Percy Marks is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. The tension between her obsession with pop music and her lack of technical proficiency drives the conflict of the novel, and she often wonders if she is less lovable because she is a music admirer rather than a musician. In Chapter 3, Percy admits that after multiple attempts to learn the piano, she resigned herself to the idea that she would never write a song as good as the Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up.” Instead, she consoles herself with her ability to identify and analyze good music, but with the exception of Joe, she makes no friends who love music the way she does. Even when she works at Amoeba Music, she is surprised to find that everyone there prefers to signal their ironic hatred of popular bands. This tendency drives Percy’s angst as she reckons with the irony that although she becomes her best self when she talks about music, it is the very habit of talking about music that drives away everyone she tries to befriend. Later in Chapter 19, she refers to herself as a “barren appreciator” of music. Driven by her desire to meet people who share her passions and write good music, she careens through a series of emotional and philosophical life chapters that illustrate the novel’s broader focus on Earnestness in the Age of Performative Cynicism and the Pursuit of Impossible Desire.

Percy’s relationship with Joe is the primary source of conflict because he is the person who engages her passions most deeply and directly. It is important to note, however, that the conflict is bigger than this relationship, especially since Percy and Joe become physically distanced from each other as Joe goes on tour and Percy moves to New York. Percy believes she can compensate for Joe’s absence by surrounding herself with writers who appreciate her writing on music, but instead, she only exacerbates her own loneliness, feeling as though she doesn’t belong. Percy only finds release for her tensions with belonging when she stumbles upon the community at Poplife. In this unique space, Hannah and the other outsiders remind Percy that the people she has been looking for have always shared her need to belong. This epiphany galvanizes Percy’s resolve to use her blog as a platform to reach those outsiders.

Percy’s job as a trend intelligence specialist is meant to buoy her through her student loans and the fraught economy of the late aughts. She is initially driven to keep this job because it leverages her ability to decide what should be in vogue. Eventually, Percy is not so much disillusioned by her work as she is compelled to retreat from its untenability. In Chapter 27, her boss expresses frustration with a client who is using their service to promote their product. When Percy’s boss decides that her only solution in this scenario is to double the agency fee, Percy realizes that, at its core, the essence of her job is focused on money. Not long after that, Percy transitions into her career as a professional songwriter and converts her music writing into material for a book.

Percy moves past her insecurity over being called a songwriter by acknowledging the impact that her songwriting has on the world around her. Although the erroneous crediting on Caroline’s albums has made her talents invisible, Percy fights to make her contributions known and is finally affirmed for her efforts when she hears a stellar performance of “Bay Window” in Los Angeles and receives a Caroline fan’s recognition that Percy is “the girl in the bridge” (217). Percy initially makes the mistake of working with Luke Skinner because she wants to divorce her identity as a songwriter from her relationship with Joe. However, this issue resolves itself at the end of the novel when Percy works with Meg Vee and realizes that she cannot properly critique Joe’s lyrics without opening herself to the risk of some tension between them. Once she accepts this inevitability, she becomes less afraid of the fallout and grows eager to hear the good songs that will arise from their relationship.