The future will be fought on TikTok. Remember when those on the platform, completely off the radar screen, claimed all those tickets for Trump in Oklahoma last summer and didn't show up? Not a single person in the mainstream media knew it was coming, none of them wrote about it, the intelligentsia WAS OUT TO LUNCH! Left or right, didn't matter, they were clueless.
This morning I was on Twitter. It's part of my routine. I want to see what is going on. And I found this TikTok clip:
twitter.com/GabrielaDow/status/1437111653892386818?s=20
I don't follow Gaby Dow, as a matter of fact, prior to today I had no idea who she even was. But someone I do follow retweeted Gaby and I was hipped to the clip. And I watched it and was stunned.
And then I had to go to the TikTok page of @hill_deeee
She's got 236.5k followers. Think about that. Every day I hear from musicians telling me Spotify is the devil. I want to write for the umpteenth time the real problem is with the major labels, but just like the unvaxxed these musicians don't want to hear it. And, these complainers are doing the exact opposite of what Hillary, aka "hill_deeee," is doing. Hillary is starting from the bottom up. She's in Michigan, not L.A. or New York, today you can start where you are. She's not begging for traction, she's just posting her videos and they're generating views. And why are Hillary's clips getting views? BECAUSE SHE'S PASSIONATE! AND UNAFRAID OF PISSING ANYBODY OFF!
Passion...that's the essence of great art. You can feel it. When you create a track brick by brick, with umpteen writers, you're not selling passion, it's been squeezed out. Ditto when you aim for perfection. Passion is lightning in a bottle. It's a moment in time. When someone is so caught up in something that they nearly burst at the seams when they deliver it. Back in the days of two track recordings passion was rampant. In today's world of unlimited tracks it's mostly absent.
And when someone is passionate it's contagious. We stop, we look, we pay attention, and we want more. That's the hook most musicians are unaware of. Getting someone's attention is nearly impossible, BUT HOW DO YOU KEEP IT! You've got to be so damn good that people want more. I certainly wanted more so I watched more of Hillary's videos.
And her story came clear.
Her father died of Covid. She's speaking from experience.
And she's got kids.
And, as she says, she's really good at math.
And when Hillary does the math, she delivers the message better than any major media outlet extant. She delivers the message better than Fauci or Biden. Because SHE CARES! She's not just reading the news, she's selling the news. Angry at those who won't get the shot. But she's not fighting them with opinion but raw numbers, and after you watch Hillary's presentation...you'll see your odds of getting infected and dying in a whole new way, it will become real to you, very real.
And that's why TikTok is triumphant.
Today's other story is in the "Los Angeles Times":
"Can't get that dang Applebee's song out of your head? How 'Fancy Like' took over TikTok and TV": lat.ms/3Abvs47
Walker Hayes couldn't get arrested. He's 41, with six kids. But he posted a clip of himself and a daughter dancing to his new song on TikTok and now he's got a number one country record, that appears to be crossing over to pop. And it's not like the guy's that good looking, he's not playing the game, HE'S INVENTING THE GAME! Well, TikTok invented the game, the platform, but Hayes used the tools to create something people wanted to see. And it grew. Forget bitching about streaming payouts, about major label deals, Walker Hayes did it all by himself, on TikTok.
But it's not only left wingers and musicians, it's right wingers too. I'll post an e-mail I received re this at the end of this screed.
But the power is in the hands of the proletariat. And of course the powers-that-be don't like it, this challenges their underpinnings, their whole way of life. They came to understand physical disruption, disruption via desirable existing products, like songs, aka Napster, but the concept of nobodies from nowhere using the tools to get their message out, having more power than the mainstreamers...IT'S ANATHEMA! So they don't even cover it.
So Hillary takes a stand.
And what happens? SHE GETS HATERS! But does she cry in her beer like a politician, no, she adjusts and keeps playing, she knows it goes with the territory. This is the message, informing people of the facts so they will get vaccinated. She's not reporting on something else tomorrow, she's on this kick, because it's just that damn important.
Nobody likes to get disrupted. Which is why they bury their heads in the sand. As soon as you bitch about Spotify I ignore you, you're obviously out of touch, you not only don't know how Spotify works, you don't even know how the internet works! You're narrowly focused on recorded music revenue when there are so many new opportunities out there. Furthermore, if someone wants your recordings don't sign to a label, don't give up the majority of the hopefully resulting monies, but you're too scared to go it alone, you think you need the label which won't deliver for you anyway.
Will TikTok be powerful next year?
What do we know, these social media platforms are fads. If you're still on Facebook not only were you born in the twentieth century, you probably graduated from high school long before you bought a computer. The target keeps moving. It's the entertainment of the younger generation. Which is why traditional TV ratings are so damn low, people would rather participate than watch television passively. We keep hearing how lame the younger generation is but I would say just the opposite, they're grabbing hold of the tools and twisting them to their advantage. As for all those acts that didn't want to be on the iTunes Store, didn't want to be on Spotify, don't want to allow the hoi polloi to make videos with their music on YouTube, you're killing your career. The greatest thing that could happen to you is someone latching on to your song on TikTok!
So watch Hillary's video. I don't care if you're vaxxed or not, are focused on vaccination or not, this is star material, far superior than the dreck on the VMAs. Everybody knows that real talent doesn't sell out, that it exists outside the system. Who knows, Hillary might ultimately sell out, she might never get any more traction but know that the world is full of Hillarys. Yes, it turned out there wasn't a ton of hidden talent that the music industry was unaware of, the internet didn't surface a cornucopia of great newbies. But the truth is innovation, the art form, is different on the internet. That's the story. Don't be constrained by the box. Think of the possibilities.
_________________________________
From: Michael Patterson
Re: Vaccine Mandates
First, I’m vaccinated and voted for Biden. I say this because the links below are very much not from people who are vaccinated or voted for Biden. My friends freak out when they see these because they live in an echo chamber like most people on one side of the political or the other. I’ve been saying Tik Tok is the social media place to be for two years the last three years. Twitter is where intelligent and funny people hang out. FB and IG are for the older adults. Those platforms have shut down the voices on the right. Doing so has cut off my fellow blue staters from really seeing what those on the right are saying. The people on the right have gone to Tik Tok, and no one seems to notice. It’s the perfect format for them. They don’t need to write well. They have to look at their phone and tell their story. There is a war brewing in America, and most of you are not aware it’s happening. On FB, we read a post by a nurse about not taking the vaccine and wonder if she will lose her job. On Tik Tok we see the nurse sitting in her car crying because she is not taking the vaccine and will lose her job. She screams out, asking who is going to save her. The response to a woman like this on FB is people posting words in support of her. On Tik Tok, it’s 150 duet videos of men loading Ammo into their guns, saying they will protect her. A video like that would have 300k likes.
Another video explains how you will know which regiment you are in in the coming civil war based on the order your state entered the Union. If you lived in California would be in the 31st Regiment. There are hundreds of these, and they each have 3k—100k likes.
Thousands of videos about military strategy and prepping. All of them with the stated theme that war is coming and we would rather die than be forced to take the vaccine.
Take a look at some of the examples below.
This is America.
They went wild on Tik Tok during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Thousands of soldiers, getting millions of likes, said they were done with this administration and it was time to take back American by any means necessary.
I believe TikTok to be a fantastic platform and the best thing that has happened to the music business in a long time. Still, I….and I can’t believe I’m saying this because it agrees with the Trump Administration…believe the platform is a danger to America and should be banned from the states. When you dive deep into what’s happening on Tik Tok, you will understand how much control China has over the minds of more than half of the population, and it would be effortless for them to light the fuse to the dynamite that is the right by slightly adjusting the algorithms.
Also, in the last week or two, the unvaccinated “patriots” have started to call themselves “Pure Bloods” which is a Harry Potter reference.
Crazy.
Here is what 10 minutes of scrolling on Tik Tok put in front of me after only searching the hashtag “patriot” and seeing what the algorithm put in front of me next. This is not even the crazy and serious stuff. It’s not just white people in the South. It’s all colors and races.
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRag9Ghw/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRaCdRtW/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRm7oyDN/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRagVxR7/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRm3hGPK/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4b8VT/
ps://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXGXR7/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4jseq/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXvLGn/
www.tiktok.com/@ollierighteous/video/7000529994195684614
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXfbCy/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRuXoSD4/
vm.tiktok.com/ZMRu4f7uy/
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