The Hobo Johnson Effect

by Dylan Hewitson-Bevis

Legend has it if you say peach scone in the mirror three times after midnight you’ll be approached by a stunt puller. Hobo Johnson, known to his friends as Frank Lopez, is a folk slam poetry something or other. It’s kind of difficult to describe. He’s blown up recently, more than he could’ve expected, with his live performance of his song Peach Scone being shared around Facebook and getting well over four million views.

Not only has he gathered all of this attention from people who genuinely enjoy his music, he’s amassed an entire army of those who loathe it. The amount of people who dislike or even hate Lopez and his music outnumber his fans astronomically, and Facebook is to blame for that.

What has happened to Hobo Johnson I’ve come to fondly call the Hobo Johnson effect, even though I’m sure he isn’t the first it’s happened to. A man makes a thing, said thing is shared to and explodes on social media, the general public grow tired of seeing it pasted across every forum and finally they grow to loathe it and trash it until the next thing rolls around.

To tell a personal tale, Peach Scone first knocked on the door of my timeline and refused to go away for at least two days before I finally listened to it. The initial reaction was surprise and slight discomfort, as there was this white dude with an afro rapping and screaming about the “friendzone” and I couldn’t get away from him on my feed. After the song ended, I scrolled away, until maybe 5 posts later there he was again.

So began the growing fondness I had for this guy. The more I saw of him, the more I wanted to learn more about him. His music caught my attention and I was willing to get to know him as an artist. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the reaction from the majority of Facebook users. His presence provoked hate and soon a group titled I Will Destroy Hobo Johnson arrived, dedicated to taking down this attention goblin.

Hobo Johnson

Photos from Google Images

This was a shame to me. I feel like a lot of this hate grew from a bandwagon that had formed around hating on this dude. A slight digression, but there is a study done by cognitive scientist Rebekah Rousi on elevator etiquette called An uplifting experience – adopting ethnography to study elevator user experience. If nine people in an elevator are facing the doors and a tenth person enters, they’ll more than likely choose to face the way of the nine. I feel like this effect applies to Hobo Johnson and his music.

If nine of your friends or users on Facebook hate Lopez and his music, regardless of how you feel about him you’ll more than likely follow their opinion instead of expressing one different to the group. Instead of giving him a chance, it’s easier to hate on him and whatever he has to say. It’s easier to put in a group effort in taking him down than to be the lone wolf. Such is the Hobo Johnson effect.

There’s other things to mention about Lopez that are interesting. An interview between him and Anthony Fantano of the Needle Drop revealed that Lopez was disappointed Peach Scone was the song that broke his band into the mainstream as he felt it was a rather confronting and overly honest piece to introduce himself with. One wonders of whether his mom still would’ve been doxed if something like Romeo and Juliet was the song that put his name out there.

Online communities are often full of bandwagon haters that dislike anything new. Give the time of day to new artists that appear on your Facebook feed, be it through sponsoring or relentless algorithmic promotion. Don’t become a victim to the Hobo Johnson effect; give everything a try.

Unless it’s Unkle Adams of course. Even people who hate rap think he’s a dork.