{"id":731455,"date":"2026-08-08T12:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731455\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:04:16","slug":"shes-the-voice-of-a-really-particular-moment-how-phoebe-bridgers-became-her-generations-defining-songwriter-phoebe-bridgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731455\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She\u2019s the voice of a really particular moment\u2019: how Phoebe Bridgers became her generation\u2019s defining songwriter | Phoebe Bridgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, indie star Phoebe Bridgers releases her long-awaited third album, six years since her pandemic-era breakthrough. Alongside a slew of glittering reviews for Lost Weekend, including five stars from the Guardian<\/a>, with it comes her first solo charting single in the UK \u2013 although the Californian musician\u2019s influence runs far deeper than reviews or record sales could measure. Just how did a RuneScape-referencing, Halloween-costumed Berklee drop-out become the most influential songwriter of the 2020s?<\/p>\n

Bridgers\u2019 idiosyncratic writing has shaped the sound of the decade. Her second album Punisher, released in June 2020 (and recorded many months before), spookily anticipated that strange, lonely year: in her eerie double-tracked vocals (a nod to Bridgers\u2019 musical hero, Elliott Smith), Bridgers sang of empty shopping malls and conspiracy theories over lush, unsettling music made from watery electric guitar, Mellotron, strings, screams and birdsong. Today, Bridgers\u2019 distinctive mix of dry wit and pathos is traceable in the lyrics of pop\u2019s new chart toppers, such as Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams<\/a>, while heavyweights across generations and genres, including Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and SZA, have clamoured for collaborations. \u201cShe is the reference now,\u201d Swift told the Guardian in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the voice of a really particular moment,\u201d says author Carmen Maria Machado, who first met Bridgers when she attended an event for Machado\u2019s prize-winning memoir In the Dream House<\/a>. There is a kinship between Machado\u2019s prose and Bridgers\u2019 lyrics \u2013 both are candid, haunted, unafraid to get gruesome \u2013 and it resulted in Machado publishing a short story to accompany Punisher. \u201cPhoebe\u2019s never looking directly on, rather looking askance,\u201d says Machado. \u201cHer music is so precise and weird and beautiful; it\u2019s a prayer or an ode to this place that we\u2019re living in, while also watching it fall apart.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Boys \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Reviews for Lost Weekend have highlighted the album\u2019s deeply personal subject matter \u2013 it discusses the death of Bridgers\u2019 father, and the end of her engagement to actor Paul Mescal \u2013 but also Bridgers\u2019 enduringly surreal sense of humour. When performing single Lost Boys on the Tonight Show, she played it first with a band of children, who were fizzing with excitement, and then again in an acoustic arrangement with veteran folk legend Dan Reeder. The effect was trippy, sweet and faintly morbid: distinctly Phoebe.<\/p>\n

For Naomi McPherson, a member of synth-pop three-piece Muna, it\u2019s this mixture of matter-of-fact and magical that makes Bridgers so distinct. \u201cIt\u2019s infuriating and inspiring how good she is,\u201d McPherson says, pointing to a forthcoming Lost Weekend song with a line about turning down the stereo volume to better parallel park: \u201cTo be able to put that in a song in a way that isn\u2019t stupid, but is actually brilliant and somehow deeply touching, is an enormous feat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muna signed to Bridgers\u2019 record label Saddest Factory in 2021, joining a cohort of imaginative, predominantly queer musicians united under Bridgers\u2019 mentality of \u201cgetting cool stuff out to people as fast as possible\u201d. Singer-songwriter Claud (whose song A Good Thing soundtracked the finale to queer romance series Heartstopper) was the label\u2019s first signee. They emphasise the value of Bridgers\u2019 support at a vital time for both artists: \u201cI knew I could trust her opinions and instincts for my project, because I love everything she does with hers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The label was rolled into parent company Dead Oceans earlier this year after a trademark dispute, but its lasting influence reflects Bridgers\u2019 determination to change the music industry for the better \u2013 as did her supergroup, Boygenius<\/a>, formed with songwriter friends Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. Together the trio played their biggest stages to date and clinched three Grammy awards, while Bridgers took the award ceremony as an opportunity to condemn former Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow, who had been accused of sexual assault<\/a>, for his disparaging \u201cstep up\u201d<\/a> comment towards women in music: \u201cRot in piss!\u201d<\/p>\n

From left: Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker of Boygenius accepting the award for best rock performance at the 2024 Grammy awards. Photograph: Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n

Bridgers\u2019 plain-talking has won her a passionate fanbase, many of whom are easily spotted by their matching ghost tattoos \u2013 a reference to the cover of her 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps \u2013 and her concerts are intense: Claud, who has toured with Bridgers, describes \u201ccrowds of tens of thousands where you can actually hear a pin drop\u201d. It tracks, then, that Bridgers decided to promote Lost Weekend not with sit-down interviews but a series of secretive pop-up shows across the US, taking the new songs straight to fans.<\/p>\n

Fan Baleigh Epperly, an environmental advocate, DJ and co-founder of queer, female-led local DJ collective Their House, \u201cfreaked out\u201d when Bridgers rolled in to play at the Loud, a 500-capacity venue in her home town of Huntington, West Virginia. \u201cWe never get shit,\u201d she laughs, saying it meant \u201ceverything\u201d that Bridgers was visiting \u201cthe overlooked places, the places where she knows her fans are\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tiny shows were first come, first served, capped at $50 a ticket, and mobile-phone free. Epperly says they all sat cross-legged, watching Bridgers play as if it were a house show. \u201cIt was the talk of the town, literally,\u201d she marvels, predicting that the performance will have a lasting impact on young musicians who may have internalised damaging stereotypes about Appalachia: \u201cIf Phoebe is good enough for West Virginia, then you\u2019re good enough to play here, to live here, to be from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muna\u2019s Katie Gavin describes Bridgers\u2019 influence in similar terms. \u201cShe\u2019s an aspirational songwriter for me. Seeing her make art makes me want to do it, which is what the best music does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, indie star Phoebe Bridgers releases her long-awaited third album, six years since her pandemic-era breakthrough. Alongside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}