Sombr, the singer and TikTok phenom, explained by a Gen Z youth.

An inevitable part of getting older is no longer recognizing the names of celebrities and musicians. Slowly and steadily, the more famous young and younger people become, the more their names will seem like incoherent phrases muttered by someone who has lost their mind, like a side dish of vegetables or some kind of cruel trick. At some point, Kourtney Kardashian will seem like Old Hollywood to a certain group of Millennials compared to others Terror Jr (who Pop Crave assures me is a person).

Sometimes the only way to combat this and ensure that you are not betrayed by life itself is to accept your own mortality, find a smart, kind, young person and ask them for the truth. It's not unlike asking a teenager to hold on to your arm while crossing a busy street. That's why I chatted with you Jason P Franka writer at Vulture and prime member of Generation Z to explain to me (a grumpy millennial) Sombr — supposedly a person, a musician, and currently the center of a seemingly impenetrable internet drama.

Jason, my first question to you, a youth, is to please explain to me in millennial terms: Who is Sombr?

Sombr is a rock singer who resembles Timothée Chalamet and sounds a little like The 1975 was washed in the washing machine and all of his big, sometimes even annoying ideas were shrunk into a TikTok-sized package.

Are you sure Sombr is one man, or is he just three skinny kids in one coat?

He's thin like a man in a coat!

Like Chalamet, he began his career at LaGuardia, a performing arts theater [high] School in New York. He's the kind of performance you might remember from the days when groups liked him Neon trees, Promote peopleor Fun. would break through and manage to score a pop radio hit. But now there's no pop radio, so there's no way to get just one good song out of him and send him home.

Fill in the millennial blank: “If I like ______, I will like Sombr.”

“If I like the song,'I won't teach your boyfriend how to dance with you' by Black Kids, I'm going to like Sombr.

Why does he write his name like one? Millennial app? Is he trying to trick us?

His name comes from his real initials SMB and the fact that he was sad when he released his original song. I don't know why it's spelled like Grindr, but the fact that he didn't see the context is a good indication that he's straight.

Since it's obviously not me, who is Sombr's main audience?

Its main audience is the same group that loved Panic! in the disco, fun., and The neighborhood: There's always a group of teenagers looking for a sweet, confident rocker to wallow in and feel emo with.

And what are adults but simply teenagers who have gotten older? Well, from what I've heard in various group chats and TikToks that seemed far too long to listen to in full, Sombr is at the center of a controversy. Are the teenagers hitting on this skinny man?

You can call [the controversy] There is a millennial Gen Z divide, if you will, but I think the real divide here is between young Gen Z and old Gen Z.

This is important demarcation18 to 24 year olds are completely different creatures than 25 to 29 year olds.

It's a very different world – the generation was set in stone long before Covid hit, and the start of lockdown makes such a huge difference in development.

The drama that began occurred because a 25-year-old posted an eight-minute TikTok criticizing his performance at the Anthem in DC. She noted that she listens to Sombr and that many people her age listen to Sombr, but the truth is that they are the older age of his listeners.

I just clicked on Sombr on Spotify and an ambulance drove to my apartment to take me to an assisted living facility.

By the way, happy birthday, Alex.

I feel like that somehow Once you get out of college, you can get a degree in real rock musicbut whatever. Anyway, she was old enough to know a bad concert from a good concert, and told Tok that you shouldn't buy a ticket if you're “over 16.”

I like the idea of ​​punishing children with a bad concert.

Sombr then reacted completely angry to the viral TikTok and his young fans attacked the girl and called her old. She is 25! Not old! (Says the 26-year-old, feeling extremely old.) Sombr's fans and Oops are both Generation Z, but the lines between generations have been drawn.

So the Battle for Sombr is at least a little about being young and perhaps using an army of children as a weapon to wipe out the enemy. I don't think you have to enjoy Sombr to understand that.

Last question: Do you think Sombr's fame will survive his controversy? Or is this the dark ending?

I mean, yeah, I do think he'll survive this particular controversy. It feels like something like this would only further galvanize his hardcore fan base, who already can't afford concert tickets. Maybe it'll even force his label to pay for him to get the training he needs to perform well on stage. When he inevitably gets nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards and performs better than expected, that will be a great narrative. Congratulations to Sombr in advance for this.