#but also i don’t like the movement to label her a queer artist over actual queer artists like Chappell Roan or more recently billie eilish

[valyrfia]

Girl are u a gaylor? 💅

Yes for the pure reason of spite because so much of the anti gaylor stuff I see on the internet is horrifically homophobic and if I piss those people off more then, good.

[batmansymbol]

hi riley! read this recently and would love to get ur perspective on this as a YA author https://tinyletter.com/misshelved/letters/did-twitter-break-ya-misshelved-6

hi anon! yeah, i read this the day it was posted. thoughts/supplementary essay below.

firstly, i'd put a big "I AGREE" stamp across this essay. i think it's well-cited and thoughtful, and i agree with pretty much everything in it. i especially appreciate it for introducing me to the terms "context collapse" and "morally motivated networked harassment" - seeing internet sociology studied and labeled is ... odd, but useful.

i left twitter in 2017, but i keep an eye on things, which seem similar now to the way they were four years ago. the essay describes the never-ending scrutiny, the need to seem perfect, and the pressure on writers to out themselves. all of that is spot-on. twitter is an outing machine. there is so much harassment and anger on the platform that in serious conversations, good-faith engagement becomes something that must be earned, rather than something that's expected. and in order to earn good faith, strangers expect you to offer up an all-access pass to who you are. otherwise, things might take a swift left turn into verbal abuse.

obviously twitter is a cesspit of harassment from racist, homophobic, and transphobic people, but i think the most painful harassment comes from within the community. i, and most people i know, wouldn't give a single minuscule little fuck if ben shapiro's entire army of ghouls came after us and told us we were destroying the sacred values of Old America or whatever. but the community at large does care about issues of racial justice and queer liberation and economic justice. which is why it's painful to see this supposed "community" eating its own over and over again.

how cruel can we be to people and pretend that we are their friends? that's the emotional crux of the essay to me. what we're doing to ourselves - people who do share our values and want to achieve the same goals - because this one platform is built on rewarding the quickest, most brutal, and most public response.

god forbid you don't have your identity figured out. god forbid you have an invisible disability, or are writing a story about something sensitive you've personally experienced but had an off-consensus reaction to. on twitter, if you are not a paragon of absolute and immediate clarity, you may as well be lower than dirt morally, because you're unable to do what the platform requires of you: air every private corner of your identity, up to and including your trauma, to justify not only your everyday actions and opinions but also your art.

(this is all honestly incompatible with interesting art, but i'll get to that in a bit.)

it doesn't take a genius to see how troubling this environment is when combined with twitter as a marketing tool. i remember that around the time of my debut, i'd tweet out threads of private, painful, personal stuff, which felt terrible to recount, but i'd watch the like count increase with this sense of catholic, confessional satisfaction. all of this was tied to the idea of my potential salability as a writer.

i was around 21 at the time. i felt a lot of pressure as a debut. i wanted people to like me and think i was exceptionally mature and confident. i wanted to do my job and build buzz for my book. i saw that all these publishing professionals and authors spent day in, day out angry and exhausted on twitter. every few days, a new person fifteen years older than me would say, "i can't take this anymore, i'm so fucking tired of this, i'm logging off for a while." i thought, well, this must be how online activism feels: like running on a sprained ankle.

i can still remember book after book after book that inspired blow-ups, big explanations, and simmering resentment: carve the mark (whose author was forced to admit that she suffered chronic pain after relentless criticism of that element), the black witch (a book explicitly about unlearning racism that was criticized for depicting ... racism), ramona blue (a book about a bi girl who thinks she's a lesbian but winds up in an m/f relationship, because she's still discovering her identity) ... etc

each book, each incident, followed the same pattern. firestorms of anger, a decision of where to place blame, the desperate need for a single consensus opinion in the community. i think a lot of people on book twitter see these as bugs inherent to the platform, but really, in twitter's eyes, they're features. the angrier and more upset twitter's userbase is, the more reliant they are on the platform.

i wound up leaving around the time i realized that not only was twitter making me anxious - NOT being on twitter was beginning to make me anxious, because of vaguely dread-infused tweets all around like "i'm seeing an awful lot of people who are staying silent about X. ... why are so many people who are so loud about X so silent about Y?" etc.

that shit is beyond poisonous. people will not always be logged on. the absence of someone's agreement does not mean disagreement. actually, someone's absence is not inherently meaningful, because it is the internet and silence is everyone's default position; internet silence in all likelihood means that that person is out in the universe doing other things.

this is already a ridiculously long response, so i'll try to wrap up. firstly, i think that progressive writers and readers have GOT to stop thinking that a correct consensus opinion can exist on every piece of fiction, and on every issue in general, and that if someone diverges from that consensus, they're incorrectly progressive.

secondly, i think that progressive writers and readers have got to uncouple the idea of a "book with good politics" from a good book, because 1) there are books about morally grimy, despicable subjects that help us process the landscape of human behavior, and

2) if, in your fiction, there is only one set of allowed responses for your protagonist, you will write the same person over and over and over again. you see this a lot in religious fiction. the person is not a human being but an expression of the creator's moral alignment. (not entirely surprising that this similarity to religious correctness might crop up with the current state of the movement. i read this piece around the time i left twitter and it shook me really, really deeply.)

i understand that in YA, there's a sensation of immense pressure because people want to model good politics and correct behavior for kids. this is a noble idea - and maybe twitter is great for people who want to be role models. but i've become more and more staunchly against the idea of artist as role model. the role of the writer is not to be emulated but to write fiction. and the role of fiction is not to read like something delivered from a soapbox, or to display some scrubbed-clean universe where each wrong is immediately identified as a wrong, and where total morality is always glowing in the backdrop. it's to put something human on paper, and as human beings, we might aspire to total morality, but we fall short again and again. honestly, that's what being on twitter showed me more clearly than anything.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Hi Ralph! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Harry, and the way he interacts with the world. There was the guardian interview and his weird statement about dilution (which I agree with your thoughts on so I won’t harp on about here). In the vein of weird interview comments Harry has made in interviews, one I also think about a lot came out in 2017-ish after Miley Cyrus came out. I can’t remember the exact quote, but I do remember the interviewer asked him, basically, what he thought of Miley’s coming out, and if he felt like he as a person in the public eye had any duty to publicly declare his sexuality too, knowing what it would mean to a lot of his fans who are struggling with their own sexualities, and Harry said “I think that’s a weird thing to expect of someone else, and everyone should just be who they want to be.” I don’t necessarily disagree with the content of his comment - you don’t owe anything to anybody when it comes to your sexuality - but I feel a little weird about the message behind the comment which I took to be “just let me sing and make music and stop asking me for anything else.” I think a large part of the reason I extrapolated that from his comment (and I do realize I was reading into it) has been his general reluctance over the years to get involved with any sort of political movement. The only two real exception I can think of are (1) LGBTQ rights kind of, although to be honest some of this seems performative to me, and (2) his weird and sort of short lived foray into BLM with the march he joined and his Instagram post. That, combined with his decision to move forward with his tour and the general outrage and feeling that Harry is “disconnected” from his fans, that he is “money hungry” that he is “using his fans” etc. has had me thinking. I disagree with the discourse vilifying Harry for his tour decision, and I think a lot of it is that people are angry and scared and frustrated (for valid reasons) but they are equating their rightful feelings of frustration with the situation to mean Harry failed them on a personal level, which I don’t think is true or fair. But I do think Harry is a celebrity who seems generally out of touch with what the rest of the world goes through, and worse he doesn’t actually seem to care. I feel like he withdrew so much after 1D days, and in general I do applaud that decision - I imagine he was dealing with a lot of trauma, and a retreat to as much of a private life as he could manage was probably well called for to protect his mental health. But his withdrawal has continued, and we only really see him when he has something to promote. We don’t get anything at all from him expect his music and now his movies. I don’t want this to come across as me yelling “Harry tell me about your personal life!!!” Because it’s not. I believe he should have complete privacy in that realm, if that’s what he wants. But to me, Harry cutting so much of himself off from the world has made him feel incredibly shallow and disconnected from his fan base, except when he has something to sell. And I do wholeheartedly think when you’re in the position of massive privilege that Harry is, you have a duty to be a well educated, well informed, active participant in your communities, and to throw your weight around for good. On the one hand, I do want to give him the benefit of the doubt. He came into this life he has now at 16, after leading a childhood that seemed to be fairly untouched by any real hardships. He has lived a life that is largely insulated from the way the rest of the world lives. On the other hand, he has the ability to educate himself, and not having those lived experiences personally doesn’t, I think, excuse him from learning about them and working to help who and where he can. I don’t think I really have a question here, I guess I’m just interested in your thoughts. I value your input, and your answers always push me to think about things in ways I hadn’t before. This has been taking up a lot of my mental space, and I’m curious if you’ve thought about it any.

Oh anon - there's a lot here and I'll try to untangle some of my reactions.

First of all - leaving outside the politics of all of this - I think there is part of Harry, both artistically and how he presents himself as a celebrity, which is very good at suggesting things, and leaving space for possibilities. And I think, at least at this stage, there isn't necessarily a solid core in there if you push. And that's OK, it has a lot of value artistically - blank space is pretty core to any design. But by the same token, it's OK if you want more. If you're dissatisfied with Harry you don't need to be fair for him - you can just think 'I want something you're not offering at the moment'.

But obviously I'm me so I can't leave the politics aside for long. I want to start with the interview - because context is important - that interview was Dan Wotton and the fucking Sun. Here is what was printed, which I think is a little different from what you remembered:

I ask Harry about sexuality in pop, a topic in the headlines after MILEY CYRUS spoke openly about her pansexuality. What’s his take?

He says: “Being in a creative field, it’s important to be ­progressive. People doing stuff like that is great.

“It’s weird for me — everyone should just be who they want to be. It’s tough to justify somebody having to answer to someone else about stuff like that.”

So has Harry personally labelled his sexuality?

He replies: “No, I’ve never felt the need to really. No.”

Would he like to elaborate? “I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself.”

I want to be clear that everything Dan Wotton was doing here was wrong, from existing to obviously trying to push Harry out. And while Harry was also wrong to be doing an interview with the Sun, he did a really good job of not saying anything he didn't want to say in difficult circumstances.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I'm with Harry. It is tough to justify somebody having to answer to other people about their sexuality. I mean particularly when that person is Dan Wotton working for the fucking Sun.

But in general I don't think there's anything wrong with Harry saying implicitly and explicitly 'Just let me sing and don't ask me for anything else'. More than that I reject the whole premise. In the questions you imagined Dan Wotton asking, you set up the idea that the only way a queer artists could speak to queer fans is by coming out. And I think it's important to push back at that at every opportunity. I've said it before, but that I identify more with Louis reciting the women he's pretending to be attracted to by rote, much more than I ever have with anyone waving a rainbow flag. I reject every part of the premise of 'you coming out would mean a lot to people and somehow that is your problem'.

Throughout what you've written me, you emphasise a belief that celebrities should be active politically - and I really want to push back and ask why? What good does that expectation do you or the world? I think the last thing this world needs is more commentary from people with large microphones and without knowledge or a perspective. The world isn't made better if celebrities feel oblige to talk about politics. And your experience

You seem to think of politics like charity - as something you do for other people out of a sense of obligation. I would argue that very little useful politics has ever been done under that model. Instead I would argue a model of politics based on solidarity: 'If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.' (Aboriginal Activist, 1970s).

I think this is what makes the English football team so powerful. Marcus Rashford is fighting for school lunches, because he knows what it's like to be hungry. They're taking the knee, because they have experienced racism, or are expressing solidarity with teammates who have experienced racism. I think Jordan Henderson believes that his world and life would be better if queer fans could be themselves at a football match.

Harry has said in so many ways that he hasn't figured out to relate politically, and he doesn't have anything more to say. That might change, but in the meantime, believe him.

Last off I want to point that you seem to be drawing a parallel between him being disconnected with his fans and not interacting politically and I don't think there is any connection at all. You said:

But to me, Harry cutting so much of himself off from the world has made him feel incredibly shallow and disconnected from his fan base, except when he has something to sell. And I do wholeheartedly think when you’re in the position of massive privilege that Harry is, you have a duty to be a well educated, well informed, active participant in your communities, and to throw your weight around for good.

There is no connection between these two points - none. I also don't think there's anything wrong with being cut off from your fan base, or silent on politics. But they're also independent (I mean look at Shawn Mendes at the period of his career when he wouldn't turn anyone down a selfie. He wasn't at all active in politics then).

I don't think there's anything wrong with valuing an artist being out, politically active, or connected with their fan base. But there are plenty of artists who are out (Lil Nas X, Olly Alexander, and I'll give a shout out to Grace Petrie) and there are plenty of artists who are politically active (Jade Thirwell, Dua Lipa, Stormzy). I'm sure there are also lots of artists who connect with their fan base (although I don't track that personally). If that's what you want, find artists that meet those needs. Rather than choosing an artists who offers something else entirely and having expectations they will never meet.

[antoine-roquentin]

The Victorian era is infamous, rightly or wrongly, for its repression of sexuality. But its temporal and philosophical heir definitely did repress the possibility of the homoromantic relationships between women and between men that had been normal, if not the norm, for centuries and centuries. This process was rooted in one of society's most fundamental adopted divisions, gender, so you can imagine that there are a whole lot of factors implicated in the shift that are all tangled around each other and mutually reinforcing. Some of the key ones include: industrialization and urbanization, women's colleges, class concerns, a crisis in masculinity (masculinity is always in crisis), and most importantly, the invention of "sexology" as a field of science at a time that science played a central role in cataloguing and normatively ordering society.

Anthony Rotundo, primarily studying men, argues that "romantic friendships" in America start to become visible in the Revolutionary War era and flourish in the mid-19th century. The 18th century is kind of a black hole for me so I'll take his word for when the concept of romantic friendships was jump-started, but it was by no means new. In the Middle Ages, Christians and Muslims alike wrote poetry and composed letters depicting homoromantic and even homoerotic relationships. I'm going back this far not for the heck of it, but because medieval society helps clarify key qualities of male and female "romantic friendships" that contributed to their eventual demise: a societal value on men expressing emotion (knightly tears; religious devotions) and the very, very limited possibilities for unmarried women to rise above the poorest classes. Romantic friendships did not threaten men's sense of themselves as men, patriarchal control of women, or marriage.

Socio-economic changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries knocked all of that askew.

The 1870s-1920s saw a massive influx of young women and men into U.S. cities. On one hand, this was an age-old process that, for centuries, was basically the season cities could exist (they were population sinks--on their own, city residents could not reproduce enough to replace themselves given mortality rates). On the other, the type of work they found and the pathways for success in that work were much more recent. The old system of apprenticeships and family connections for men, and almost exclusively domestic servant work for women, absolutely persisted but were swamped by the numbers of factory workers and non-domestic service workers. To support the population boom, cities constructed residential hotels/dormitories/apartments that were often designated single-sex.

That situation made both male and female romantic friendships a threat to the gendered prescriptions of society. For men, it diminished the utility of romantic friendships as potential economic and social connections, meaning they wouldn't be stepping stones towards supporting their eventual family. For women, it opened a much more achievable possibility of financial stability outside marriage.

The blossoming of women's colleges at this time made that problem even clearer to the sexuality reformers and sexologists we'll meet in a little--because "these women" were most assuredly middle and upper-middle class. In short: the ideal marriage partners for men...in an environment where romantic friendships could permit them both prestigious social roles (scholars, administrators, politicians, professional artists, etc) and economic success without men. This was true, even long-term, for both students and teachers. About 10% of American women at the end of the 19th century never married; the figure was around 50% for graduates of women's colleges. So when men observed, as in this letter to the Yale student newspaper:

There is a term in general use at Vassar, truly calculated to awaken within the ima penetralia of our souls all that love for the noble and the aesthetic of which our natures are capable, The term in question is "smashing."

When a Vassar girl takes a shine to another, she straightway enters upon a regular course of bouquet sendings, interspersed with tinted notes, mysterious packages of ‘Ridley’s Mixed Candies,’ locks of hair perhaps, and many other tender tokens, until at last the object of her attentions is captured, the two women become inseparable, and the aggressor is considered by her circle of acquaintances as "smashed."

they might not have seen sexual competition, but the possibility of a lifestyle threat was lurking.

Men's romantic friendships were also under fire with respect to their emotionality. The gradual militarization of western culture over the 19th century (think the Salvation Army or the military trappings of the Boy Scouts) drove/was driven by a narrowing definition of masculinity on "muscles"--vigor, strength, athleticism, the Teddy Roosevelt stereotype. Whereas emotions had once been the healthy counterpart, gradually the internal dimensions of character and a value on openness and gentleness became a liability. (Marriage was still okay, because the idealized marriage was the husband/father rising up to 'be a man' and take care of his family).

Steeped in all these burgeoning developments and their implications came the sexologists, with an agenda not just to categorize society but to evangelize their "discoveries."

A lot of us are at least in passing familiar with the "homosexuality didn't exist as 'homosexuality', an identity, before 1900" trope. This can be taken too far (and often is), but it is nevertheless true that the later decades of the 19th century and early 20th century saw professional, middle-class scientists coalescing ideas of same-sex sexual relations according to Science rather than morality. Instead of a wrong step by step choice, it was an abnormal physical, inherited trait.

This idea got mixed up in Progressive Era utopian visions of societal improvement that, among other things, tagged "deviants" and lower-class people as hindering forward progress--just as same-sex sex, now identified with the people who practiced it, prevented heterosexual, reproductive sex.

And scientists like Bernard Talmey exhibited one of my favorite characteristics of historical men writing about women: in his 1904 book on, well, women, he announced his deep concern that the American public "does not even surmise of the existence" of sex between women. It was a scientific version of what I see in my medieval (male) clerics skating gingerly around actually mentioning lesbian activity because they don't want to put the idea in women's minds.

But this view of American sexologists, lagging somewhat behind their European counterparts, was crucial to the decline of romantic friendships among men and women. First, because it started off with a condemnation of these friendships that took away from social order regardless of whether there was sexual activity involved.

Second, because of the label first stacked onto the participants: inverts. That is, the inversion of proper sex/sexual order. Here we meet up with the rise of muscular masculinity against emotionality and gentleness, as well women's political activity and independent economic power against the norm of a separate women's/domestic sphere.

And so romantic friendships, instead of a natural part of growing up for men and women, became an aberration--not in the sense of "rare", but in the sense of "wrong."

...Unbeknownst to the sexologists, however, their codification of language and an identity for homosexual men and women gave people who did experience same-sex attraction a mutual self-understanding--a certain legitimacy. It's seen as the beginning of an LGBTQ+ movement (if not yet a civil rights one). So there is a lot to mourn about the loss of romantic friendships and what it signified. But this is one story about the past that also has a future.

Further Reading:

This is actually a topic where there are some books that hit the triumvirate of happiness: generally good historically, interesting to read, and affordable on Amazon. I'd recommend:

Michael Bronski, A Queer History of the United States

Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in 20th Century America (this is older, now, and I have some problems with how it handles race and class, but it's well grounded in its sources, and both educational and entertaining)

Scott Herring, Queering the Underworld: Slumming, Literature, and the Undoing of Gay and Lesbian History

So that's where I'd start. :)

[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/

[natxoxposts-blog]

QUEER PostMoDeterimnist THEORY

Queer Theory/Modernism vs Postmodernism/Determinism/Feminist Theory

QUEER PostMoDeterimnist?

Queer Theory: Queer is an umbrella term of peculiarity because it has no set stone identity on sexual identity and can include anyone who identifies to one of the following: lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Or it can also be used by people who don’t label themselves but find themselves apart of this spectrum or someone who is QUESTIONING their sexuality and identity, which can explain the use of the letter Q in queer. The purpose of the queer theory introduced through multiple sources by reappearing in critical and cultural contexts. The theory is used to reshape our two gendered identities for uniting rather than queerphobia. Theorists worth mentioning who helped establish the theory we recognize today are, Micheal Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgweck, and Judith Butler.

Their contributions:

Micheal Foucault

Foucault argued on the biological and social identity and that everyday notions can redconfine the gender norms of masculinity and femininity which causes oppression.  

Gayle Rubin

Gayle Robin contributed through her essay “Thinking Sex,” in support to Foucault's theory based on actions against norms being the lead to oppression because society is hierarchically organized. In her essay, “A Traffic for Women” she states,

Sex is sex, but what counts as sex is equally culturally determined and obtained. Every society also has a sex/gender system - a set of arrangements by which the biological raw material of human sex and procreation is shaped by human, social intervention and satisfied in a conventional manner, no matter how bizarre some of the conventions may be.” (Rubin, 32)    

Eve Sedgweck

“Epistemology of the Closet” was Sedgwecks contribution as she argued sexuality in understanding our culture through various texts.

an understanding of virtually any aspect of modern Western culture must be, not merely incomplete, but damaged in its central substance to the degree that it does not incorporate a critical analysis of modern homo/heterosexual definition. (1990, p. 1)

This reference argues the incoherence of westerns definition of sexuality, therefore it must be redefined rather than create a binary system within gender identity.

For some some people, the preference for a certain sexual object, act, role, zone, or scenario is so immemorial and durable that it can only be experienced as innate; for others, it appears to come late or to feel aleatory or discretionary. For some people, the possibility of bad sex is aversive enough that their lives are strongly marked by its avoidance, for others, it isn’t. For some people, sexuality provides a needed space of heightened discovery and cognitive hyperstimulation. For others, sexuality provides a needed space of routinized habitation and cognitive hiatus. (1990, p.25)  

This passage takes into regard our individuality and cultural differences as a concept to the queer theory is cultural intelligence because it is not a affair within limitations, it is universally contradicted.

Judith Butler

Butler focuses on feminist issues, however there is direct intersections between her ideals of feminism and the queer theory in her book Gender Trouble which looks at gender identity through performativity, the physical attributes that many don’t have the accessibility to.

...the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being. (Butler, p.33)

Our composed norms of appearance should be destigmatized because we constantly judge on appearance. For an example we have classified lesbian women into two categories, those who present themselves through “masculine” traits and those who are extremely “feminine”. Therefore appearance interferes with distinction, “Very distinctions between the natural and the artificial, depth and surface, inner and outer through which discourse about genders almost always operates.” (Butler)

Modernism vs Postmodernism: Modernism is the drastic change in culture during the late nineteenth century  and early 20th century which could be shown in art, literature, music and architecture.Postmodernism began after modernism as it was redefined to postmodernism during the late 20th century because there was a paradigm shift of art into philosophy, school of thoughts, critics, art and architecture through questioning ideologies acquired.

The queer theory itself is a result to postmodernism because for generations sexuality has always been under debate and the theorists mentioned beforehand came forward with their art for social change. “Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as postmodern age.” (Lyotard) This was extracted from A Report on Knowledge by Jean-Francois Lyotard. There is a significance in knowledge and understanding and postmodernism contradicts theories to enhance accurate, scientific data beyond biblical teachings against queer teachings.

Modernism consisting of queer art yet it was not identified or praised over therefore it is difficult to re-confine in but it is existent during the twentieth century. “The Queer British Art (1861-1967)” suggests homosexuality in displayed in art as the exhibition in London is being decoded due to the fact that being queer was unthinkable and prior, males hide their identity through slang to identify one another and build a community. Therefore art work could have possibly been a hint yet not directly stated because of the fear of death. Edmund Dulac’s “Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon as Medieval Saints,” from the 1920’s display two man, one holding a peacock feather. The mythology behind the peacock feather is as a protector, what do these men fear for sitting naked side by side as shown in another art piece I've attached featured in the gallery?

Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon as Medieval Saints

Henry Scott Tuke The Critics 1927 Courtesy of Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum (Warwick District Council)

Determinism: It is looking at current status quo that remain fixated as our futures are defined by our pasts, yet that does not me the chain cannot be unbroken. Based on my theory of QUEER PostMoDeterimnist I would like to acknowledge the presence of determinism and the fact that we constantly define our futures based on our past, but refuse to resolve the status quo. The queer theory has not been addressed and it dates back to religious beliefs and attribute still associated and present today which creates a feud in arguing the notions of gender identity because of the unchanged nature of “deviance” attributed with religions.

The theory of Determinism, in which the will is determined or swayed to a particular course by external inducements and forced habits, so that the consciousness or freedom rests chiefly upon an oblivion of the antecedents of our choice. (Tomson, 1855)

This supports the fact that everything can be explained and determined. Our history and acts of ignorance towards queers support this idea because it is still present and to overcome it we must overcome the determined future to outrule the past and contradict the theory of determinism. The Bible is constantly used to condemn LGBTQ members is under the Christain Bible Saint Paul says, “you shall not lie with a man as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” But the Bible is abruptly told through storytellers, who avoid topics concerning sexuality in our historical evaluation, but that does not mean it was not present.  

We will tell you that 20,000 years of evolution of, societal evolution, has taught us the same thing that a society that embraces homosexuality is a society that will not last much longer. Anybody who’s studied history knows that. (Michael Savage, 2006)

But as well it can support the idea that being queer has always been present, an unchangeable entity to contradict those against it that claim they must “heal” LGBTQ members. For that to be done we must decode our historical roots through modernism. It was present even before the nineteenth century and found in 7th century B.C.E art.

Sexual and romantic relationships between older males were ridiculed at various times in Greek and Roman history, as in the case of Julius Caesar's affair with King Nicomedes of Bithynia. The negative feelings toward such relationships arose from a belief that an adult male who assumed a passive role in sex was likely to do the same in his political life. This certainly was not true in Julius Caesar’s case. (Williams, 1999)  

Many of the historical artworks and artists acknowledges today to support the fact that same sex marriages were actually honored at one point therefore it should be honored today but we ignore historical content and rather than focus teachings within texts on sexuality we focus on the metanarratives, instead we read about riots and ancient cultures. Has any of us learned about gay rights movement in San Francisco? Do we acknowledge that Susan B. Anthony, who fought for women's rights to vote was most likely lesbian? Why did we fear an alliance of feminism and sexuality?  

Feminist: The sociology of feminist theory is focusing on of issues concerning female that are generally overlooked such as stereotypes which can interfere with queer identities, oppression economic inequality exclusion, the list is never ending.

The feminist focus to this theory is generally to unite two historical marginalized communities in hopes of addressing the status quo. Society recognizes Queers and feminists but what about queer women, women who identify as lesbian, transgender or bisexual and face confliction between both LGBTQ communities and for being a female. In reference to Laverne Cox, a transgender who faces issues women and LGBTQ indivudals encounter. Feminism will not only bond women, but members struggling to find their identity because feminism is not about female dominance but equality to allow anyone who identify as a female to abide in women empowerment and shift away from gay liberation for their own identity.  

Human and sexual life will always be subject to convention and human intervention. It will never be completely “natural” if only because our species is social, cultural, and articulate [...] but the mechanisms and evolution of this process need not be largely independent of conscious choice. Cultural evolution provides us with the opportunity to seize control of the means of sexuality, reproduction, and socialization, and to make conscious decisions to liberate human sexual life from the archaic relationships which deform it. Ultimately, a thoroughgoing feminist revolution would liberate more than women. It will liberate forms of sexual expression, and would liberate human personality from the straight jacket of gender. (Rubin, p.52)  

The mid 90’s “Lesbian Avengers”: a group of lesbian women who came forward because they felt on gay rights were issues of focus. While fighting for their sexuality they fought for general women rights such as “free the nipples’ as they went out shirtless and behaved “deviant” and un women like as they recruited other women while partying, in the club etc.  

Examples of queer feminists:

Ellen DeGeneres

Sandra Bernard

Camille Paglia

Questions of Concern

Why have we created a barrier between LGBTQ communities and feminist? Are feminist refusing to abide individuals who gave up their freedom and rights as a male?

What truths are being hidden in modernism?

What doe these truths reveal? Does it reshape determinism to be a positive theory or extract or negative?

Who reshaped our ideals of sexuality? Was it present during biblical times? Why is it not mentioned in bible?

How are queers who identify as a women oppressed by not only men but other women?

How can we rewrite the bible to met our modern needs? Or had the bible already been altered? Or simply did we ignore old history? How do we decide out history? Who is writing our history? How to reveal our true historical roots to use determinism to our advantage...

Are all lesbians feminists? Are all feminist lesbians? How do we overcome these stereotypes?

The primary focus of this theory will surround queer women who experience segregation against women including sexism concerning their sexual identification and gender as a whole. This theory will attempt look into the depths of postmodern and modern work to extract the proof of queer communities in our history to support the theory of determinism and contradict religions today to prove queer to not be a “new” idea but in the roots of our history to determine why it is acceptable and not against god's doing. Support my hypothesis of false determinism based on false historical teachings that exclude sexuality not because it was non-existent but it was not spoken about therefore oppression is constantly present. We are determined by religion and must address the status quo against queer and women who are oppressed.

Viewing the present and Future…

    To understand the present we must understand the past, therefore truths must be found. This theory will allow us to distigmatize stereotypes. Modernism theory is used to bring back art as a platform to fuse society, not only within the boundaries of my theory focusing on female queers, but humankind. Kodie Shane is one of the few artists who defy gender roles and looks beyond one's gender being our main focus and defining who we are for us because “you gotta be you—all the way,” she says. Songs and artists like Shane should be recognized in mainstream.

This song presented by Aquilo tackles queer issues and stereotypes through oppression and hatred against individuals who represent ideals against norms, 

My theory will help revamp mainstream art to expand our minds into understanding our historical past and uniting communities. This theory is not attack a specific group, nor is it attacking the government or religions it is only revealing hidden truths because individuals truths have been alter.

Determinism will be used to define the future into its natural roots to reimburse our ideas of relationships and sex to the time of Adam and Eve, maybe not through postmodern views but through the technique of modernism in art to be proof and postmodernism work to be the support.

Ultimately goal is not to strive for perfection because we live in a world of imperfections and countercultures vs subcultures, but the hope is to up-bring a paradigm shift to how we define queer and females in works to disconnect it as a group based identity, but rather solemnly equally associated in society without fear. For the future to be determined on our past, we must leave expanding art to be deconstructed just as generations before us has because ultimately we will never reach a “perfect” universe of acceptance to all.                 

Annotated Bibliography

“A Queer Overview of Judith Butler's [Gender Trouble].” Angel Daniel Matos, Ph.D., 20 Jan. 2014, angelmatos.net/2013/09/18/gender-trouble/. Judith Butler's work that contributed to the evolution of coming out as queer, through    appearance and overcoming historical ideologies. Modern artists such as Lady Gaga being used as a example as she dresses like a male. She looks into gender performativity to identify us and illustrate a picture.

Crossman, Ashley. “What Is Feminist Theory?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/feminist-theory-3026624

Society is shifting away from male dominance and a pathorical system and is promoting equality and justice. To contradict issues that revoke oppression, inequality, injustice to girls and women within present day and tracing back historically. This article looks at social theories focusing on women and away from men. Looking and gender differences, gender inequality, gender oppression, and structural oppression found in strains of the 20th century and today.

Hoefer, Carl. “Causal Determinism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 23 Jan. 2003, plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/.

This encyclopedia helps understand the main focus of determinism within society today through a historical introduction to examples. Defining determinism as “The world is governed by (or is under the sway of) determinism if and only if, given a specified way things are at a time t, the way things go thereafter is fixed as a matter of natural law.” Yet coming to a conclusion the theory is still under review and open to new ideas therefore it is not fully constructed.  

“How Gay Artists Expressed Forbidden Desire in Code.” Google Search, Google, www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cnn.com/style/amp/queer-art-tate-britain/index.html.

This article looks at modernism and how it presented forbidden love. LGBTQ communities found ways to find one another without being killed or discovered but to form a group based identity of a group who countercultured solidified norms. Today we can deconstruct the meanings behind many of the artworks, to be beyond beautiful art but art determining or working to understand their identity and question sexuality.   

“Queer Art: 1960s to the Present.” Art History Teaching Resources, 23 Dec. 2016, arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/queer-art-1960s-to-the-present/.

A gallery of queer art in modern day and Greece history. It has two goals:censorship and visibility. To reveal queer and LGBTQ communities that were concealed in the 20th century, hidden identities but truths found in art, answering where the truth is found?  

“Queer Theory - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.” Carbon, Energy, Greenhouse, and Atmosphere - JRank Articles, science.jrank.org/pages/10943/Queer-Theory-Eve-Kosofsky-Sedgwick.html.

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick looks at art in the 20th century based on the piece, “Epistemology of the Closet” and looks at contradictions in sexuality and identity. Looking at cultural differences that create a binary between hetrosexuality and homosexuality.

Scrum_Jet. “Gayle Rubin, The Traffic in Women (1975).” Selected Tales, 26 Apr. 2013, purpleprosearchive.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/gayle-rubin-the-traffic-in-women-1975/.

[wavelengthintl]

Top Tracks Of 2017

10. Rico Nasty - Glo Bottles

The story of DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) rapper Rico Nasty is pretty remarkable. She released her first mixtape when she was 16 and still in high school. At some point during her senior year she became pregnant, however the baby’s father, who she describes as her best friend, died before he even knew he was going to have a child. She sunk into a depression, barely graduated, and was a single mom at the age of 18. After her child was 10 months old she started rapping again, and grinded from obscurity to the soundtrack of the Fate Of The Furious, the soundtrack of HBO’s Insecure, and this year’s top 40 rap albums list on Rolling Stone Magazine. This was all done without the support of a major label. When she talks about things like now having a “new whip every day” you genuinely feel happy for her as a person.

9. Pabllo Vittar - K.O.

Pabllo Vittar is an openly gay Brazilian drag queen who is now officially the most followed drag queen on Instagram, surpassing even RuPaul. She was bullied in school as a teen for her feminine voice and demeanour, then began doing drag at the age of 18. In 2014 she was discovered via YouTube and made her first television appearance. Her fame began to skyrocket the following year after releasing “Open Bar,” a Portuguese version of Major Lazer’s “Lean-On.” This year Major Lazer compounded her notoriety even further by featuring her in their original production “Sua Cara.” She was also featured on Charlie XCX's Pop 2 album, had the most-in-demand song of Brazil’s carnival, signed an official deal with Coca Cola Brazil, and cracked 100 million plays on both of her single releases. Her heavy usage of LBGTQ-affirming imagery and her vocal criticism of some of the countries conservative figures have made her a rallying point for Brazil's LBGTQ population, as well as those disillusioned with the encroaching conservative political establishment.

8. Lil Pump - Flex Like Ouu

Seventeen-year-old Florida Rapper Lil Pump is a lot like a Marvel movie. If you go into a Marvel movie looking for something that’s a dead-ringer to the comics you’re going to be disappointed. You have to just interpret each movie as its own thing, independent from the comics. Similarly, when you approach the music of Lil Pump you have to forget about rap music. Forget about Kendrick, forget about Big L and all those other old-head icons, and just interpret this music as existing inside a vacuum. When you do that it becomes more apparent why the sound of artists like Pump and Smokepurpp have become so infectious. A lot of times when artists try to add energy to a track they do so by being obnoxious, with brostep being perhaps the most egregious example of this. These artists, on the other hand, figured out how to create incredibly hype tracks by taking the stripped-down nature of trap music and adding this highly repetitive lyrical delivery. It’s a formula that’s really simple and efficient, and also easy for other Soundcloud rappers to replicate. I see a lot of similarities between the music of Lil Pump and genres like grime and kuduro. Even though it’s built off of hip-hop it’s essentially its own thing. The reason why old-heads are angry is because this isn’t happening in East London or Angola, it’s happening on American soil. Old-heads are shook at the prospect of someone in their own backyard gaining notoriety by yelling the same three words over and over while being associated with rap. Meanwhile the rest of the world is like hey welcome to the club we had this like 15 years ago.

7. Ski Mask The Slump God - Catch Me Outside

According to Pigeons & Planes, 21-year-old Ski Mask The Slump God is one of the most “inventive and compelling” figures to emerge from the rising school of Florida rappers, and for good reason. If anyone can reconcile the growing gap between old heads and fans of new-school rap it’s him. According to Ski Mask himself he’s lyrical, but not lyrical. In other words he has the intricately crafted wordplay that old heads value, but he delivers it with the based “I don’t really care what I’m saying” aspect of the new school. The music video itself is a testament to his ability to unite both worlds. His decision to rap over the 1999 Missy Elliott and Timbaland beat for “She’s A Bitch” earned praise from Missy Elliott herself. Ski Mask was also praised by Isaiah Rashad, who said he was upset at “how tight this nigga Slump God is.” On the other hand, the video appears on the channel of video producer Cole Bennett, one of the central hubs for the emerging new wave of rap. Two of Ski Mask’s recent tracks, “My Mind” and “Achoo!” have veered off into more experimental territory, signalling that this artists definitely harbours surprises that remain to be seen in the new year.

6. Shy Luv - Lungs

One time on a 20+ minute drive home I listened to this song on repeat the entire way, then when I pulled up to my house I sat in the car and listened to it like four times, then I went inside and listened to it again. Anytime a song provokes that reaction it's a good indication that it should probably be on some year end list.

5. Lorde - Perfect Places

Pretty much everyone who listens to music in this solar system was in unanimous agreement that Lorde’s sophomore release "Melodrama" is a masterpiece. This is evidenced by the grammy nomination for Album of the Year, numerous top 10 finishes in “best albums of 2017” lists, and Rolling Stone Magazine comparing her to Kate Bush. For a major pop release it has a tremendous level of depth and intellectualism that far surpasses Lorde’s age of 21.  A problem that some major pop artists face is switching to some trendy micro-genre then sounding unnatural, like the time Justin Bieber threatened to release a dubstep track, the first time Katy Perry did trap, or Lady Gaga going Americana to tap into the normie market. On Melodrama every track sounds like Lorde, and being able to firmly establish such a dynamic musical identity at that young of an age is also a testament to her power level. This could legitimately be the rise of the next Kate Bush.

4. Tei Shi - Keep Running

In 2015 I listed Argentinian-Canadian singer Tei-Shi’s song “Bassically” as my top song of the year. That track was one of the main reasons why pop music is still one of my most listened-to genres. It represented this whole movement that year of pop music’s indie side coming into the foreground, or of pop music with a high degree of artistic value suddenly becoming visible. At the time, I described it as pop music coming into its own. The same could be said of Tei Shi now, except this time she has an entire debut album “Crawl Space” to back it up. Her music continues to showcase the depth that pop music on the whole can have, and why it’s no longer the anathema of the underground, but an extension of it.

3. Charlotte Day Wilson - Work

Nylon Magazine called 24-year-old Canadian singer Charlotte Day Wilson “the next best thing out of Toronto.” The Star described her essence as “subdued soul, rich vocal texture and instrumental acuity.” According to Now Toronto she’s become a queer icon in the city, and she hopes to create space for women in music to flourish. I think one of my favourite memories from last year was wandering the streets of Budapest listening to this song on repeat.

2. Austra - I Love You More Than You Love Yourself

This was definitely a Facebook newsfeed discovery. Austra is a four-piece band from Toronto fronted by Katie Stelmanis. This song is from the group’s album “Future Politics,” and according to the album’s page on Domino Records it’s a “collection of urgent, but disciplined anthems for dancefloor and headphones, [and] asks each of us to remember that apocalypse is not an inevitability, but the product of human decision-making.” Although the write-up goes on to describe the album in ways that make it seem like a manifesto, I definitely heard “Utopia,” the album’s other main single, playing in Earl’s once. It will probably end up on some Netflix show at some point. This is the power of pop music, it can make critical statements but still be accessible at the same time.

1. Lil Uzi Vert - XO Tour Llif3

Last year, for the first time in history, hip-hop dethroned rock as the most consumed genre in the U.S., and I think it’s largely because of artists like Uzi Vert.

I held off on writing this one for a while because I wanted to actually do research to find out why emo rap in particular seems to have become the soundtrack of the contemporary urban youth. Thankfully I didn’t have to search too far, because this Pitchfork article (link below) perfectly summarizes it.

Unlike gangster rappers and some earlier trap rappers, emo rap has an aesthetic that doesn’t only speak to one demographic, but rather to the struggles that youth often face on the whole. Whereas rap music previously presented black communities as bastions of lawlessness governed by hyper masculinity and street bravado, lines like “Please Xanny make it go away” transcend racial boundaries and redefine the notion of how black men should present themselves in the performance of hip-hop.

In terms of the actual construction of the music itself, I think it’s worth noting that the spacey, atmospheric nature of Uzi Vert’s beats basically came from a subculture on Soundcloud that couldn’t find anything to relate to in their immediate environment, so they turned to the internet. This is evidenced by Uzi Vert citing Marilyn Manson as one of his biggest influences.

These beats, combined with the subject matter, combined with the anime-inspired outfits, mean that emo hip-hop right now is speaking to the largest population segment out of any genre. In 2018 old heads are going to keep being angry at music like this, but while they’re 45-years-old complaining in a basement somewhere, listening to Naughty By Nature, drinking AGD and playing Goldeneye 64, the rest of the world is experiencing rappers like Uzi Vert taking hip-hop to completely new heights.

https://pitchfork.com/…/1481-to-be-young-angsty-and-black-…/