#like if you're actually poor and need cups drinking out of mason jars is not ironic

[ocean-again]

ok so this is a thought I've been having since art school, but I don't think people listen to music ironically. I think hipster irony is just a means for ego protection.

the dorks at the death grips concert, they want to listen to the weird music, but not be seen as a weirdo. so they pay good money for concert tickets and then make sure to dress up in a way that lets everyone know they aren't one of Those Fans, they're not cringe in their propeller beanie and suspenders, they're normal, they're being so normal about this.

and like, I, personally, am too autistic for this.

but I see people who have had the weird beaten out of them, who still yearn to engage with interesting art that speaks to their soul, but they've been taught that this is something they should be bullied for, that bullying is the only correct response to this thing they need.

so they protect their sense of self by painting on a layer of irony.

artist emerges online with a unique or eccentric style that compresses easily (its like experimental electronic hip hop punk!!)

artist becomes popular with fringe online communities

fringe online communities make memes and jokes about said artist, poking fun at a thing they like on its own merits

artist grows in popularity, escapes the confines of the insular communities along with all the memes

random normies listen to the artist. they end up not enjoying it, but reconcile the conflict of a thing they dislike being popular by just assuming that no one *actually* likes it, it's just a meme, or an endurance test specifically meant to torture the listener, or a joke at the expense of music itself.

ironic listeners come to outnumber sincere listeners, because the eccentricity of the artist was never going to support a massive audience

death grips ends show prematurely because crowd of teenagers won't stop throwing shit at them