The internet is home to a variety of musical creators from all walks of life. However, no online artists have managed to consistently maintain their presence and enrapture new fans to their music like Jack Stauber.
Stauber is an American YouTuber and musician who has had an enormous impact on the internet in the past few years. Whether or not a person has heard of him before, if one has been a frequent user of the internet, particularly in creative spaces, they’ve most definitely heard his music before.
Since his first uploads in 2013, Stauber has attracted listeners with his unique and avant-garde style known by many names, including hypnagogic pop. In addition to his music, Stauber’s creative music videos, created with a variety of effects including 3D animation and stop motion animation have endured many and have even gone viral multiple times.
Stauber’s 2017 hit “Buttercup,” has become one of his most well-known songs. An opening track for his third album Pop Food, while the lyrics might be random nonsense to some, “Buttercup” is likely about unrequited feelings towards another person, according to Stauber’s interview with New Retro. The song, like many of his other tracks, is a frequent sound in many videos on YouTube and other platforms like TikTok. Currency “Buttercup” has raked in over 400 million streams on Spotify and over 25 million views on TikTok.
For many Stauber’s music is nostalgic, thanks to the many nods to ‘80s and ’90s aesthetics in his style. In a Knoxville News article, writer Chuck Cambell compared Stauber’s music videos to “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” So, it’s no wonder that Stauber would find himself collaborating with the likes of Adult Swim.
Stauber has created four shorts for the adult television block, some of which premiered directly on their YouTube channel. The most popular of Stauber’s shorts happens to be the stop-motion short, OPAL. Premiering in October 2020, OPAL tells the story of a neglected child as she imagines a better life for herself away from her abusers.
Jack Stauber has four albums to his name alongside numerous other singles and EPs. His success has shown no signs of slowing down despite an ongoing absence from the internet that has stretched into nearly five years.
