The Thin Lizzy song “The Boys Are Back in Town” or, the show opening song for boygenius, is appropriate for a multitude of reasons. The indie-rock supergroup containing members Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers have each individually toured around the states already, and with their new tour to promote their albums, The Record and self titled EP, the boys are back in town. Boygenius, as seen on spotify, has 3.9 million monthly listeners, hitting 51 million streams for their most popular song “Not Strong Enough.” But who, exactly, does their music intend to reach?

With such a big fanbase it’s hard to pinpoint an exact age range for who their music targets. Their common crowd contains teens and young adults, but there are a fair share of older women and men who are frequent fans. When boygenius played the Mann Pavilion in Philadelphia on September 30th the crowd was full of all different ages of people: a woman in front of me and my friends had a signed Julien Baker shirt, a kid to our left held hands with her dad wearing matching “bite the hand” shirts. And finally, one of the most impactful outfits for me and everyone at The Mann Pavilion that night, “Boomers for boygenis”.  It was an older man, brought to the front of the pit who was repping the white t-shirt, and he reminded everyone in the crowd that The Boys have a reach and impact on all generations.

I reached out to two vastly different fans to get their insights on why boygenius has such a reach and how the boys’ music has impacted them personally. Michael Brandenburg, my father and a father to four others shares what originally drew him to the supergroup: “I listen to a lot of indie music and have been particularly impressed with female indie artists like Japanese Breakfast, Girl in Red, Cherry Glazer, Soccer Mommy, Claud, Clairo, etc.  I have been a fan of Phoebe Bridgers for a while and have also heard cuts from Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.  Phoebe has done collabs with a bunch of indie superstars, so when the boygenius project was announced, I was stoked.  I just knew they were going to be an indie supergroup, because each of them are such strong singer-songwriters independently.” Through our conversation I learned more about what stylistic choices they use in their music that has captured him the most: “I am a sucker for harmonies … and for rage. Boygenius brings both beautiful harmonies and slowly developing and building tensions which frequently end in a noisy crescendo.  It’s a sort of catharsis, I think, and the songs reflect what late teens and 20-something women are experiencing these days. Further, Phoebe, Julien, and Lucy seem to genuinely like each other, and perhaps more importantly, they respect, revere, and honor each other’s craft and talents.” The respect shown about the supergroup and within the supergroup is enough to capture the attention of people everywhere. The boys speak on common emotions every person can/ have felt with poetic linguistics and metaphors that bring the arrangement all together.

Former student of Haddonfield Memorial High School and boygenius superfan Ella Fuller states, “I had always known about Phoebe Bridgers (ever since 2017 when she released Stranger in the Alps and WXPN played “Motion Sickness” almost every day), but I didn’t start getting into her music until 2020 and the release of Punisher. As I was getting deeper into her discography, I listened to her work with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus as the supergroup boygenius. I would say the same thing that attracted me to Phoebe Bridgers’ music (her lyricism) is what attracted me to boygenius’ music as well. I feel the fact that boygenius is both a female-led band and a queer band is incredibly influential when it comes to their popularity. The strongest aspects of their music are their lyrics and their harmonies. All three members of boygenius have a talent for writing extremely niche yet incredibly relatable lyrics. Take “Leonard Cohen,” for instance. The entire song recounts a very specific (and apparently true) event, yet the line “I might like you less now that you know me so well” hits hard. The specificity of their lyrics makes them more meaningful to fans, who form strong attachments to lyrics they can relate to even in the slightest. Some lyrics even become inside jokes with fans. These lyrics are then coupled with three-part harmonies that make me feel like I’m ascending to heaven. Listen to “Souvenir” and you’ll understand what I mean.”

Mr. Brandenburg’s closing statement wraps it all together and talks from the view of every boygenius fan out there, “Their songs might specifically be about their shared experiences, but the themes are universal.  I mean … who can’t identify with the anthemic climax of ‘Not Strong Enough,’ where each of the ‘geniuses’ sings, ‘always an angel, never a god’?”