#number and worst traumatic experience in order to be considered thee fan of all time

[hella1975]

hi hella do you have thoughts on the tiktokification of ethel cain (given her leaving social medias) anyway sorry if you dont i just love the way you think xx

i think a very simplified explanation of what tiktok does to music and why it fundamentally always Grates on me is that people on tiktok cannot just listen to a song. it's no longer enough to enjoy a song or an artist. you're not a 'true fan' if you just simply listen to the music and find any level of enjoyment from it. you have to instead know every single lyric, and every meaning of that lyric, and then when that isn't enough because the masses are now also doing that, you then need to know what the artist's thought process was for the lyrics, where they were when they wrote it, exactly what they mean by it. interpretation is no longer allowed because the 'true fans' correct you with what the artist said in a niche interview from 2019 and 'if you really liked the song you would know that'. it doesnt matter what the song means to YOU because it now needs to be consumed in the Exact Way Tiktok Says It Should Be. and then of course it all becomes narrower and narrower and all the while the fans are TEARING the artists apart in an attempt to be the one individual listening to them most often and most correctly and with the most thorough understanding, and the artist is just. some guy. like literally just a person behind a screen reading every stupid as fuck thing and seeing the same stupid as fuck comments over and over and over again and it's like yeah. that would drive me fucking insane too actually

#there is no correct way of consuming media. like this need to be special and the snobbery it creates is something even ive been guilty of #like i will say ive only ever joked about it (like i made a post a while ago about tiktokers not realising gibson girl #was about drugs and prostitution) but i cant think of a time ive ever been ACTUALLY pissed about it #and that was more me being annoyed the tiktok crowd had got ethel cain anyway like IN GENERAL lol #but people on tiktok are actually IN that mindset. like they truly believe there's a correct way to listen to music #and they WILL police you on it if you dont adhere to that and they NEED it to be memeable so they can feel like they have inside jokes #with the artist despite them being a fucking stranger and it's WEIRD and more than anything it's fucking ANNOYING #and at the end of the day someone who listens to gibson girl bc it hypes them up and they have no idea about the lyric meaning #or its context in the rest of the album or in fact who ethel cain even is #are doing just as much justice to the art as people who listen to every single song religiously and know every single meaning #ultimately music is created to make people feel things. art is created to make people feel things #if you felt something listening to it then great. that is literally the only requirement needed. you dont need the artist's social security #number and worst traumatic experience in order to be considered thee fan of all time #ask