Why Do You Hate Jack Antonoff?

Illustration by Mia Dong

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short and Sweet, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department were some of the biggest albums of last year. All albums were nominated for GRAMMY awards and topped the charts, making it somewhat impossible to have avoided hearing about each of them. At first glance, it may seem like these three albums have little in common – The Tortured Poets Department is a lengthy, gloomy, and detached album. Short and Sweet is literally short and catchy, while GNX is an entirely different genre than the preceding two. Despite this surface-level assumption, the common string between some of the most popular albums of 2024 is the singer-songwriter-producer Jack Antanoff. 

If you’re unfamiliar, Jack Antonoff’s career started as a guitarist in the band Fun, where he helped craft recognizable hits like “We Are Young” and “Some Nights.” From there, he became a record producer and the lead vocalist of the band Bleachers. As one of the biggest music producers in the industry today, it’s no surprise that Antonoff’s work has earned both standing ovations and a fair share of critique. Throughout his career, he’s been showered with praise for his hand in shaping fan favourites like Melodrama, Folklore, and Norman Fucking Rockwell. But lately, the applause has faded into a chorus of backlash, and as the criticism grows louder, it reveals a deeper issue with the ever-present role gender plays in the music industry. 

Jack Antanoff’s production style tends to lean towards ‘80s synths, layered instruments, and string flourishes. Although this style has been a hit in the past, listeners of artists Antanoff regularly works with say they’re tired of the sound, calling it repetitive or even boring. Strangely, this criticism of sound rarely lands on the artists themselves but falls on Antonoff’s shoulders instead. Albums like Florence and the Machine’s Dance Fever, Lana Del Rey’s Blue Banisters, and Clairo’s Sling may carry his name, but they aren’t his alone. At the end of the day, they belong to the artists with their names stamped on the cover.

As Antanoff mainly works with female artists, it would be dismissive to ignore the gender variable that underlies this commentary. By placing a significant portion of the blame for your dissatisfaction solely on Antonoff, you’re dismissing the female artists’ autonomy and creative direction. It’s not as if Jack Antonoff walked into the studio and told Clairo, “This is what we’re doing, and you have no say.” These artists chose to work with him – they were deeply involved in the creative process, writing lyrics, and signing off on the albums they wanted to make. Assuming otherwise feeds into a sexist stereotype that female artists just go along with their male producers, lacking any agency at all. 

When looking at male artists Antonoff has produced, there’s noticeably less finger-pointing, and when criticism does arise, it tends to fall on the artist rather than the producer. Take the magazine Pitchfork’s reviews of Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department for example. Both albums received a score of 6.6 out of 10 from the site, a fairly lukewarm rating. Within the GNX review, Antanoff is only mentioned once, merely noting his role as a main producer on the album. Meanwhile, in the Tortured Poets review, his name comes up four times, with the author describing his production as “familiar” and “loose”. The direct comparison between these two albums makes it clear that when it comes to Jack Antonoff, the backlash isn’t just about the music.

At the core of the Antonoff backlash is a deeper issue: female artists who repeatedly collaborate with him are often dismissed as the driving force behind their music, while he takes the heat. But why can’t a female artist’s creative style evolve without it being chalked up to the influence of a man? Why is their artistic growth attributed to Antonoff rather than to their own vision? Critiquing music is fair game, but reducing female artists to passive participants is both lazy and played out.