Following Palmer’s lead, the online right began touting the idea that “ the left can’t meme” in 2016 – but they’ve since been proved wrong. It’s why musicians like Dorian Electra began using shitposting as a kind of counter-attack towards meme-y nerds like Palmer following the election, taking on an ironic embodiment of the “m’lady” archetype through their music. Simply put: If you can laugh at a particular shitpost, then you’re part of that community if you’re confused by a shitpost, you’re the one being laughed at. “Shitposts aren’t inherently political,” Kaitlin notes – but memes are also adept at forming cultural bulwarks, and are often powerfully satirical. Unfortunately, Trump supporters like Palmer were largely responsible for bringing shitposting to public consciousness. It was at this point that shitposts got a wealthy backer during the US presidential election, when virtual reality entrepreneur Palmer Luckey funded a group whose purpose was to flood the web with anti-Hillary Clinton shitposts. Shitposting was a somewhat niche and underground term, which didn’t inspire any reporting or commentary until 2016, when, according to Google Trends, interest in the term was rapidly sparked. It either referred to an intentional act of derailing a thread, or just a straight up unintentionally unfunny shit post. In this original definition, shitposting was forum-specific. “It’s fun to juxtapose relevant, mostly queer newer artists with older, more established musicians with a mostly queer fanbase and see the crossovers form.” “Obviously the algorithm is tracking what fans are listening to in addition to her music… and somehow we’ve managed to cuck the algorithm so the stats have shifted to that point,” they say. But what else could explain, as Kaitlin has noticed, Kate Bush appearing on Hyperpop playlists, or ultimate shitposter Azealia Banks being recommended on an automatic Spotify radio station after you listen to “Hounds of Love”? Spotify is notoriously tight-lipped about the inner workings of their algorithm, and they didn’t respond to a request for comment. Kaitlin and Jamie, two of the admins behind have also observed real-world effects that they attribute to music shitposting pages like theirs – a meme page with 11,600 followers, dedicated to the “Wuthering Heights” singer “who may or may not even have a full understanding of the way that she completely rocked the queer communities minds and changed the lives of every unhinged theatre gay ever,” says Jamie. It's really crazy how memes can influence a person's listening habits.” “If these memes match your sense of humour, or if you admire the person posting these memes, you may wonder if the music will appeal to you as well. “Memes can give you a first ‘taste’ of a musical genre or artist without actually having to hear the music itself,” she says. Of Arca (how she’d like to be referred to here), the owner of (51,900 followers) says she’s received plenty of comments and direct messages from followers who hadn’t heard of Arca before they discovered her shitposting page. This sort of amateur, low-effort, low quality, and distorted visual language is quickly being recognised as artistically interesting, and I think that’s definitely a positive thing.” Her music video for ‘ Mequetrefe’, for instance, contains various editing techniques that were previously only used in shitposts. “Arca is intentionally blurring the line between high art and user-made memes. “She follows virtually every big page and always shares the content they post,” says Anna. The unhinged, inside-joke energy of shitposting has liberated a growing number of musicians-everyone from the lead singer of Eve 6 to Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo-to present themselves from a place of absurdity rather than self-seriousness. Which is just enough to break out of the mould and make something unique,” he told Zane Lowe in an interview.įor Mayer, and an increasing number of musicians, leaning into trash and aligning themselves with the ironic and anti-aesthetic credo of shitposting – where all meaning is exhausted and made hysterical – has become a new and exciting creative force. And you go: ‘That’s the best thing I ever heard you play.’ It makes a mockery of their interpretation of the experience. “Artists sit in front of you and play you what they think is their garbage. In 2021, he released Sob Rock, an album he described as the sonic equivalent of a shitpost. The less sense it made, and the more time you devoted to that senselessness, the funnier it became: a shitpost.īut let’s circle back to John Mayer for a second. Shitposting tends to recycle the 4AM hysteria of a slumber party you had when you were younger, when you and your friends got so high on sleeplessness and one another’s company that you’d say something like “squash bottle” and laugh about it till sunrise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |