The consumption of “cringe” content — loosely defined as that which causes the viewer to feel embarrassed on behalf of the creator/performer — is a hallmark from the early years of social media.
Give due credit to the internet: Without the virality algorithm that determines how most people discover new art and artists these days, the story of Gagni Porwal’s broken heart would have remained a personal wound. Instead, ‘Lovebomber baby’, recorded by the computer engineer as an attempt to get over the man who “lovebombed” and then “ghosted” her, has become the heartbreak anthem of 2024. Featuring a video with unabashed DIY aesthetics, in which Porwal can be seen dancing to her own choreography, what the song lacks in polish, it makes up for in sheer vim. It has shot the singer to global fame.
The consumption of “cringe” content — loosely defined as that which causes the viewer to feel embarrassed on behalf of the creator/performer — is a hallmark from the early years of social media. This was when the novelty of platforms like YouTube, combined with the rapidly expanding reach of the internet to populations that were not necessarily digital natives, resulted in a proliferation of raw, unfiltered content. Some of these attained viral fame of the so-bad-it’s-good variety. Music, specifically, saw the birth of what became known as “cringe pop”, beginning with the infamous Rebecca Black song ‘Friday’ in 2011.
What is remarkable about Porwal’s fame, however, is that the undertone of cruelty — delighting in the awkwardness of another human being — that marked the virality of Black’s fame or that of Pakistani singer Taher Shah, is largely missing from people’s embrace of ‘Lovebomber baby’. The universality of her story may have something to do with it: Who, after all, hasn’t wondered why the object of their affections has stopped texting them? Or it could be that she embodies an altogether different emotion: Hope. She has, after all, shown that one need not be a Taylor Swift to make viral art out of a failed romance.
