Peyton McDermott
August 27, 2026
Boygenius is an indie-rock supergroup formed in 2018 by the three American singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. In their period of activity up until their concluding album, released in 2023, the three steadily gained appraisal with various awards, such as two Grammy’s in the categories of Best Rock Performance and Best Alternative Music Album, as well as the Brit Award in the International Group category.
On February 2, 2024, the trio released a statement cementing their ongoing, indefinite hiatus, following the release of their last album, The Record. When asked during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Lucy Dacus shared that she “wasn’t convinced” about the future of the band. Still, the three have remained undoubtedly close friends, with various collaborations between their solo projects since.
In the members’ description of the history leading up to Boygenius’ genesis, they stated that when the three had toured alongside each other as solo artists, they decided to record a single together for promotional purposes: and, only then, did they realize full-scale collaboration such as in a band would be viable. Furthermore, they detailed the concept for the name itself, Boygenius, as an allusion to the phenomenon of men being “taught to be entitled to space and time and that their ideas should be heard because they’re great ideas and women are taught the opposite…” Thus, as Phoebe Bridgers continued to explain, “a ‘boygenius’ is someone who their whole life has been told that their ideas are genius.”
With this, the band is innately associated with the notion of the “women-in-rock” phenomenon. Being female-led, as well as queer, the three’s political outspokenness—most especially that of their feminism—becomes paramount in the discussion of Boygenius, more intrinsic than the particular genre they belong to, simply based on the members’ womanhood. Still, the members defy these labels, subvert gender even in their name, and consistently push against isolation in the category of a girl-group. When Julien Baker told Vogue, “I resist categorization, categorization based on my identity, intentionally, as a protest of the idea that those things are somewhat out of the ordinary … remarkable … awful in some way,” Phoebe Bridgers coincided this with, “But also gender is not an unimportant part of our band.” Therefore, that Boygenius is a female-fronted group isn’t necessarily rendered irrelevant—in considering the predominantly male and heterosexual genre of rock—but it shouldn’t wholly define their identity as a supergroup within the music industry.
@xboygeniusx
Boygenius has an indisputably distinct sound, amplified only by the unique talents and musical stylization of its members: deeply vulnerable songwriting, as well as simultaneously subdued and powerful melodies, combine to produce the masterfully crafted genius behind their music. Julien Baker’s influence can be found in the band’s introspective lyrics, just as Bridgers’ in the folk-country quality of their songs, and Dacus’ in the strength of their vocal confessionals. Having been composed of these three undeniably strong solo artists, it seems to yield no surprise that Boygenius wholly and explosively made their mark on the indie-rock sphere.
Just recently Phoebe Bridgers returned to her solo career after a six year long hiatus, with the release of the album, Lost Weekend on August 14th. Bridgers’ album featured two songs in which the former Boygenius bandmates collaborated altogether, those being “Lost Boys” and “Haunted.” Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus remain active themselves, with Baker’s last album, Send a Prayer My Way having been released on April 18. 2025, and Dacus’ Forever Is a Feeling on March 28, 2025. Baker’s and Dacus’ latest albums follow the confirmation of their relationship on March 18, 2025—following much speculation over the years prior—and contain many references to their feelings for one another within them.
