On this episode of HERE COMES THE BACKKLASH, Poolhouse dives into the strange and relatively uncharted realm of pop authorship, an already nebulous concept made even more slippery in an age when persona, performance, identity, and technology are becoming impossible to separate, let alone authenticate. From Audrey Hobert’s clownish, hyper-aware pop persona, and the uncanny specter of one Ms. Sue Heck looming over the project, to Tyga’s critically detonated and AI-assisted $TARFACE, Poolhouse asks what we actually mean when we call an artist “authentic.” Does authorship reside in the hand that makes the thing, the mind that conceives it, the voice that performs it, or the persona that holds the entire construction together? Are pop auteurs even real, or are they carefully manufactured illusions designed to obscure the collaborative, technological, and highly industrial nature of mass-produced pop product? Along the way: cringe as creative strategy, authenticity as artistic currency, AI panic, pop-star identity, machine production, inherited archetypes, Pitchfork’s resting bitch stance, and the increasingly unstable line between artist, producer, persona, and avatar. Pop music performance has always relied on artifice – but does this dilute the artist’s agency, or extend it? Poolhouse delivers a soaring meditation on the pop auteur with the type of episode you will ONLY find on BACKKLASH. Episode Mixtape: Peech Boys NYC - Stay With Me (Tom Moulton Twelve Inch Extended Mix) DJ POOLHOUSE - Track ID (unreleased) DJ POOLHOUSE - Ramon Novarro’s Revenge Dub (unreleased) DJ POOLHOUSE - Put It All On Ice Tyga - Rack City (DJ POOLHOUSE All Screw No Chop Remix) BRUISEFI.IST – The Box (unreleased) DJ POOLHOUSE IS ONLINE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit backklash.substack.com