sticks to charm and acrobatics because people on these days can learn from it. For example: Mark Zuckerberg celebrates his wife's 40th birthday by imitating Boone's Grammy show. The stunts were widely ridiculed as the vanity of a rich man poured out, but I felt the undercurrent of Zuckerberg's desire to squeeze himself into the turquoise leggings. Facebook founders recently challenged other tech tycoons to cage competitions and complained about alleged feminization of American companies. He is clearly looking for some masculinity that will prove the value of a laptop professional like him.
In this search, he is not alone: American boys are lost in the transition, uncertain of the true appearance of male excellence, are leading the culture and politics of the country to lower all kinds of strange corridors. We might be worse than the Boone model - look good, do the trick and sing without threatening anything other than a good taste.