Bring back rock n’ roll. Generations have had years of music artists who’ve spit water on them at concerts, bit off a bat’s head on stage, destroyed numerous guitars and full sets just for fun. But when Phoebe Bridgers does it, it’s “too much”. It’s “disrespectful” for her to bang her guitar on a speaker, it’s “not what should be brought as a music guest!” Double standard much, yeah? 

This weekend on SNL, under host Dan Levy, folk rock artist Phoebe Bridgers accompanied as musical guest. After performing her single “I Know The End” (go check it out for a bop), she attempted to smash a guitar against one of the front speakers, which managed to spark a slew of drama and absolute scandal amongst *mostly* older viewers. People took to twitter defending her, some joking that she was trying to destroy the SNL stage in order to save us from having to watch it, others pointing out the most obvious: why do people care? Why does this have to be news? I write this to question double standards, as well as highlight Bridgers who was phenomenal- I implore you to check it out. As per the disappointment from boring viewers, user @NightlifeMingus suggested the following: 

“if phoebe bridgers lightly denting a cheap guitar on SNL can provoke this level of discourse, we absolutely need to make rock music scary again. bring back the blood and snakes. bring back the music videos where a businessman’s head explodes because he hears a guitar solo” 

Most of us can come to the obvious conclusions: she’s a woman, she’s a popular alternative artist, she isn’t a country artist who got kicked off SNL for partying during COVID only to return after a few weeks and then later on get ousted for saying a racial slur. Take your pick. I personally was excited to cheer for her in that moment instead of crying over her music, but if you couldn’t do the same, that’s on you. That’s okay though, Bridgers took it in stride, responding and calling out dumb tweets calling her pathetic or inappropriate. She even got permission from the guitar company, Danelectro, who wished her good luck since they’re hard to break, which is obvious when watching the video- that thing barely got a dent- so if you’re worried about the poor guitar’s health, worry about the people around you suffering under a pandemic. And also, get with the times old man! 

While I hope that someday double standards won’t be unrightfully thrust upon anyone who isn’t a white man, won’t be questioned for trivial things, I know Bridgers will be sleeping soundly with her award-winning albums in tow. She’ll continue writing absolute bops, sad songs, and hopefully completely obliterating more guitars in the future. And to future SNL musical guests: keep smashing guitars and dismantling their set, please.