Think of the 1960s, when The Rolling Stones were beginning to roll out their music. When people criticised them, they laughed it off — and occasionally had something sharp to say. Singer-songwriter Sombr, however, does things differently. At just 20, he takes to social media to hit back.
Sombr recently reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart for the first time with his single Undressed. At one of his recent concerts in Washington DC was a TikTok user named Meg, 25, who posted a scathing review of the gig, calling it “one of the worst experiences of my life”.
Ordinarily, such reviews and opinion videos might go unnoticed, but hers quickly went viral — even catching the attention of Sombr (real name Shane Michael Boose) himself. And he was not impressed.
In a social media post responding to the criticism, Sombr said: “She was basically complaining that there were too many tweens there, making too many brain-rot jokes and thought it was a cringe concert. Also, she was body-shaming me…. I totally respect people having opinions but I am a 20-year-old artiste… freshly 20. If you are 25 and you’re going to come to my concert and not expect people younger than you to be there when I, the artiste, am five years younger than you… it’s just a skill issue.”
Imagine the opportunity Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel might have missed. Had they been starting their careers today, they could have used social media to answer every critic.