He has released the albums Finite Form (2013), Viator (2015), Pop Food (2017), and HiLo (2018). The first two tracks of Pop Food, "Buttercup" and "Oh Klahoma," went viral on TikTok. In 2025 "Oh Klahoma" became a viral video again in a trend on TikTok. Among his topics, like "Black Pill", in 2020 he won the Shorty Award in the Best in Weird category.
Career
Stauber majored in marketing and minored in studio arts[3] at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.[4] He fronted the band Joose.[2][5] While he was a college senior, he joined Zaki, a band, as its lead singer and they released a self-titled album in 2018.[6]
"Buttercup," was the first song released on his 2017 album "Pop Food." The song, along with remixes and covers of it, became a popular internet meme, especially on TikTok,[7] contributing substantially to its success. The song has 425 million Spotify streams as of July 2024, with its sound being described as "bubbly, dramatic pop with Panda Bear-esque vocals."[8] "Oh Klahoma," the second track from "Pop Food", became popular as well. The song is used as background music in a TikTok trend called #ghostphotoshoot, where creators dress up as ghosts and take photos of themselves, sometimes wearing sunglasses and other fashion accessories.[7][9]
Additionally, Stauber publishes under the name "Jack Stauber's Micropop," releasing extended versions of short songs found on his YouTube channel.[10] Under the Micropop name, Stauber has released six EPs and a compilation album, along with two soundtracks for his works with Adult Swim.[11]
Adult Swim
The first short Stauber created for Adult Swim was called "Wishing Apple," a short released on July 3, 2018 on the Adult Swim YouTube channel.[11][12] The next was "Valentine's Day is Not for the Lonely," which premiered on Off The Air's season eight episode "Love", on August 28, 2018.[11] The short was released earlier, on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2018.[13] The surrealist musical comedy "SHOP: A Pop Opera" premiered on Adult Swim in March 2019. The series utilizes mixed media, incorporated clay animation, music, and VHS-like filters.[14] The six-part series aired each episode at midnight from March 4 to March 9.
A short surrealist musical psychological horror film, entitled "Jack Stauber'sOPAL", premiered on October 30, 2020.[14][11] On the same day, OPAL was also released on the Adult Swim YouTube channel.[15] Stauber received help from the producers at Williams Street in Atlanta for the creation of OPAL. The film utilizes stop-motion, 3D-animated, and live action segments.[16][17]
Stauber's song "Buttercup", from his 2017 album Pop Food is a mix of pop and lo-fi, with an 80s and 90s aesthetic. The song is popular on the social media platform TikTok.
Meg Fair of the Pittsburgh City Paper highlighted Stauber's knack of "pulling unrelated sounds and influences into [his] music, throwing them into a bowl and tossing them into a strange salad that challenges your musical taste buds."[18] Jenna Minnig of PennState CommMedia compared Stauber's voice and hypnagogic pop style to Ariel Pink's. However she said it was reductive to compare the two.[4] The Knoxville News Sentinel's Chuck Campbell said that Stauber's music videos is "nostalgic and childlike, but there’s also something disturbingly adult about them, the kind of thing that might have surfaced on Pee-wee's Playhouse back in the day."[10]
Music
Stauber is well known for his hypnagogic pop,[4]avant-pop,[19][1] and synth-pop[20] music. His unique vocal effects are developed in the shower, and are inspired by Donovan's song "Hurdy Gurdy Man".[1] Stauber collects objects to create sounds to use in songs, and has a drawer filled with "various noise-makers" he has collected.[1]
Stauber's videos utilize a mixture of different types of media like traditional animation, 3D computer animation, claymation,[10] and live action. Almost all voices in the videos are done by Stauber himself.[1] His videos are usually separated into three styles: "surreal," characters with odd and striking facial expressions and frequently part of his claymations, "colorful," which are usually featured in VHS animations and music videos, and "Stauber faces," light-skinned characters with cartoon noses.[11]
Creating his animations, Stauber uses Microsoft Paint for the drawings. He then sequences the frames in Adobe Premiere Pro and then runs the finished video through a VHS tape.[1] Teeth are often referenced in Stauber's music and videos and are most often fake, The false teeth being created using resin, he has also sometimes used actual teeth in his work.[11]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
