You probably know Jack Coyne by now. Maybe not by name, but you\u2019ve seen him around, on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram Reels. He\u2019s the tall, wide-smiling guy chatting with everyone from famous musicians and actors to random New Yorkers on your phone. I caught on to Coyne\u2019s first social media account, Public Opinion, in 2022, when I couldn\u2019t stop watching him quiz tourists, born-and-raiseds, and transplants alike about the city\u2019s history and government. In fact, I\u2019ve learned more about New York City from Coyne than from any textbook, Wikipedia article, friend, or documentary. Without Public Opinion, I would have never known that the city changed its beloved \u201cI \u2665 \ufe0fNew York\u201d logo to \u201cWe \u2665 New York,\u201d or that only 38.3% of registered voters in the city participated in the 2022 election. For almost four years, Coyne has shown up on nearly every one of my TikTok scrolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It all started with Public Opinion<\/a>, the media company Coyne co-founded with his brother Kieran and their friend Henry Kornaros four years ago that\u2019s now seven employees strong. At the beginning, Coyne was capitalizing on this man-on-the-street interview craze sweeping social media, especially TikTok. But that format wasn\u2019t new, nor was Coyne\u2019s take on it particularly groundbreaking. Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s been interviewing people galavanting through Hollywood Boulevard on his late-night show for years, and Billy Eichner had a very successful Funny or Die program dedicated to berating street passerbys about popular culture factoids for a dollar. Strolling citizens make excellent test subjects for just about anything, especially answering questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Coyne\u2019s decision to pay his interviewees anywhere from $5 to $100 for knowing about New York City\u2019s infrastructure, laws, art, and politics caught on fast with a lot of people. The first-ever Public Opinion video did 7 million views on TikTok\u2014a big deal in 2022, when the platform was still a Wild West for virality and algorithms. Coyne assumed that most of his videos\u2019 viewers came from New York City. I say to him that I tuned in whenever I could, even when I was living in Ohio. \u201cThe reason we thought that the show worked was because people are generally interested in New York, even from outside [the city],\u201d he replies. \u201cThink about all the movies that are shot in New York or take place there.\u201d The exact origin of viewership was nearly impossible to trace but, after six or seven months, the difficulty of filming Public Opinion videos got more and more obvious. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find people on the street who know the answers to the questions, because a lot of people that you meet in New York City are visiting,\u201d Coyne reveals. \u201cThey\u2019re not from there, or they\u2019re afraid that they won\u2019t have something to say. You have to work harder to find people with the level of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n To combat that, Coyne, his brother, and Kornaros started Track Star in January 2023, a vertical \u201cgame show\u201d where musicians, actors, tourists, and native New Yorkers alike guess the songs that Coyne plays for them through a set of headphones. Having a topic that \u201cmore people would be able to speak to\u201d on the street made the average interviewee all the more easier to find\u2014and all the more compelling to watch, more so than those \u201cname three songs by the band on your T-shirt\u201d videos that got a lot of engagement two, three years ago. There\u2019s a buy-in with Track Star. \u201cGuess the artist and win $5,\u201d Coyne says while he\u2019s queuing up a genre you like. And the more artists you guess correctly, the more money you win\u2014it\u2019s double or nothing rules, which means consecutive right answers can rack up some serious cash. Some people bank their winnings, which can total well into the thousands, while others give it all away to charity\u2014the latter choice is a popular one amongst Coyne\u2019s more famous guests, though he says one celeb did consider taking home their winnings but opted to leave the money behind to avoid public judgement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Track Star is emotionally similar to Cash Cab, in that you\u2019re being entertained and you\u2019re playing along. And, if you start getting questions right, you think you could be on the show and do better than the contestant you\u2019re watching. Plus, maybe you\u2019ll get a new music rec or two out of it, or maybe you\u2019ll see a stranger you\u2019d like to meet when you come to the city. As I was rewatching some of the oldest Track Star clips, I came across a February 2023 episode with a Queens man named Rob who flew through Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, and Elton John songs and earned himself a quick $40. Almost three years later and he\u2019s a main character in my most recent TikTok obsession, the record store-based \u201cRevival of the Fittest\u201d<\/a> program that I\u2019ve dubbed a \u201cphone sitcom.\u201d I don\u2019t know if Jack Coyne creates local celebrities, but I\u2019m glad he\u2019s put me on to a few of them. (What\u2019s up, Oscar Raydin?)<\/p>\n But with Public Opinion, there\u2019s an awareness to local issues, local histories, and local people that Coyne is actively fostering. I find the work that he and his team are doing to be a form of organizing, specifically. Track Star has evolved into a format that is anchored by an interplay between trivia and education, whether that\u2019s coming from genre super-fans, beloved artists, or Coyne himself, but Public Opinion has mostly ditched its competition roots, focusing instead on dialogues and clips now that are accessible, easy-to-digest investigations about the city Coyne lives in. That intention comes from home, because his mom worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City for decades. \u201cShe would tell us stories at the dinner table about the subway system,\u201d he remembers. \u201cA lot of people hate on the subway system and complain about it all the time, but we have this profound respect for how much it works and how well it works, considering the strain on it, the amount of people that use it, and the lack of resources. In order for you to be appreciative of the government, or for you to want to vote, you have to have an understanding of what the government does.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s right. That changing traffic light at the end of your street is the government. Turning on a faucet in your bathroom is the government. These are vital parts of everyday life, interconnected with each other. \u201cAnd I think I found, starting with asking trivia questions about New York City, I don\u2019t have the answers,\u201d Coyne reflects. \u201cLike, what does happen when we flush a toilet? It\u2019s fucking magic that that works, but the reason it works is because of the government.\u201d Public Opinion has stayed a New York-minded operation the whole way through, but they\u2019ve switched up their content delivery. Instead of doing the same consistent, short episodes that are in a game show format like Track Star, Coyne and his team have pivoted to telling bigger stories\u2014multi-minute \u201cdocumentaries\u201d that do solid numbers on YouTube. Recent subjects have included \u201cWhat\u2019s Under the Street in NYC?\u201d<\/a>; \u201cCan You Swim in NYC\u2019s Rivers?\u201d<\/a>; and \u201cWe Traced NYC\u2019s Weed Supply to the Source.\u201d<\/a> One of the reasons behind the switch was because the itch of doing daily content was being scratched by Track Star, Coyne explains. \u201cWe\u2019d always had aspirations to tell more in-depth, documentary-style videos on YouTube. As that was picking up on Public Opinion, we were covering our bases in both spaces at the same time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Coyne, his brother, and Kornaros want to take Public Opinion beyond NYC, eventually. They\u2019ve already planted the seeds by covering universal topics, like this video<\/a> about municipal water systems. The topics, Coyne thinks, are applicable to people all over the world. Why he and his team stays home comes down to finances and resources. \u201cWe\u2019re here, so we don\u2019t have to pay travel expenses to do something in a different place,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt might be interesting to talk about cycling culture in the Netherlands compared to cycling culture in New York City, but then we have to buy three plane tickets to Amsterdam and then pay for a hotel. The budget is $5,000 just to do that. We have to build our resources up a little bit and find some funding to be able to tell those types of stories.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At one point, Public Opinion contestants began donating their winnings to various mutual aid organizations, like the Bowery Mission and the Trevor Project. It caught on and trickled into Track Star, so Coyne began encouraging it, especially when celebrities started appearing on the show. What was he going to do, give $1,000 to a fucking millionaire? \u201cI was self-conscious about it from the very beginning, starting a show where I would just go up to people and put a microphone in their face, not expecting a return,\u201d he says. \u201cThese people are working on your show, so they should get some value for it. It\u2019s a cool way to pay people for their service, for being a part of your thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n AS TRACK STAR GREW, a hard truth emerged: Coyne could only give away so much money. On Public Opinion, contestants would often stop after three or four questions, but there are Track Star subjects who\u2019ve done 10-20 songs and watched their total winnings catapult to four figures. What\u2019s playing on our phones can only tell so much of the story. Not only are Coyne and his team making hour-long video compilations on Chess Records<\/a> and film scores<\/a>, but the YouTube versions of Track Star videos are less edited and give off a much better sense of the show\u2019s inner workings. When Coyne is testing an Irish girl\u2019s knowledge of Irish music, the viewer gets to see him calculating her winnings in real time<\/a> and how close it\u2019s getting to $20,000. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018This is crazy, are you going to stop or are you going to keep going?\u2019\u201d he tells me. \u201cAnd I\u2019m anxious to the point where I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t have that much money.\u2019 We didn\u2019t have that much money in the bank account. We shot that and then we had to save up money for three months to be able to pay the donation, to be able to release that video. And you see it happen. It\u2019s fun and it\u2019s playful and I\u2019m joking, but Kieran\u2019s like, \u2018You fucking get her out, stop fucking around.\u2019\u201d One deep cut later and her round was over.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to give away thousands of dollars five days a week,\u201d Coyne tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s coming out of our pocket, we don\u2019t have any money, and I think the thing that resonates with people is not the game. It\u2019s the conversation. It\u2019s not, \u2018How much money did this guy get?\u2019 If your focus is on how much money is on the line or not on the line, we\u2019re failing.\u201d The important thing is the story being shared. Are the videos touching somebody? Is there an emotional connection happening between Coyne, the interviewee, and anybody who scrolls to the video on their For You Page?\u00a0<\/p>\n I keep thinking about Robert George, a \u201chuman jukebox\u201d that nearly bankrupted Track Star<\/a> just days before my conversation with Coyne. \u201cTechnically he won $1.5 billion off us, or something like that,\u201d Coyne laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s where the mechanics of the thing start to fall apart. It\u2019s like, \u2018Dude, you\u2019re amazing. We\u2019re going to make a big donation to your charity of choice. But, now, let\u2019s see how far you can go.\u2019\u201d In-between a few-dozen guesses, George told stories about being a DJ in the DMV and brokered one of the sweetest connections between Coyne and a contestant yet. But then he became impossible to stump. \u201cAt that point, I wasn\u2019t worried about the money. I was worried about letting this go.\u201d Coyne eventually got the upper hand on George\u2014thanks to \u201cParty Fears Two\u201d by the Associates\u2014and donated $1,000 to the American Cancer Society on his behalf.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the point of a Track Star video is not to \u201cstump\u201d the guesser. Of course, any conversation will run stale if it goes on long enough, and Coyne and his brother can\u2019t stand out in the NYC cold for three hours every day, but what he wants to do is play songs that turn his videos into snapshots of somebody else\u2019s life. Why Track Star? Well, it\u2019s become a middle ground for music lovers of all kinds. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be important to you, and you can explain why that song is important to you and why you care about it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo if it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve never heard this song before,\u2019 it\u2019s like, oh, shit, that\u2019s boring. What I\u2019m always going for is they put the headphones on, I play a song, and all of a sudden their face lights up and they\u2019re happy. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, my God, this song.\u2019 That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n IN 2026, TRACK STAR is mostly the same show it was in 2023. What has changed is Coyne\u2019s \u201ccompetence and ability\u201d to pick songs, interpret someone\u2019s music taste, and communicate with them through that. Instead of Coyne and a stranger just playing a guessing game, it\u2019s a stranger flexing their music smarts, responding to something they love, and doing monologues about it. As Coyne told the New York Times<\/a>, \u201cWe are tricking people into telling a story. They\u2019re listening to something, they get fired up, and then they get to talk about it.\u201d And, with a money component involved, it gives their taste and knowledge some tangible worth, even if they leave their winnings behind or ask Coyne to donate them to an organization that needs it more.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rhythm of the Track Star editing has also improved, as has Coyne\u2019s understanding of how to splice things together. \u201cIf anything, we\u2019ve moved away from just saying \u2018Name the artist, win five bucks,\u2019\u201d he admits. \u201cThat used to be the beginning of every single video. Now, we feel like people have an understanding of the show. The platforms have an understanding of how to distribute us and get us in front of people who are going to want to watch it.\u201d In other words: the algorithm has figured out Track Star, not the other way around. Coyne and his crew can take more risks and \u201cmove outside the guardrails\u201d of the game show format they started with. It\u2019s not just \u201cdouble-or-nothing\u201d anymore, but an experimental storytelling vehicle that resonates with a lot of people. When he\u2019s not making mixes for musicians he looks up to, he\u2019s staging an emotional meetup between his mom and Ed Sheeran, or he\u2019s learning about the most meaningful song in a stranger\u2019s life\u2014whether that\u2019s New York Times editor David Remnick, Sue Molnar (a mid-fifties woman who banked $10,000, which Coyne said he\u2019d have to pay out to her \u201cin installments\u201d), or a South African man who loved jazz music so much that he immigrated to New York just so he could be in the city\u2019s jazz scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n In any case, social media trends don\u2019t hold a lot of weight for Coyne, because Track Star isn\u2019t a new idea. \u201cThey were doing versions of this show on the radio in the 1930s,\u201d he shares, grinning wide. \u201cCall in and guess that tune, you know?\u201d But we are in an age where social media is becoming a valuable tool to promote work, if not the most valuable tool. Actors and musicians come on Coyne\u2019s show when they\u2019ve got something to plug, like Jeremy Allen White when Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere was entering theaters and Cameron Crowe<\/a> when his memoir was hitting bookstore shelves. And Coyne always buries the lede, letting people \u201cchoose their own adventure\u201d without directly promoting anything. \u201cWhen we have an artist appear on the show who has a new album [coming out], we don\u2019t really talk about the new album,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t say when it\u2019s coming out. We\u2019re not trying to advertise, we\u2019re trying to have interesting conversations with people. It\u2019s valuable to put this person on this show and have them resonate with a large audience, and then people might discover them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n You have to think that publicists have bought into that content model, otherwise Jack Antonoff, Olivia Rodrigo, Common, Lucinda Williams<\/a>, Ken Burns, Mark Zuckerberg, Billy Corgan, and Maya Rudolph would have steered clear of Coyne and his team. I mean, Christ, Zohran Mamdani came on the show<\/a> in the middle of his mayoral campaign. Kamala Harris<\/a> said to Coyne on-camera, \u201cI love what you do.\u201d Track Star has blown up, sitting at 956,000 followers on Instagram, 215,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 42.6 million views on TikTok. It\u2019s like MTV for a digital age, but Coyne, his brother, and Kornaros have kept their mission airtight for three years: Track Star is driven by people, not clicks. \u201cPart of the ethos of what we do is we treat everybody the same,\u201d Coyne says. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re fucking famous or you\u2019re rich or you\u2019re homeless, whatever. Everybody\u2019s equal, and it\u2019s important for us to showcase that.\u201d That\u2019s why you have ballet choreographer Justin Peck explaining movement through classical music, photographer Roberta Bayley giving a lesson on punk rock, and \u201cretired K-pop stan\u201d Em identifying the genre\u2019s global domination all within a few scrolls of each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s always the people you don\u2019t know who have the greatest stories to tell. Sure, Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton are great, exciting figures, but their lives have been talked about over and over. There\u2019s only so many places Coyne can go in those conversations, but some random person on a street corner is a discovery that he gets to share with the world. \u201cYou get to introduce someone to the world, to someone that they don\u2019t know,\u201d he says. \u201cStriking that balance is really important, and the reason that we do that through music is because music is so universal. Everybody has a song that they love. Everyone has something to connect with.\u201d On the Public Opinion side of things, Coyne\u2019s discoveries are even more fulfilling. \u201cThe video we\u2019re editing right now is with a dude who works in the Department of City Planning and is building pipes underneath the sidewalk,\u201d he says. \u201cThat guy is more interesting than Tame Impala. That conversation was more satisfying to have, because I\u2019m learning from this guy about how the sewer system works. Tame Impala is cool. He\u2019s famous, his music is dope, and I\u2019m curious about some of his influences. But, it\u2019s just as interesting to learn about how the pipes work.\u201d<\/p>\n In the mid-2010s Humans of New York was, like, the biggest fucking thing. My mom had the book on our coffee table for years. Now, TikTok accounts are doing the same thing, talking to New Yorkers on the street about falling in love, fashion, and apartment prices. These videos are getting millions of views and likes. To me, that has to mean people are craving stories. It means that people are curious. And curiosity is what motivates Jack Coyne. It drives every conversation he\u2019s having, on-camera or off. He has a desire\u2014which is practically second-nature to him now\u2014to pull information out of people. Before Public Opinion, he worked for YouTuber Casey Neistat. \u201cWe\u2019d work on these vlogs about New York City, and he would be like, \u2018If you go outside and you have a camera, a story is going to run and hit you in the face,\u2019\u201d Coyne recalls. \u201cHaving that mindset of \u2018if you\u2019re out there, on the streets, it\u2019s going to happen,\u2019 you\u2019re going to meet people and it\u2019s going to be interesting. Even if you don\u2019t have a camera and you went and spent the day walking around, talking to people, you would have a really interesting day. Then, you\u2019d be able to go to dinner that night and say, \u2018I met this guy who was feeding birds in the park and he was a Vietnam veteran.\u2019 That\u2019s interesting. It feeds your soul.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been resistant to music content creators for a long time\u2014not because I don\u2019t like what they do, but because their platforms are, by default design, made to take more eyes off the written word, whether that\u2019s intentional or not. It\u2019s easier to watch a video than to read a story, plain and simple. That\u2019s why publications are pivoting to video, hoping that social media engagement will translate to website clicks. And, as somebody who runs one of those websites, that can be a difficult future to grapple with.\u00a0<\/p>\n But I\u2019ve never scrolled past a Track Star video. And, until my conversation with Coyne last December, I never really thought about why his program was the lone exception. What\u2019s obvious to me now is that we need more folks like him, just as much as we need art critics and curators on the printed page. Take a recent Track Star guest, Audrey<\/a>, who revealed to Coyne that she moved to New York for fashion school but now works as a bartender: the interaction seems superficial at first, but then it turns into this cute back-and-forth about what rock bands a 23-year-old thinks are the greatest of all time. It\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ve had hundreds of times with friends, and now I get to watch a stranger have it while I\u2019m scrolling on my phone. That\u2019s an appealing venture, because we need people who are willing to tell the story of somebody who\u2019d never think to sit in front of a camera and talk if somebody else didn\u2019t stop them on the street and ask them to do so. I think you become smarter and kinder that way, just by having conversations with the strangers, artists, and thinkers walking by you. You learn as much about who you are as you do other people, even if the conversation begins by simply asking what artist sang which song.\u00a0<\/p>\n Matt Mitchell is the editor of Paste. They live in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n