Brendan Abernathy is a singer-songwriter who went viral for an earnest performance of his song "married in a year." The backlash was immediate, dominated by the word "cringe" in comments. The rise of cringe culture includes its origins, emotional harm to individuals, and the perspective that embracing cringe can benefit artistic expression. A conversation addresses strategies for coping with online criticism, and a new song depicts personal experience with that backlash. A forthcoming album release is scheduled for September 26th.
Brendan Abernathy is a singer-songwriter who went viral earlier this year for an earnest performance of his song "married in a year." The backlash was immediate, and one word popped up over and over again in the comments: "cringe." Brittany and Ramtin Arablouei, co-host of NPR's Throughline, get into the rise of cringe culture: where it comes from, how it's hurting us, and how leaning into cringe is good for art.
And Ramtin talks with Brendan about how to cope with the criticism, and Brendan debuts a new song about his experience. Brendan's new album is out September 26th. For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR's Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub. This episode was produced by Alexis Williams and Liam McBain. It was edited by Neena Pathak. Our Supervising Producer is Barton Girdwood.
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