I’ve seen the term “burger music” thrown around a lot lately. It seems to mean a variety of things to a variety of people, but it’s almost always used as an insult. In a piece for Pitchfork, brainrot specialist Kieran Press-Reynolds attempts to drill down on the phrase’s place in underground rap contexts, concluding that it is a “lab-generated buzzword, readymade for maximum outrage and minimum meaning.” Urban Dictionary contributor NeoFuckinGeo thinks of it as another way to say “coworker music,” and by that they mean the “corny ass” stuff a Burger King employee might be forced to hear coming out of a JBL speaker as they end their shift (examples: Jelly Roll and Imagine Dragons). Over on TikTok, there’s been jokes about “Millennial Burger Joint” music: the stomping and clapping hits of the 2010s—“Ho Hey” by The Lumineers—that have also been the subject of quite a bit of discourse, and I’m sorry I know this information, on Twitter.
You better believe all of the above was on my mind last Sunday afternoon as I scooted up to the Bay Ridge outpost of BurgerFi, a national chain that was started in 2011 and currently has 65 locations around the country. The last time I went, I was astounded by the kind of deep cut 2010s music I was hearing, like the stomp-clap Killed By Death compilation of my dreams, and I knew I had to come back for a session. The music that played on my second visit was not exactly what I was expecting, but that is what Public Listening is all about: pushing through intense layers of self-hatred in order to sit in an empty fast food chain and accept whatever comes out of the speakers with a smile on your face and some condiment dribbling down your shirt.
11:25: Savage Garden “I Knew I Loved You”
For the first and quite possibly last time ever, I witnessed a man express annoyance at a Savage Garden song getting cut short. Why the employees at BurgerFi changed the tune is beyond me, as I assume that the in-store playlist is automated, but whatever the case, this guy wasn’t having any of it. Just a few moments earlier, after I had placed my order, I ran up on the Coke Freestyle machine and poured myself a custom ginger lemon DC. It tasted good for a few sips but after that it was difficult to finish.
11:28: Mae Stephens, Meghan Trainor “Mr Right”
It wouldn’t be wrong to call BurgerFi a Shake Shack duplication. Both chains have bland black and green logos; both have interiors that, sitting perfectly in line with larger trends in contemporary fast-casual dining and also the locations of previous episodes of Public Listening, combine the non-placeness of an airport hotel with a dash of twizzled-mustache Brooklyn rustic. The Bay Ridge BurgerFi features wood paneling and Edison bulb lighting. On one wall of the restaurant, there is a canvas print that says “Less Burger Joint, More Gourmet Restaurant.” Essentially, it’s the perfect place to listen to a Meghan Trainor song.
11:31: Jackson Wang “Made Me a Man”
My burger and fries came quickly, during the Meghan Trainor song if we are being honest about the timeline, and they tasted pretty good, maybe better than Shake Shack, which I haven’t eaten in quite some time and I always thought was overrated. Last year, I found Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business on the dollar rack at a used bookstore, and not only did I buy it, but for whatever insane reason, I read the whole thing. The main takeaway: While on a Midwest road trip, scouting for inspiration prior to opening the first Shake Shack, Meyer went to Culver’s but not Kopp’s. My Milwaukee readership will know what that means.
11:34: Soup Dragons “Divine Thing”
And here is the kind of swerve that makes all of the pain and punishment of Public Listening a pleasure: a 1992 song by second-string Madchester band Soup Dragons appears, like a two-liter of Fresca in the desert, ready to chug and then vomit back up. “Divine Thing” came out in 1992, which means that it was released after both “Mysterious Ways” by U2 and “Black Or White” by Michael Jackson, two songs that likely take influence from Madchester music and industrial and don’t not sound like “Divine Thing.” It would be two more years until Primal Scream dropped Give Out but Don’t Give Up, a record that was recorded in Memphis and contains zero breakbeats.
Sitting here at BurgerFi, listening to Ed Sheeran, thinking about all the conversations around millennial music I’ve encountered on social media recently, about what hipsters were really listening to in 2012 or whatever, my mind went to DJ George Costanza, who is a singular figure in the past two decades of underground music, a person who understands the value of certain styles long before they are reclaimed by the larger indie zeitgeist, the canary in the cultural coal mine whose work traces a secret history of hipster culture. He was chopping and screwing trance pop back when the members of Salem were still at a boarding school in Michigan; long before the “emo night” concept became the millennial version of an 80s party, he made a pop punk mix for DIS magazine. I could go on, and maybe someday I will, but I guess this is all to say that, in line with his sort of recent active rock mix and his classic Cringeworthy body of work, I could see his next move being a reclamation of what some people are now calling burger music.
1:40: David Guetta (Feat. Sia) “Titanium (Alesso Remix)”
I refilled my Diet Coke and pumped more ketchup. “Titanium” sounds like music I wouldn’t mind hearing while boarding a rollercoaster.
Here is a middling take that I probably don’t even agree with, but I will put out there, just for fun, and also because I have nothing to say about Zara Larson: If you really hate “poptimism” so much, you should not be allowed to listen to any music that is even remotely adjacent to the styles it champions. Think Taylor Swift is beyond reproach but really love Pavement? If you zoom out far enough, they are writing the same song. You get to listen to modern classical or nothing at all. Can’t stand Charli XCX but love Grateful Dead? Both are off the table… Enjoy that Beethoven, though. I’m no expert, so correct me if I’m wrong here: didn’t Adorno hate jazz?
1:47: Joshua Radin “Going with You”
You can actually scratch that whole poptimism riff. The music at BurgerFi has broken me down. “Going with You” is finishing me off like a Johnny Cage fatality in the OG Mortal Kombat—the one where he uppercuts his competitor’s head and digital blood sprinkles everywhere. The song sits in a space somewhere between Sheeran and maybe, I don’t know, Jason Mraz, and contains a pretty egregious Millennial Whoop on the chorus. This is what it’s all about, people!
1:53: Kylie Minogue “Spinning Around”
According to an undated interview with Mount Pleasant Magazine, Steve Lieber, Vice President of Business Development at BurgerFi and American Pizza Champion, said that the restaurant’s name is shorthand for what he calls the “burgerfication of the nation” and the chain’s goal is to “change the way people eat hamburgers.” A quick glance at its Wikipedia reveals that BurgerFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024; it was later bought by a fast-casual slider brand called Savvy Sliders. I refilled my Diet Coke and went home.
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