Exploring the Artist: Miss Benny
Ben J. Pierce also known by his current 'stage' name Miss Benny and Benny, is a 20 year old singer and songwriter from the United States of America. His debut single was the hit song Little Game which he released in 2014 when he was just 15 years old. Little Game is a type of social commentary pop song that touches on the topic of gender roles in society and the pressures that people face as they try to fit into one predefined definition of what a boy versus what a girl is supposed to be like. It also touches on the fact that people feel bulldozed into fitting into their preassigned gender that they were given at birth.
The message of the song is very powerful and the music video portrays this flawlessly. The boys in the video are made to wear a bright blue colour and do stereotypical 'boy' things such as play with action figures, play sports like basketball and boxing. This was juxtaposed to the girls who were dressed in bright pink, doing ballet, makeup and gossiping. My favourite line from the song is actually the first line where he says "play us like pawns and relentlessly confine, into living up to gender roles and having absent minds" To me this line means that society has made it so people aren't able to express themselves the way they want to. Society confines them to this one black and white definition of how people are supposed to carry themselves and people are therefore so busy trying to live up to these preset roles that they are losing their true selves or never finding it in the first place.
In the video, one of the blue boys reaches for a pink barbie doll and immediately receives backlash from the other conforming boys in the group. One of the girls also receives backlash from the conforming group when she decides to go against the norm herself. At the end of the video everyone starts mixing colours as if to say it is okay to deviate from the norm.
In 2016 Benny, released another single entitled "Boys will be Boys" which is also a social commentary pop song as well and it's a positive song for boys. It touches on issues of toxic masculinity and how boys aren't 'allowed' to express themselves in certain ways because society perceives those ways of expression to be 'feminine'. According to society, boys can't get emotional and cry because "boys must be boys". Benny is saying in this song being a more feminine boy is okay. Showing emotions as a boy is okay and doesn't make you anymore or less of a man.
In 2017, Benny released the last song that he would release under the name 'Benny'. This song entitled Never Apart followed a different theme from his two previous songs. This one being more of a love song than anything else. This is my personal favourite of all of his songs so far. I personally interpreted the song as him confessing his love to a guy that he has fallen in love with. I'm not really sure if that is what he was going for but I am sure that it is a very catchy song and the music video is beautiful and well put together.
In 2019 Benny changed his artist name to Miss Benny which I personally think was a great idea because it is alot less generic than just Benny and when someone goes looking for his music it is much easier to find it under the name Miss Benny than it previously was when he only went by just Benny. Miss Benny has released two new songs so far for the year. These songs are entitled 'Rendezvous' and 'Every Boy'. I've given these two songs a listen and they are great as with every other song Benny has released so far. His sound has seemed to mature just a little bit and I think I'm really going to enjoy this new Miss Benny era. Miss Benny is an extremely talented artist and I hope he sees continued success in his music career as an up and coming artist.
I think it would be worth it to check out Benny's music and show him some support. Below is a Spotify playlist with all of his songs in it so you can have a listen. I will also leave the link to where you can watch his music videos on YouTube as well as his social media handles.
Twitter: @miss_benny
Instagram: @miss_benny
Benny YouTube page: BENNY
Miss Benny YouTube page:MISS BENNY
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