Simon de Wit (born April 19, 1997), better known by his Stage Name Blanks, is a Dutch YouTuber note , producer and Singer-Songwriter. He's known on YouTube for his various music-related series — "One Hour Song Challenge", in which he recreates popular songs in just one hour, "Styleswap", in which he recreates popular songs in the style of another era, genre or artist, and "Story Sessions", in which he produces an original song based on recommendations and suggestions from his followers through his Instagram stories.
On the flip side of things, de Wit specializes in Indie Pop as a music artist. So far, he's released several singles under the Blanks name, as well as one EP, cheap sodas and ice cream kisses, which compiles several of them. He released his debut full-length studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever And That's OK, in 2021.
Discography:
- cheap sodas and ice cream kisses (EP) (2020)
- Nothing Lasts Forever And That's OK (2021)
His content provides examples of:
- The '80s: A couple of songs in his Styleswap series have been remade into 80s synthpop, "Better Now", "thank u, next", "Old Town Road", "The Middle" and "In My Feelings" just to name a few.
- Some of his originals evoke an eighties style as well, such as "What You Do To Me" and "Lost in the Moment".
- The '90s: His "Ransom" cover for Styleswap is done in the style of a 90s Boy Band a la *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.
- Affectionate Parody: He's done a Post Malone-style version of "Dancing Queen", a Beatles-style version of "Blah Blah Blah", and a blink-182-style version of "Someone You Loved" for his Styleswap series.
- All Just a Dream: The "Favorite Nightmare" music video features Simon and his ex-girlfriend going on a date interspersed with him waking up in bed during the chorus, frustrated that she keeps getting into his head and into his dreams as well.
- all lowercase letters: "oh no" and cheap sodas and ice cream kisses.
- Anti-Love Song: "Favorite Nightmare" starts off with the singer describing good times he had with his lover... until the chorus hits, where it's revealed he wasn't fondly reminiscing at all and those descriptions were instead thoughts of her invading his head after their nasty break-up.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: The aspect ratio in the "Silly People" music video sometimes switches to 4:3. The "Let's Get Lost" video also does this, but it's justified as those 4:3 parts are viewed on a retro TV In-Universe.
- Darker and Edgier: His songs seem to be taking a darker, more rock-influenced direction after the release of the bright and summery cheap sodas and ice cream kisses EP, both lyrically and sonically. "Stranger" is a notable example. Hell, even his cover art got sadder!
- As of the release of "What You Do To Me", this no longer seems to be the case, as he has returned to his optimistic Synth-Pop sound. The two edgier singles released after the EP ("oh no" and "Stranger") aren't even included on his debut album, so it's reasonable to assume this direction was scrapped.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His earliest videos were entirely in the Dutch language. He only switched to English after his One Hour Song Challenge remake of Bazzi's "Mine" went viral and garnered him many non-Dutch subscribers.
- Existential Horror: "Silly People" is about how humans cause trouble, seek attention, fall in love and indulge in pleasures just to fill the void and find some meaning in life.
- Genki Guy: He describes himself as an "overexcited music boy". And it shows; he's very energetic, enthusiastic and cheerful in his videos.
- Genre Throwback: What his Styleswap series is based off of.
- Genre Roulette: He's mainly an Indie Pop artist but dabbles in and experiments with other genres through his One Hour Song Challenge and Styleswap series.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: "Dance Alone", based off his experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Hidden Depths: He studied information science in university.
- I Can't Dance: He isn't bad, but he plays up the more lousy and awkward aspects of his dancing in the "Favorite Nightmare" music video to juxtapose his professional backup dancers.
- Intercourse with You: "Don't Stop". The title should be pretty telling.Hands in my hair, your lips on mine
No shirt, no blouse, lost track of time
Baby I just wanna get you all night to myself
We could just leave and go somewhere else, woah oh
Don't stop, keep doing what you're doing
Don't stop 'cause I like it like that - Lyrics/Video Mismatch: "Home Without A Heart", despite its upbeat '80s synthpop production, is lyrically about the falling apart of a relationship. The video features Simon and a girl on a bike ride looking relatively happy.
- Precision F-Strike: He's normally a happy-go-lucky dude who doesn't swear in his videos, so hearing him cover a song with swear words in the lyrics can be jarring for some.
- Reggae: Covers "Without Me" and "Stressed Out" in this way for Styleswap.
- Road Trip Plot: The music video for "Don't Stop".
- Rockers Smash Guitars: Smashes his Fender guitar in the "Favorite Nightmare" music video just before it Smashes to Black and ends.
- Shout-Out:
- "Seaside" mentions The Kooks song of the same name. Oasis is mentioned too.
- Post Malone is namedropped in "Sweaters".
- Silly Love Songs: The cheap sodas and ice cream kisses EP is jam-packed with these. Only 2 out of the 8 songs on there aren't this trope. Lead single "Favorite Nightmare" is an Anti-Love Song but still invokes this trope (see above).
- Wanderlust Song: "Let's Get Lost".
