It’s a well-known idea that fans are supposed to love, or at least admire, the person they are an enthusiast of. Look at Taylor Swift’s Swifties or the “Beatlemaniacs” of the 1960s. Most fans would do anything for their favorite stars, from asking them to prom in elaborate videos to running away from home to meet them. If this is true, why do Jack Antonoff’s fans hate him?
Say what you will about Jack Antonoff, but there’s a good chance he’s behind at least one of your favorite songs. He was a member of fun. and has worked with artists like The Chicks, St. Vincent, Sam Dew, The 1975, Paramore, FKA twigs, Clairo and Grimes. His work with Lorde, Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift has been some of his most notable, helping earn him his third consecutive Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical, in 2024.
Antonoff’s band, Bleachers, just released their self-titled fourth album on Mar. 8, 2024. As they embark on a spring and summer of touring (and fans await the release of Antonoff’s latest collaboration with Taylor Swift), Jack Antonoff is everywhere.
Unsurprisingly, an artist with such an expansive catalog and distinct style would have a fan base. “Bleachers people,” as Antonoff calls them, can often be found on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the band’s signature tomato emoji in their bio, marking them as part of the community. Despite selling out the band’s upcoming show at Madison Square Garden and getting their album in the top five on Spotify global charts, the pits at Bleachers shows are often made up of fans flipping off the frontman.
Even Florence Welch, a longtime collaborator of Jack Antonoff, has gotten in on the bit, wearing a shirt decorated with the fan-favorite phrase, “Who the f*ck is Jack Antonoff,” during a tour rehearsal in 2022. Antonoff plays off of this fan relationship, and he is known to interact with audience members holding up jokes about him, something I experienced firsthand at a Bleachers concert in 2021 at Washington D.C.’s The Anthem. Antonoff regularly interacts with fans online as well, including X user @antonoff_off, who has gained 200 followers by daily posts of the same gif of Antonoff falling off the stage at a show. Luckily for them, he fell off the stage again in London on March 19, giving them some new content.
This artist-fan relationship comes down to a few factors. A big one is Antonoff’s own self-deprecating sense of humor and humility. No matter how many awards he collects, Antonoff is more likely to praise his bandmates and collaborators, thanking them for believing in him when he didn’t always himself.
There’s also the fact that there are people who genuinely do hate him. Some feel his production style is too repetitive or that he’s a bit too heavy on the synth, making it especially easy to see the difference between the Antonoff haters who cringe at his name in the song’s credits and those who see themselves in his music. It’s the latter who he considers family, so if you want to fit in at an upcoming Bleachers show, it’s best practice to bring a sign that is as mean to Jack Antonoff as possible. You will also have to dress up as a tomato.
