walking upstream…
blackbear
blackbear
Matthew Tyler Musto grew up in Palm Coast, Florida, a self-described "full punk rock girl" in MxPx t-shirts and Good Charlotte patches, drilled on New Found Glory and blink-182 riffs by his guitar teacher before fronting the touring band Polaroid as a teenager. At nineteen, an invitation from Ne-Yo's camp pulled him to write a song a day for three years in an R&B songwriting bootcamp, and he emerged as blackbear in 2011 with a restless, genre-blurring style — confessional hooks stitched across emo-rap, alt-R&B, and bedroom pop on 'Deadroses,' 'Digital Druglord,' and the Diamond-certified 'Hot Girl Bummer.' In 2022 he circled back to his teenage roots, recruiting blink-182's Travis Barker to executive-produce the pop-punk record 'In Loving Memory.'
the sound in question
2019
hot girl bummerblackbear
walk the tributaries ↓
blink-1821990s–2000s · Pop punk / Punk rock / Alternative rock
blackbear's guitar teacher had him learning "riffs from New Found Glory and Blink-182" as a kid in Palm Coast, and the band stayed close enough that he later called drummer Travis Barker one of his heroes. Barker executive-produced blackbear's 2022 album 'In Loving Memory' top to bottom, turning his sketches into full pop-punk arrangements: "Travis took the ideas that I had on acoustic [guitar] and put structure to them," blackbear said. "He's a genius. He'll make moments in your songs when they didn't exist before."
listen: upstream & here
1999
All the Small Thingsblink-182
2022
I Don't Love Meblackbear
listen forSet 'All the Small Things' against 'I Don't Love Me' — both ride a tight, driving pop-punk backbeat under a plainspoken, almost bratty vocal hook, the kind of song built to be shouted back at a show rather than admired from a distance.
Ne-Yo2000s · R&B / Pop / Contemporary R&B
After dropping out of high school, a teenage Musto took an invitation from Ne-Yo's management to spend three years in an intensive songwriting apprenticeship, writing "a song a day — sometimes two or three" while learning music theory and studio professionalism from R&B hitmakers. That bootcamp is where his emo sensibility first got fused to R&B's melodic hook-craft — the tidy, conversational, almost too-catchy chorus built around a single central idea.
listen: upstream & heresource: Uproxx ↗
2005
So SickNe-Yo
2017
do re miblackbear
listen forPlay 'So Sick' next to 'do re mi' — both wrap raw heartbreak frustration around one compact, endlessly hummable hook (Ne-Yo's talking-to-the-radio conceit, blackbear's solfège pun), turning a breakup complaint into something built to lodge in your head.
Bill Withers1970s · Soul / R&B / Folk
blackbear has traced his early-2010s pivot toward R&B to "wanting to get better," naming Anthony Hamilton, Brandy, and Monica among his touchstones — but singling out one above the rest: "I think, personally, he's one of the greatest songwriters of all time," he said of Bill Withers. What he takes from Withers isn't vocal runs but restraint: a plainspoken phrase repeated until it carries the whole song's ache, no ornament required.
listen: upstream & heresource: Complex ↗
1971
Ain't No SunshineBill Withers
2014
idfcblackbear
listen forCompare 'Ain't No Sunshine,' which wrings its entire hook from repeating "I know" until the absence itself becomes unbearable, with 'idfc,' which does the same with a blunt, deadpan "I don't fucking care" — both let a single flat phrase, repeated past the point of comfort, do the emotional work.