--- description: Find out how Phoebe Bridgers is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: 2021 TIME100 Next: Phoebe Bridgers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt577e1d2424806ae0/698a171fb21a9c8faf50487a/Phoebe-Bridgers.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 16, 2021 # Phoebe Bridgers by Carmen Maria Machado  Norway, Oslo - May 1, 2019\. The American indie rock duo Better Oblivion Community Center performs a live concert at Rockefeller in Oslo. Here singer and guitarist Phoebe Bridgers is seen live on stage. (Photo by: Gonzales Photo/Tord Litleskare/PYMCA-Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Norway, Oslo - May 1, 2019\. The American indie rock duo Better Oblivion Community Center performs a live concert at Rockefeller in Oslo. Here singer and guitarist Phoebe Bridgers is seen live on stage. (Photo by: Gonzales Photo/Tord Litleskare/PYMCA-Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Gonzales Photo/Tord Litleskare/PYMCA-Avalon/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Phoebe Bridgers didn’t know the pandemic was coming. But you’d never know it from “I Know the End,” an opulent, chaotic song about our shared apocalypse from her Grammy-nominated album _Punisher,_ widely regarded as one of the best new releases of 2020\. Seer, artist, “[master of collapse](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/phoebe-bridgers-punisher/ "undefined")”—all of these descriptions are accurate, but the highest praise I can deliver is how much Phoebe reminds me of discovering Tori Amos in my wayward youth. Not just her style—a clear voice pinning impressionistic lyrics to lush instrumentals—but her music’s inescapable mood: being 18, circling my college campus with my Walkman in the middle of the night, letting music that captures the terrible queer haunted ugly gorgeous heartbreak of the unfolding world rinse over me. Whether it’s enraging milquetoast reply guys by smashing a guitar on live TV or carving out a space as a furious, ethereal prophet, she’s as good as she is singular. I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather follow through our poisoned age. _Machado is a best-selling author of the memoir_ In the Dream House _and other works. Her short story “Yesterday, Tomorrow”_ _was featured on Bridgers’ album_ Punisher Phoebe Bridgers Is on the TIME100 Next 2021 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937672/phoebe-bridgers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937672/phoebe-bridgers/"},"headline":"Phoebe Bridgers","datePublished":"2021-02-16T23:16:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:47:38.157Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937672/phoebe-bridgers/","keywords":["list","franchise","TIME 100 Next"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt577e1d2424806ae0/698a171fb21a9c8faf50487a/Phoebe-Bridgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt577e1d2424806ae0/698a171fb21a9c8faf50487a/Phoebe-Bridgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937672/phoebe-bridgers/","name":"Phoebe Bridgers"}}]}] ```