#tiktok trend except it’s written very poorly

[girlsbtrs]

What are “Industry Plants” & does anyone actually know what the heck they’re talking about?

Written by Lila Danielsen-Wong. Graphic by Paula Nicole. 

The internet loves to discover new terms and find every possible way to misuse and mangle them until they don’t actually mean anything. A recent example of this is the term “industry plant.” 

A non exhaustive list of ways you will see “industry plant” used on TikTok is as follows:

An artist who has a label

An artist who has a label and acts like they don’t

An artist who got a record deal out of seemingly nowhere

An artist who only got a record deal because of nepotism

An artist who has rich parents

An artist who has industry parents

An artist who pretends to be poor

An artist who pretends to be alternative or indie

An artist who was marketed as alternative or indie and then won major awards

And my personal favorite, an artist who is just kind of kind of annoying

The internet has accused everyone from H.E.R to Billie Eilish to Clairo of being an industry plant, but what are they being accused of? What is the actual definition of an industry plant?

If you define the term based on the term itself  it is just an artist who “the industry” (ie, whatever label backing said artist has) is “planting” (or, really pushing on the public regardless of if they are what the public and general music listeners want), and the colloquial use boils down to someone who does not deserve the spotlight they are being given.  

Complex claims that there isn’t really a set definition and people’s range of understanding of the term goes from artists who are plucked out of obscurity and given a new sound and aesthetic at the direction of their record label, then jammed down the throats of consumers through avenues like playlists and radio,“ which also happens to be the definition of “artist development” and “getting signed”, and “any musician lucky enough to have a familial connection to the industry or the good fortune of financial resources as a plan”. Medium says that the “common definition” of industry plant is “an artist who has a Major/Indie Label backing their movement but presents themselves as a ‘homegrown start up’ label to create a pseudo organic following”. This is the definition I think I have seen most people in the industry use.

Both of these publications are mostly talking about Rap and/or Hip Hop, and so are most of the top search results if you google “what is an industry plant.” However, even as the term “industry plant” originated in these circles, the rest of the internet got ahold of it and has taken on a life of its own.

A big explosion of the term “Industry plant” has recently come with the band Tramp Stamps. If you’ve managed to avoid the TikTok storm, Tramp Stamps are a punk girl group that grew due to their technicolor punk-lite image. This could probably be a whole article in itself, but to keep it brief, Tramp Stamps released a song called “I’d rather die” and it came across as a little cheesy and try-hard. It felt to the Gen Z TikTok crew that they’d been pandered too, and very poorly at that. The hook of the song “I’d rather die/than hook up with another straight white guy” was quickly recognized as being disingenuous and thus the internet vultures came hard for Tramp Stamps. First of all, all of the band members are white, and one is even married to an aforementioned straight white man. Furthermore, the band’s indie status was called into question when Make Tampons Free, their label that they started, was revealed to be under the company Artists Without a Label, which is owned by a giant music publishing company. Two of the members also have deals with Dr. Luke’s (yeah, that Dr. Luke) Prescription Songs. So they’re technically independent but the layers rubbed many the wrong way. Overall, the TikTok audience just found Tramp Stamps too manufactured, especially for a band branded as punk, and the band paid for it with the combined whirlwind of being cancelled and becoming a viral trend (the trend was to destroy the band in the most savage way possible). 

Of course, there are less rabid examples. After H.E.R. won her Oscar there was a flurry on twitter and internet forums about her being an industry plant. Her father is a union ironworker, but the accusers seemed to be going more for the “how dare she be developed as an artist” route. Kanyetothe.com forum user Flyfree (who is currently banned from Kanyetothe.com) says “bitch got co-signed by Bryson Tiller (another industry plant) and Alicia Keys out of nowhere. The industry is not even trying anymore.” “Out of nowhere” is a debatable description, there are videos of  H.E.R. (aka Gabi Wilson) performing on The Today Show at age ten. The implication is that if the public doesn’t see an artist struggle to earn their success, it must have been somehow handed to them.

Furthermore, a lot of fabulous and important artists have characteristics of being “industry plants.” Lorde was signed as a preteen to a major New Zealand label, developed as an artist and songwriter by industry professionals, and then marketed straight to Soundcloud with her first EP as an indie teen. Doesn’t that exactly fit the Medium definition of industry plant? But does the fact that she was developed as an artist by a record label negate her talent or influence in the music industry?

Another example of a fabulous artist who fits in a definition of an industry plant is Willow Smith. Willow fits in the “well connected parents” definition of an “Industry plant.”  However, would the music industry really be better off without Willow Smith? One could even argue that we’re lucky that she had famous parents so that we are able to know and love her. 

One obvious thing that all of these artists have in common is that they are all women. There was a notable murmur on TikTok voicing this observation after Clairo went through her “getting called an industry plant” phase when some people figured out that her father is an executive at her recording studio. This was especially frustrating for music fans seeking sapphic artists, as this happened around the same time that fans got fed up with King Princess after she was revealed to be a Macy’s heiress and not the “resentful financial-aid kid eating Chipotle” as she was described in a New York Times article.

The thing is, it’s hard to find mega success in the music industry without connections, or at least some financial or class advantages. Writing songs may be free, singing may be free, but production equipment is expensive. Wouldn’t it figure that a good amount of successful musicians had access to some kind of music lessons growing up? Do you think that someone whose parents were willing and able to pay their rent as they pursue their dream full time would have an advantage over someone who had to work overtime to support family members. It doesn’t seem outlandish that someone who paid a reputable producer to professionally produce, mix, and master their song might find more success than someone who is working by themselves on the free version of pro tools. 

The point is, most very successful musicians fit into some definition of “industry plant:” be it wealthy parents, parents with connections in the entertainment industry, professional artist development, or a carefully curated artist story that makes it sound like they had a little less help than they did. Of course there are exceptions, but the fact of the matter is that it is easier to succeed in music with these extra boosts. However effective the term “industry plant” was when it originated to talk about rap and hip hop artists, it has been warped to include every advantage that people have that help them succeed in music. Perhaps the term “industry plant” has just become a word to voice all frustrations with nepotism and inaccessibility in the music industry. Of course, this doesn't mean that people who are successful because of these advantages aren’t talented or don’t deserve their success. After all, the reason that Willow Smith has a music career and Kim Kardashian (performer of the not-quite hit song ‘Jam’, in case you forgot) doesn’t is that all the money and connections in the world can’t make you a good artist. This just means that people are getting fed up with the fact that success comes easiest to the most talented of the wealthy and well connected, instead of the most talented of the general population. Perhaps the “calling everyone industry plants” craze is really just people trying and failing to find a way to voice this, and to find someone to blame. 

Bringing this back to Clairo and the fact that these discussions mostly only erupt around women artists, and in the case of Clairo and King Princess, queer artists. If people are trying to find someone to blame, it is not a surprise that the blame will fall on women, especially black and queer women. This isn’t a judgement on how much Clairo or King Princess deserve or don’t deserve their success, this is just to say that if you were to examine the male artists under this same microscope, the findings of wealth and privilege would be comparable. 

Overall, the term “industry plant” is vague and stretched a little thin at best, and means absolutely nothing at worst. Next time you want to criticize an artist, stop first and think about what you are actually trying to say, because just calling them an industry plant doesn’t really get any point across besides that you don’t like them. Do you just think they’re overhyped? Or does it irk you when artists pretend to be more DIY than they are? Are you frustrated with nepotism in the industry in general? Perhaps it’s just endlessly frustrating to see that successful musical artists, even very talented ones, started out with one foot (and at least one parent) in a door that you can’t even seem to find. It’s okay to feel that way, but if that’s what you want to say, just say that. If “the industry” wants to “plant” an artist, they’ll only find success if they have talent, or at least something exciting to offer; that’s why we don’t care that Lorde had label backing and development but it was a total game ender for Tramp Stamps. 

Instead of discussing if artists are “industry plants” or not, what if we focus our energy on more productive discourse, like how do we find and support small artists who are from less advantaged backgrounds? Maybe that’ll actually deal with the feelings behind this imprecise industry plant commotion.

Sources:

H.E.R. as a child: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNL1dG2UMY 

The kinda wild King Princess article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/11/magazine/king-princess-profile.html 

Clairo and her cancelling: https://www.intersectmagazine.com/post/is-clairo-an-industry-plant 

More on Tramp Stamps: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/20/22392694/tramp-stamps-industry-plant-band-tiktok-dr-luke

Medium: https://medium.com/@ftp96/what-are-industry-plants-and-are-they-ruining-the-rap-culture-1588ebc2ce6b#:~:text=The%20common%20definition%20of%20an,create%20a%20pseudo%20organic%20following.

Complex: https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-planes/2020/03/what-is-industry-plant/Kanyetothe.com 

H.E.R industry plant discussion board: https://www.kanyetothe.com/threads/is-h-e-r-the-latest-industry-plant.5758778/

#lila danielsen wong