Robin Daniel Skinner (born 15 December 1998) is an English singer known as Cavetown. He got his start releasing music on YouTube when he was a teenager and has since gained major popularity. His music often incorporates ukulele and combines Indie Pop, Indie Rock, and Bedroom Pop.
Studio albums:
- 2015 - Cavetown
- 2016 - 16/04/16
- 2018 - Lemon Boy
- 2020 - Sleepyhead
- 2021 - Man's Best Friend
- 2022 - worm food
Tropes:
- Bedroom Pop
- Boys Like Creepy Critters: The teenage boy in "Boys Will Be Bugs" loves bugs.I have friends who understand me
Their names are spider, beetle, bee
They don't say much but
They have always listened to me - The Cameo: The speaker from "Lemon Boy" returns in the "Cavetown Remix" of Brye Sebring's viral hit "LEMONS", where Cavetown adds new verses to the song from the boy's perspective. Since Brye grew up a Cavetown fan this qualifies as Ascended Fangirl.
- Coming of Age Story: Many of his songs describe teenagers growing up.
- Friend to Bugs: The narrator in "Boys Will Be Bugs" loves bugs and beats up anyone who is mean to them.
- Indie Pop
- Indie Rock
- Lyric Video: The official video for Home
is also a lyric video, since it consists of someone flipping through a pop-up book containing the song's lyrics. It's also a Oner. - Men Don't Cry: The Troubled Teen featured in "Boys Will Be Bugs" reflects that people are expecting him to be stereotypically mature because he's a man, including shrugging off genuinely hurtful insults and not crying (or even feeling sadness at all).And if you wanna cry
Make sure that they never see it
Or even better yet
Block it out and never feel it - One-Man Song: "Paul".
- The Oner: The music video for "Home" is filmed in one long shot.
- One-Woman Song: "Juliet" and "Hazel".
- Quirky Ukulele: He plays the ukelele in his songs, which often have quirky lyrics.
- Trans Tribulations: The theme of songs like "This Is Home" and "Dysphoric". Notable that many fans interpreted "Boys Will Be Bugs" as a song about a closeted trans girl, while in Real Life Robin is a trans man (which means his relationship to toxic masculinity as a teen was a bit more complicated).
- Trick Dialogue: In the second verse of "Boys Will Be Bugs", it seems like the protagonist is talking to a classmate ("I skipped class to sit with you", "I really like your spotty sweater"). The rest of the verse shows that he's talking to a ladybug instead, since he feels closer to bugs than his fellow teenagers.
- Troubled Teen:
- "Boys Will Be Bugs" is about a boy who just turned fourteen struggling with toxic masculinity. Since his classmates are mean and he doesn't fit in, he sees bugs as his friends instead since they're not judgmental and he wants to be a part of their world.
- "Lemon Boy" seems to be about a teenager with a mental illness that he refuses to treat because it's been with him so long, and he doesn't know what he would do without it.
- Vocal Evolution: Cavetown had a high pitched voice in his early songs due to being a young teenager, and his voice deepened by his later work.
