All About The Music: Is hardstyle becoming too focused on social media presence?

Throughout this last decade or so, social media has undoubtedly become the hub of people’s lives; it’s used to connect with one another, for entertainment purposes, to find out information about others (otherwise known as Facebook stalking) and as a cure for plain boredom. On the other side of the scale, Facebook is even used to manipulate people into believing certain things about you and your life; we all have that one ‘friend’ who non-stop posts photo’s or statuses for the sheer purpose of appearing to have a great life when in reality they just spend it online.

In relevance to music, before the days of MySpace, Bebo (lol) or Facebook, musicians didn’t have that extra duty to create an online persona in which their fans would relate to. These musicians still had a persona, but it was based around something more solid than what people read or see on a computer screen. For example, when you think about famous bands like Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and all those other old ‘rockers,’ they showcased their persona through the lyrics and sound of their music and also through their live performances, where they did all kinds of crazy shit. Decades ago, this is how musicians expressed themselves and created their brand, however in this day and age technology is making it a hell of a lot harder to do things the ‘authentic’ way. Many modern indie bands have upheld this legacy of creating a world for themselves outside of social media, however within the electronic music sphere (some genres more than others); social media is a heavy player in adding the finishing touches on an artist.

So, where does hardstyle stand in the social media game? Is the music becoming too drowned out by online personas and the concepts of branding? I will be sharing some of my observations and personal opinions on this matter as I weigh up what’s really going on…

All about the music…? Or all about the memes?
Unless an artist has zero presence on social media and fully relies on showcasing themselves in the real world, then they’re talking absolute shit when they say that it’s “all about the music.” If it were ALL about the music then they wouldn’t be posting bullshit memes or funny stuff that is irrelevant to hardstyle. Sadly enough, as social media is the most popular tool for discovering new talent, each artist has to be somewhat active in order to get discovered or stay relevant.

A problem that artists regularly run into is the Facebook algorithm and as a writer, it’s even one of the most irritating problems for me. So, Mark Zuckerburg (the greedy cunt) wants to direct as little traffic as possible to external links; his motherfucking algorithm makes YouTube, Soundcloud or even links to Alive At Night get a smaller reach as opposed to a Facebook video or image without an external link. Before I completely lose my shit at son-of-a-bitch, cunt-face Zuckerburg, I must say that I truly sympathise with artists; the Facebook algorithm makes it excruciatingly hard to get new music across and forces artists to search for new marketing solutions. It’s so frustrating for artists to spend months on perfecting their new track only for it to get a reach of 20 people, leading them to spend money on promotion.

Many artists combine their new track with a funny video, but after seeing it from every second DJ it’s getting a little old and annoying. Things have become so fabricated and the simplicity and excitement of listening to and appreciating a new track is getting lost behind social media’s plasticity. Another thing I must mention is that it’s becoming exceedingly difficult for artists to expose themselves to new fans and with the competitive market, artists must create some sort of brand around their music. If a DJ or producer in hardstyle really wants to thrive they know that they have to create a persona online, but sadly this comes with the overabundance of irrelevant and irritating memes and other paraphernalia.

It’s time for an example.

I was scrolling through various artists pages to make some comparisons and came across this post from Da Tweekaz:

This post has over 6,400 likes, 523 shares and over 400 comments.

Now, when I compare this to their post in which they release their video-clip for “Twerkout Revolution” you can see that the amount of likes, shares and comments are significantly lower.

Posting a funny photo takes about two minutes as opposed to producing an entire track. It’s devastating that Facebook is preventing artists from exposing their music to its fullest potential. Da Tweekaz do post some funny and slightly irrelevant posts from time to time, however it does balance out with the music-related posts that they do. Their online persona also resonates throughout their ‘fun’ and light-hearted music, which is something that I am going to speak about next.

Personality within music, lyrics & performances resonating on social media:
As I mentioned earlier in this article, decades ago bands created their persona solely based on their image, music and behaviour during performances. Today, these mentioned factors also have to resonate throughout their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. This calls for a lot more time that’s required on refining their social media presence, leaving less time for artists to do what they love doing – making music.

In terms of music, there are not many artists who have built up an incredibly strong image solely based on their music; however, there are still a few who have mastered this.

One particular name that has cleverly made an image that resonates through his music, performances and online persona is Radical Redemption. His music is tough, brutal and straight to the point and this aligns with his image, live-act costume, performances and the lyrics in his tracks. I’m pretty sure Radical Redemption didn’t get big from posting memes on his Facebook page all day long; he’s released three albums that show a unique personality and this same personality resonates through his performances and social media.
Another example is Angerfist; everything from his music to image just makes sense. One thing I’m particularly ecstatic about is that his social media is 99% music related; there’s no irrelevant bullshit on his Facebook page and for him that works really well and aligns with his no bullshit approach to production.

On the other side of the spectrum is Da Tweekaz, a duo who is quite interesting to observe on social media. They do post quite a few non-music related posts, but this is somewhat balanced out by the posts relevant to their music. As I mentioned earlier, sadly the majority of their non-hardstyle related posts do generate more likes, shares and comments. However, one thing that strikes my eyes is that their overall persona online does actually resonate through their fun and upbeat productions. Their music isn’t dark, serious or tough and their social media is actually a mirror of what they musically stand for.

What I’ve observed is that a lot of the younger artists are the ones who are getting lost in terms of building a persona within their music that echoes through their social media. I don’t blame them; it can take years to build a solid signature sound, let alone find a way to cleverly showcase that online. Social media is a huge obstacle for many artists and finding a tactic that they are comfortable with and that also suits them can be challenging and even irritating.

As fans, what can we do?
For fans who are casually scrolling through the newsfeed on their phones, it’s much easier for them to simply click ‘like’ on a photo than take the time to click on a YouTube link to listen to a new track. Kind of lame and lazy, right? Although we cannot change Zuckerburg’s lame-ass Facebook algorithm we can support our artists by taking the time to listen to their new tracks, share the tracks and generate some discussion around them. Instead of liking and commenting on the same irrelevant memes, like and comment on their music instead – it goes a long way and is actually way more helpful. After all, hours, days, weeks and even months of hard work goes into these tracks, so you may as well show your support in ways that actually matter.

Together, by supporting artists in ways that are actually constructive and useful, we can make this uphill battle with social media a little easier for them. Let’s keep loving and living for the music itself, because without that there’s nothing.