{"id":1046721,"date":"2022-08-15T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T11:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1046721"},"modified":"2022-08-15T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T11:45:13","slug":"riding-roller-coasters-with-pinkpantheress-bedroom-pop-it-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1046721","title":{"rendered":"Riding Roller Coasters With PinkPantheress, Bedroom-Pop It Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Riding Roller Coasters With PinkPantheress, Bedroom-Pop It Girl<\/h1>\n
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The UK singer-songwriter and TikTok icon has spent her summer mostly offline, thrill-seeking at theme parks and preparing for her debut album.<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Emma Madden<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Graphic by Marina Kozak, photo by Danika Magdelena<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As the boat courses around the bend, we\u2019re warned to keep our arms and legs inside the carriage at all times. PinkPantheress considers getting out and descending the steps next to the log flume\u2019s 50-foot drop\u2014she\u2019s wearing pink geometric acrylics, and her lashes are flapping. \u201cNo, no, no, no,\u201d she repeats as the nose of the boat hangs over the waterfall\u2019s crest. \u201cI can\u2019t! I don\u2019t want to do this!\u201d As the boat charges down towards the plunge pool, she screams like a gerbil being shaken inside an exercise ball.<\/p>\n

Around the corner, at the ride\u2019s photo booth, the clerk laughs at our photo, as PinkPantheress appears clinging onto her publicist for dear life. On the screen next to it, an empty boat pops up. \u201cThat should have been us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The singer-songwriter has taken us to Chessington World of Adventures, a theme park an hour out of London that\u2019s mostly tailored for kids. Between festival sets, she\u2019s spent her summer at parks across the south of England with friends and dates. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved theme parks,\u201d she says. \u201cI just love being moved around\u2026 against my will.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 21, PinkPantheress is in the most precarious phase of her life so far. Almost two years ago, on Christmas Day 2020, she posted her first song, the Michael Jackson-sampling \u201cJust a Waste,\u201d to TikTok with zero followers and zero stakes. The following August, her song \u201cJust for me\u201d saw the summer\u2019s largest increase in user-generated content on the app, propelled by the track\u2019s chirruping callback to British 2-step and Garage; the first introduction to either genre for the majority of the app\u2019s largely American user base. Parlophone spotted the numbers early on and signed her soon after. \u201cI just met PinkPantheress and it changed my life,\u201d has since become a common refrain among artists and celebrities including Addison Rae, Denzel Curry, and Earl Sweatshirt, who has been spotted dancing to Pink\u2019s \u201cBreak It Off\u201d during recent live sets.<\/p>\n

Following last year\u2019s compact mixtape to hell with it<\/em>, 2022 has been PinkPantheress\u2019 year of development and collaboration. She has two new singles: The first, \u201cPicture in my mind,\u201d is a funky house track produced by the Scottish electronic artist Sam Gellaitry (she calls it \u201cthe happiest track [she\u2019s] ever released\u201d). The second\u2014still unannounced, and her favorite song she\u2019s ever done\u2014is part Jersey club, part Afrobeat, part uncategorizable, and was produced by one of her ultimate heroes. She plans to release her first album early next year, though she\u2019s yet to make any progress on it. \u201cI\u2019m scared of putting out music now,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s more on the line, there\u2019s more pressure, people expect a certain standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PinkPantheress is startlingly tall; 5\u20198\u201d without the chunky black boots she\u2019s wearing today under a long, black satin skirt. \u201cYeah, most people are really surprised by my height when they meet me,\u201d she says. She greets me with her real name, which I\u2019ve been told multiple times not to print here. She seems to be growing less precious with her quasi-anonymity, though. Earlier this month, while on live radio in Chicago, Denzel Curry (who\u2019s now a friend) accidentally referred to her by her government name. \u201cIt\u2019s happened a few times now,\u201d she says. \u201cAt this point I don\u2019t even know why I\u2019m concealing it, I never want to make people feel alienated, it\u2019s just when people listen to me I want them to feel like they\u2019re connecting with the music and not with me, because they don\u2019t know me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the beginning of our day together, Pink struggles to make eye contact. After competing against one another in a crypt-themed laser shooter ride, her legs begin to cross towards me as we talk, and eventually she meets my eyeline. For an artist who\u2019s young enough to have only known the gaze of online surveillance, there is little self-monitoring. Although aware that our conversation is being recorded, she speaks as fluently and unguardedly as though we are two happy strangers in the smoking area of a club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t always as confident; music has helped for sure,\u201d she says. In the distance, as we walk towards the next ride, she notices a family pointing at her. \u201cThat boy is gonna come up and ask for a picture, I think.\u201d His mother approaches instead: \u201cPinkpanthers! Pinkpanthers! Are you Pinkpanthers? Can my kid have a picture with you?\u201d After posing with a family of seven, she resumes her trail of thought. \u201cI think if you asked my peers they would say, \u2018Yeah, she moves way more confidently now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to releasing music, PinkPantheress was scared of social interaction, of imprinting herself into the world. \u201cI used to be so scared of even just going up to someone and asking them for a drink. I could not do it. But now I\u2019m quite forthcoming. I talk a lot more. I wish I could see who I was then next to who I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

She doesn’t read the comments, but the process of being critiqued has sparked a sense of liberation. \u201cOnce you realize that people can have opinions but also that those opinions can\u2019t actually harm you physically, then you learn overnight that you can just do stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re not hurting anyone yourself\u2014you can do literally whatever you want and it\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She picks up a strawberry slushie and strawberry Cornetto at a booth on the way to the rollercoaster. \u201cIf we come back later, you\u2019ll give us a free refill, won\u2019t you?\u201d she teases the person manning the stall. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d she asks, before noticing the employee\u2019s name tag. \u201cConnor? Cool. When I come back later I\u2019ll tell them that my cousin Connor promised me a free slushie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four sips into her pink drink, she gets the verbal zoomies. \u201cIt\u2019s giving\u2026 \u201d she says as she watches a child hit his mother\u2019s shin in the distance, \u201cwhy are we doing it?\u201d and repeats, this time louder and in a Nicki Minaj \u201cdungeon dragon\u201d bluster, \u201cWHYAREWEDOINGIT.\u201d Then, in an Australian accent: \u201cCut it out, mate.\u201d She begins to laugh, remembering a recent encounter with a kid who came up to her, said \u201cthat\u2019s on gang,\u201d and walked away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PinkPantheress is used to fans and their occasionally strange interactions; she was once an unhinged stan herself. \u201cYeah, borderline obsessed,\u201d she says. \u201cI was a big K-pop fan, I\u2019m still the biggest emo\u2014that\u2019s one of the reasons why I knew I had to create a distance because I know what fans can be like. I do have fans who sometimes cross the line. But as much as I wanna say I care, I don\u2019t really.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the likes of Lil Nas X, Doja Cat, and now PinkPantheress are proving, the pipeline between fandom and stardom is growing ever-neater. On TikTok, the app where all of the above found their fame, artists and fans are encouraged to co-create alongside each other. PinkPantheress\u2019 artistic practice isn\u2019t dissimilar from her former fan-based activities\u2014her lyrics, which are both melodramatic and wryly poetic, often read like Wattpad fan fiction. \u201cI\u2019m 100 percent playing a character,\u201d she says, \u201ceven though I am pretty melodramatic in real life and do draw on some real life experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pitches up her voice to play into her PinkPantheress persona, she says. Her music itself is a product of her fandom: Typically, she\u2019ll collage rococo K-pop toplines together with punk-pop melodies on top of jungle beats\u2014one of the first genres of music to explicitly encourage remixing and prosumerism. \u201cThe amount of people who are like, \u2018nah, it\u2019s not original,\u2019\u201d she says, \u201cand I\u2019m like, name me another artist who\u2019s done it in that order, with all those influences. Please, I\u2019m waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a tinge of sadness to her music and technologically primitive visuals. PinkPantheress grew up on the internet of the 2010s, alongside the rise of algorithms; a time of slick and professional uniformity, when the democratic potential of social media was squandered by venture capitalists and political oligarchs right before our eyes. She is among a new generation who are trying to imagine what a pre-commercial, customizable, vernacular internet must have felt like, despite never experiencing it. She has also never known what it\u2019s like to attend a concert devoid of phones and fans intent to repurpose the performance into content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not like back in the 2000s; I have to remember playing each show that people are gonna be watching this on TikTok. The nerves are never to do with the people in front of me, the nerves are always about what\u2019s being captured on camera.\u201d When she goes to shows herself, PinkPantheress doesn\u2019t film. \u201cBecause, not to be that person, but I\u2019m there<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For our final ride of the day, PinkPantheress chooses the giant pirate ship. She talks about manifestation, how she always wanted to be an important person, how she knew she was going to end up where she is right now. It\u2019s terrifying to have everything she ever wanted. \u201cI\u2019m scared of not having a job, I\u2019m scared of releasing a song and people thinking it\u2019s shit.\u201d But her biggest fear, the event that would make her abandon ship? Being canceled. \u201cIf that happened to me? I don\u2019t know if I could cope,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it happen, it\u2019s painful. That\u2019s why I\u2019m very off the internet: I don\u2019t want anyone to even get the chance to cancel me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She\u2019d rather be a writer than a performer, she says. A ghostwriter, preferably. \u201cIt\u2019s a weird feeling that you get when you write something you know is just straight-up good,\u201d she says. \u201cMy heart beats really quick. I get excited. Even if the lyrics are sad, I\u2019ll never get emotional, I\u2019ll just be really excited. It\u2019s a very clear feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still seasick from the swinging ship, she walks towards the park\u2019s exit, posting photos of the day onto a private Instagram account\u2014images for the select few who know her name. To everyone else, PinkPantheress manages to stay hidden for another day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/riding-roller-coasters-with-pinkpantheress-bedroom-pop-it-girl\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columns Riding Roller Coasters With PinkPantheress, Bedroom-Pop It Girl The UK singer-songwriter and TikTok icon has spent her summer mostly offline, thrill-seeking at theme parks and preparing for her debut album. By Emma Madden August 15, 2022 Graphic by Marina Kozak, photo by Danika Magdelena As the boat courses around the bend, we\u2019re warned to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1046721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}