the illusion of being 'different' and why it's unattainable
On social media, there is always the underlying message that you have to be 'different' and 'unique', which to me, have very important differences.
Being 'unique' is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as being the only existing one of its type or, more generally, unusual or special in some way.
To put it simply, to be 'unique' is to be different from anything or anyone else, with no one else exactly like you. The connotations of being 'unique' is being strange or unusual in some way.
To be 'different, however, is to shy away from mainstream trends and beliefs, to not comply with social norms, but have other people similar to you, people that have the same interests (etc. etc.) as you. Being 'different' doesn't not make you unlike anyone else, but makes you different from 'basic' people and separates you from the mainstream.
I've put the words 'different' and 'unique' on these words because, on social media at least, it is almost impossible to be either of these things.
In a way, the focus on being so different to others and not liking 'basic' things has become the mainstream now, with everyone now trying to show how 'different' they are and prove ,to no one in in particular, that they are not like the 'average' consumer.
note: when i say 'consumer', this can apply to any type of consumer; music, products, content, food etc. etc.)
However, this movement has mostly failed to make people seem any different to the majority of social media users.
'underground' music refers to music that is typically unknown by most people and is written by lesser known artists with smaller followings, which theoretically, should be a positive thing, as it draws more attention to these smaller artists and leads to better opportunities for these artists. However, these 'fans' are not necessarily providing support for these artists, since the majority of these 'fans' do not enjoy this music and might not even be listening to these people. Financially, they may be supporting these artists by promoting their music, albums, events etc, but they are not supporting these artists in arguably one of the most important ways possible; morally. These 'fans' aren't really giving these artists a support system and a fan-base to fall back on, because with the recent cycle of trending songs becoming 'uncool' and dying out fairly quickly, all artists need some kind of fan-base to fall back on to ensure that they aren't completely banished from the music industry with no one actually listening to their music, which most people usually aren't. Another issue I have with the movement is gatekeeping culture, which brings me on to my next point.
gatekeeping culture:
Gatekeeping is one of my major issues with the social media creators and users trying to give an illusion of being 'different'. Gatekeeping refers to people trying to 'hide' their favourite artists and stop others from listening to this artist because of the fear of them becoming a trendy and popular artist and being thrown into the vicious cycle of trending music. Initially, this comes across as a positive thing for the artists, because they can continue to create music and rise to fame honestly and without the brutal mess of social media being involved in the creation of this music, but the harsh and unfortunate reality is that the only real way to be discovered as an artist and offered all of these big opportunities is to have a trending song on platforms such as tiktok, instagram, youtube etc, etc.
However, my main problem with gatekeeping culture is that it doesn't really give the artists much to grow and expand their audience. These artists with incredibly loyal fans who are dedicated to keeping these artists and bands out of the limelight aren't able to grow their audience and gain more of an audience.
Gatekeeping makes it incredibly hard for anyone to even express their feelings about this artist or band and listen to this music freely and publicly due to the immense amount of pressure and expectations within certain fanbases. In my opinion, this culture varies depending on the genre. For example, in rap music communities, there is less gatekeeping but there are more expectations around things like living situations, lifestyle, money, sexuality etc. etc, and most fans have to comply with this agenda to feel worthy of being in this community.
the role of tiktok:
Even if you're part of the small majority who has never used tiktok, you've probably seen a repost or a clip from a viral video, and you've definitely noticed the impact of it. Although tiktok isn't entirely to blame for everything I'm about to list, it has accelerated the rate of these things and has offered a platform for these things, so in my opinion, it has had the largest impact on our society, particularly the teenage demographic- the main users of this app.
My first issue with tiktok is how fast every trend passes. Obviously, trends have always become less popular after a period of time, but the time it takes for people to become tired of these things started to decrease rapidly as TikTok rose in popularity. Trends from the 2010s, like the fidget spinner, athletic clothes deisgns and apps like Vine were popular for at least a few months before people got bored of them and found something else. However, modern trends are becoming more fast-paced and most people can't name a current trend because they move so quickly. A popular song, for example, will gain millions, if not billions, of streams and then fade away just as quickly as it rose to popularity and people begin to view it as an out-of-date song that no-one listens to anymore. This can be seen with songs like 'as it was' by Harry Styles and 'anti-hero' by Taylor Swift, which were once incredibly popular songs on Tiktok, but are now disliked by the artists' fans because they have been used so frequently and out of context. If you asked someone in 2010 what the most popular songs were, they could confidently list 10 popular songs that everyone was listening to, but if you asked someone that exact question today, they most likely wouldn't be able to give you the exact names of the songs or even the names of songs that had previously been popular, At most, they might be able to give you a few lines from a song chorus. To link back to my original point, I think that these incredibly fast-paced trends have led to people being scared to actually enjoy or listen to a popular song once it reaches the mainstream because it is then classed as being incredibly 'basic' and you have no unique features and personality traits if you don't listen to the music that no one else is listening to. However, it is hard to find this music that no-one knows of due to the search for 'unique' music.
My second issue with Tiktok is how it promotes so many products that are usually expensive, unhelpful and manufactured unsustainably and dangerously. You very rarely see a small business promoted by anyone other than the business themselves. I had a conversation with a friend about the changing of trends and the example used was the AirUp bottle, which was extremely popular a few months ago. It was plastered all over social media and promoted until you knew every detail about it. However, where you could once see every teenager carrying one of these bottles, these are now on the list of out-of-date things and people would no longer want to take these bottles anywhere.
Overall, I think that influencers need to make more of a concious effort to fully research the brands that they are promoting and the music industry needs to take steps to slow down the fast paced trend cycle of music, instead of focusing on profit over artist's careers and well-being. As consumers, we need to encourage brands and influencers to use their platforms to promote well-written songs that can be used for more than a 10-second tiktok video.
I'm going to reference a book called 'If he had been with me' by Laura Nowlin because I think there are parts of the book that explain this whole concept very well (the parts of the book that I'm going to mention aren't essential parts of the book so no spoilers). In the book, there is a group of teenagers that are all stereotypical 'alternative' and 'different' kids compared to their peers. However, the main characters says that you have to be the right kind of different to be accpeted into this group of people that is outwardly meant to be accepting of everyone. I think that adding this concept, although it may be fictional, shows the reality of how selective people are when it comes to how 'different' you are.