Kieran Press-Reynolds

Kieran Press-Reynolds maps the intersection of online culture and contemporary music, tracing how internet-native scenes, microgenres, and platform dynamics reshape sound. They write a weekly column, Rabbit Holed, for Pitchfork, dedicated to songs and scenes at the intersection of music and digital culture. Across columns, reviews, interviews, and cross-outlet essays, their work foregrounds how digital communities, streaming ecosystems, and algorithmic trends generate new aesthetics and subcultures.

Rabbit Holed: internet-born scenes and sonic oddities

Rabbit Holed is Press-Reynolds’ weekly deep dive into songs and scenes where music and digital culture blur together. The column’s brief is to explore everything “freaky online and IRL,” taking niche communities and meme-driven trends seriously as emerging movements.

On their own site, they describe recent installments that track how AI has wreaked havoc on the lo-fi beats and city pop scenes, the spread of alt-right “brainrot” aesthetics in underground music, and the migration of the dariacore microgenre into Japan around artists like Yabujin.

The tone is analytical but playful, coining concepts and microgenres while grounding them in close listening and scene reporting. Rabbit Holed positions Press-Reynolds as a critic of the digital attention economy as much as of the music itself, separating “shitpost genius” from disposable trends.

Columns on AI, microgenres, and platform-shaped listening

Beyond Rabbit Holed, Press-Reynolds writes recurring columns for Pitchfork that examine how technology and platforms reshape listening habits and musical form. In pieces such as “AI Music Is Here to Stay. How Do We Reckon With It?” and “Is This Song AI?

Real Artists Might Want to Keep You Guessing,” they unpack the aesthetics and ethical questions around AI-generated music and artists who deliberately blur authorship.

Other column essays like “Kevin MacLeod, King of Royalty-Free Music,” “A History of the Musical Stutter,” and “Toward a Theory of Burger Music” treat ubiquitous but overlooked sonic fixtures and online in-jokes as serious subjects, tracing how royalty-free libraries, vocal tics, and tongue-in-cheek genre labels influence how music is made and consumed. As a guest on programs exploring “micro-genre madness,” they break down Spotify-invented tags such as Goblincore, Anime Drill, and Bubblegrunge, arguing that these taxonomies both open discovery pathways and pressure artists to conform.

Across this work, the focus stays on how categorization, algorithms, and internet vernacular feed back into creative practice.

Reviews and interviews with emerging artists

Press-Reynolds also contributes track and album reviews for Pitchfork, often centering experimental and internet-adjacent artists. Their recent bylines include coverage of singles like “tissue” by ki and “Struggle Gang” by xaviersobased, as well as releases such as lucy miró al mundo y notó que está girando by AKRIILA, Reborn by Nate Sib, Wild EP by KATSEYE, and Your Day Will Come by Chanel Beads.

These reviews sit in dialogue with their column work, highlighting musicians whose sounds and careers are entwined with online scenes and DIY communities.

In feature formats, such as the interview “Eavesdropping on ear,” they spend extended time with artists, documenting the atmosphere around shows and sessions and capturing the emotional volatility and logistics of life inside small, chaotic scenes. The criticism balances description of texture and mood with an interest in how these artists navigate platforms, niche audiences, and fast-moving trends.

Cross-outlet culture reporting and criticism

Alongside their work for Pitchfork, Press-Reynolds writes widely about internet and music culture for other outlets. At GQ, they are described as a culture journalist who covers deep-internet weirdness and “madcap” influencers, including figures such as Adam Friedland and Hasan Piker. Their GQ piece “OG Music Critic Simon Reynolds Talks to 2nd-Gen Music Critic Kieran Press-Reynolds About the Dawn of Shoegaze, Naming Microgenres, and the Peak of ’80s Indie Rock” illustrates a taste for tracing genealogies of sound and criticism, linking classic shoegaze and indie rock history to contemporary practices of coining microgenres. Professional bios and interviews note essays on video games, contemporary masculinity, politics, and other aspects of online life for mastheads including The New York Times and The Face, extending their lens beyond music into broader digital-era culture.

In podcast and radio appearances, they discuss ASMR as a sprawling, layered field and explore how it overlaps with music and could grow into a major industry. They are also introduced in broadcast segments as an independent reporter covering music and internet culture, with recent work on hyperpop optimism and the dispersal of digicore scenes. Editorial roles at No Bells and previous digital culture reporting at Business Insider reinforce a profile built around understanding how online spaces, youth scenes, and technologies shape both music and its audiences.