The 'Tiktokification' Of Metal Is a Good Thing.

Time and time again it seems to be that the most repeated sentiment regarding the platform TikTok is that it incubates a subculture of metalheads that don't 'truly enjoy the genre'. Or, in my favorite definition: pumps out posers. 

However, I'd like to get onto my soapbox and explain to you all why it isn't a TikTok issue. It isn't even a new one, it has (to a degree) been like this for years. 

The Guarded or Elitist Nature of Metal Music

The culture around metal music, at it's core, is elitist. The formation of the genre stems from anti-authority, angst, and the general need to be as edgy as a way to distinguish yourself as unique. It's a personality crisis, thinly veiled with a collective understanding that the more niche your discography of favorite bands the more theoretical clout coins you can put in your little metalhead purse. This is also known as subcultural capital, coined by sociologist Sarah Thornton. Subcultural capital refers to the knowledge, style, and behaviors that grant status within a subculture. 

AKA: I know more niche music than you.

Or: That band you listen too is for posers, isn't heavy, and therefore I hold a higher statue of value within this subculture than you do. 

I feel like this weaves into the concepts of the social identity theory, wherein people often manage their public personas to gain social approval or status. In the context of social media, individuals might curate their online identities to appear more aligned with popular or niche trends to gain followers, likes, and social capital. When you introduced the ever present and looming content or topic push created by trends, people the trust into partial interest of a community. With or without knowledge of all of the other 'baggage' metalheads expect anyone who turns on a metal song to sort through. 

People who have made their way through the self inflicted pain of being able to deem ones-self worth enough to wear the title 'metalhead' have almost a complex about who is then allowed to also put that badge on. It's how we have gatekeepers, elitists, and the general anonymous accounts commenting under posts complaining that anyone who doesn't meet their narrow perception of what a metalhead should be is a poser.   

In reality? This is a chronically online issue. I've never been to a physical festival, concert, etc. where someone's presence at the show is questioned on the basis that they 'don't actually like the genre'. It's only ever online, and it's only ever tied to more extreme genres of metal music- on online forums/platforms/communities where that ideology flourishes. It's an artificially imposed value, for people who wouldn't otherwise be able to contribute it to their own personalities- so they manufacture it.

For metal music as a genre to maintain itself and exist, people must be able to enter and consume content within the genre without a barrier to entry.

Metal Music Is An Industry.

What people ultimately have a problem with (that I don't think many realize), is the methods that people utilize to then promote their music. The most popular method? Rage bait. Obviously, stemming one of the more basic, core, and visceral emotional reactions we as humans can have is rage- hatred. 

Unlike traditional media outlets or even older social media platforms, TikTok offers a more level playing field for bands without the backing of major labels. With strategic content creation, even independent and underground metal bands can achieve significant exposure and success. The platform’s emphasis on virality means that the slow progression that was expected of bands previously to follow through to build communities, establish fan bases, and get picked up by a label was then replaced by a single, short form video with the perfect rage-bait hook to get comments & views. 

The value of establishing a brand is paramount for musicians, because as easily as Tiktok makes it for bands to promote themselves: it then leads to thousands of bands flooding the hashtags related to the culture with low quality, low engagement content that leads them nowhere. I can't remember the specific referencing of this statistic, but if I remember correctly the average number of times it takes someone to view content before initiating to then become a consumer of that product (aka, listening) is around 16 times. And you better hope that all 16 of those times your band was able to create a good enough piece of content (short enough, good hook, digestible, not too much going on, call to action, actionable process after consuming said content, and engagement.) to hopefully translate into more listeners.

Bands are a business. Sure, some people do it as a hobby. But, established bands have goals to meet, tickets to sell, merch to sell, albums to sell, metrics to hit. So, of course, bands who are approaching the platform as an opportunity are going to do so in a strategic way. Do certain videos a few times, find out what works, what is the most effective, and just keep replicating it until your goals are met or until they stop working. 

This is more due to the fault of short form content, which isn't solely native to TikTok. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have it. The idea of doing outrageous things for clout isn't a new thing- Marilyn Manson lit the American flag on fire for news press. A band like TX2 making rage bait TikToks isn't that far off. 

Being Cringe isn't new.

I, personally, wasn't around for this. So, I'll take the words of elders on the internet. Bands promoting themselves on social platforms isn't new. Neither is being cringe online. Lolcows have and will always remain a thing as long as they are able to get engagement from their content.

It's not only just rage bait, fundamentally there are things that drive views, likes, and shares. The basis of what we consider or deem success in our modern world. Sex sells, it's more and more common now to find someone wanting to become a influencing presence within a scene take two ways to gain that engagement online. (Which are also the primary critiques of the platform.)

1. Thirst Traps
2. Rage Bait

I almost hesitate to discuss the concept of thirst traps, because it can easily present itself in a way of shaming other women, or coming off as putting other women down. I don't mean for this to be presented in that manner- it's marketing. And it's an effective tactic. However, the nature of constantly pumping out content wearing short shorts and doing 'girlypop' dances without ever opening a discission with meaning seems more harmful to the culture. Feeding into a stereotype that women engaging in the community aren't actually there for music, they are there for male validation.

Sure, women want to engage with women. Pozer Club's TikTok page has an unprecedented percentage of over 80% women followers of our near 15,000 following. Within the work I've done in the industry? The average is less than 15%. But when you're striving for the immediate gratification for clout on a social media platform, one of those two options is often chosen. And because it works so well, they're the primary targets to represent every band, and every creator that represents the genre. 

The Dilution of Culture vs. Evolution

A genuine critique of social media platforms and their effect on Metal, or even alternative cultures in general is the dilution of value (value define in this sense as a genuine interest of the good of the culture) for the goals of profits. 

Greed.

Alternative fashion, which has been criticized for years by mainstream media has become a fun and quirky way to make an outfit edgy. And, as trends go, larger fast fashion brands latch on. Creating mass produced low quality clothing that is obtained by a mass population, then quickly passed on when moving to the next microtrend cycle. 

That is more a critique of the consumerist nature of at least the American society as a whole. But, it speaks to many other industries other than fashion. Makeup, which has been a very niche realm for the goth subcultures is now being used over and over to create releases of makeup lines that profit from these long established subcultures, often stealing ideas from smaller businesses, and replicating them- and no one holds them accountable because as always, corporations win in a world of American consumerism. 

However, change does happen naturally through the years a culture exists. New genres or trends created now whether because they're used to better market a band with rage bait, find a specific community not typically catered too, or interests naturally changing as time goes on. Things like Bimbocore, which stemmed primarily from the popularizing in music promotions of a band called Scene Queen on social media people (mainly men) called a degradation of culture. Creating something so women focused (albeit self objectifying) in a male dominated subculture is bound to ruffle feathers, which is a primary reason as to why it worked so well.

Female Rappers within the Hip-Hop industry followed through the same thing. It's ok for men to write songs about how women are whores, but if a female fronted band walks out with the same energy- a whole different tune is sung. That relates more back to it being a male dominated industry, the general reaction of things more sexualized in nature, and utilizing marketing strategies that encourage inflamed reactions.

So What's At Fault?

You can't blame one specific thing. Shorted attention spans from the exposure to social media, marketing tactics that prey on strong emotions to stir reactions and feed algorithms. Corporations stealing from alternative cultures to sell mass produced garbage on the internet to fulfil a microtrend. The uncertainty of being a young person, in an ever changing world trying to find a community in which they feel like they can relate to and derive comfort from when nothing makes sense in their life. 

But yes, let's blame the app. 

There are obviously no other things at play causing this.