On Our Radar: PinkPantheress

PinkPantheress is the UK-based music phenomenon, with a prominent (but mysterious) online presence and an iron grip on the indie electronic scene. If you haven’t heard of PinkPantheress yet, chances are you’re not hugely involved with social media. Her music has heavily saturated the TikTok-Instagram-Twitter digital sphere, and her fan base has been growing exponentially for the past few months.

She chooses to keep her real name private, only known by her stage name, which is inspired by her TikTok username (@pinkpantheress). She does talk a bit about her experience as a British musician, and the influence that growing up in England has had on her. Specifically, PinkPantheress creates her music with the UK garage style in mind.

Photo by Jesse Crankson, courtesy of NME

PinkPantheress’s music feels intuitive, so it’s hard to pin down the exact genre or influences she’s working with. I typically gravitate towards describing her work as a fusion of hyperpop, D&B, and bedroom pop–think Clairo meets Machine Girl. Likely, she’s found a lot of inspiration from TikTok itself; she started posting music in the app’s early days.

At that time, she was writing “about a song a day,” as she said in a Genius comment. Her song “Pain” was the first to gain major traction on the app. Outside of TikTok, PinkPantheress has released “Pain” and other singles “Just for Me,” “Break it Off,” “Passion,” “Attracted to You,” and “I Must Apologize.” Recently, she also released her debut mixtape album, “to hell with it.” The mixtape includes most of her singles as well as several new songs.

Screenshot from “Break it Off” music video

PinkPantheress is undoubtedly one of the biggest rising stars of 2021. I believe her unique style is going to continue to blossom, and as she continues to develop as an artist others will take inspiration from her. Her work is probably going to reshape the indie pop scene, and I’m looking forward to seeing her career pan out.