Why the hate? The rise of the ‘know-it-all’s’ on social media.

“My opinion is more valid than yours because I go to every single event, stand in the front row and intensely watch and analyse the DJ’s every move.”

“My opinion is more valid than yours because I smartly analyse artists mix-downs and sound design. (I seem to sound smart but I actually have no idea what I’m talking about, as long as my opinion is valued on a forum)”

“I defs have more skill than Heady coz he only makes house now and house is music for faggots *aggressively throws “The Sacrifice” at wall*”

“OMG this kick is sooooo fucking soft, I feel the need to abuse whoever made this track because it’s Tuesday and my serotonin is at an all-time low.”

Sound familiar?

Coming across conversations on various hardstyle discussion platforms I was instantly boggled by how badly people want their opinions to be validated and also, how painfully daft some people can be.

One particular post on a hardstyle dedicated Facebook page jumped out at me and inspired me to review this ongoing ‘issue’ a little deeper. After seeing that a butthurt Headhunterz fan had stabbed one of his older albums and posted it to this Facebook group it made me step back and ask “why would somebody even post this?” What was even more revolting was the fact that this post had over 100 likes on it and mind you, if somebody posted a track or something actually relevant it would barely gain any response.

So why?

Based on some basic psychological assumptions we can probably assume that this butthurt fan used to be Headhunterz #1 fan and when Headhunterz decided to change his musical direction this kid decided to make his opinion so validated that he would break an old Heady CD and practically show the world. Shock. It’s all about the attention factor. Well kid, I hope you’re happy because you made your debut in an article (you can go and gloat now).

Moving on. Everyday, artists themselves face unbelievable bouts of insulting and merely useful feedback. Whether it be hateful feedback on new previews of their tracks to the fact that they may have miraculously grown hair, you name it, somebody’s said it. It’s all well and good for fans to connect with artists and leave comments on their social media, however what boggles me is why these so called ‘fans’ follow artists that they don’t even like for the novelty of posting abuse.

Reading the comments on hardstyle artists pages can be somewhat entertaining at the fact that the kids commenting have absolutely no idea about what it’s like to sit in the same studio every day for ten years producing the same genre of music. Sometimes fans do forget that talented artists are humans too, but unless you’re someone with a remarkable knowledge of production, you shouldn’t get all technical in your criticisms to artists – you’ll look like an absolute flop if you tell Noisecontrollers that his kicks sound wrong.

Another point that I’d like to bring to attention is that artists DO actually read the comments on their social media, regardless if they get around to replying or not. So don’t think that your hateful comment has gone un-noticed. Artists on the copping end have most likely read what you had to say and laughed because you’re a pathetic teenager sitting behind your computer abusing people to counteract your MDMA come down from last weekend.

We are all pretty aware by now that Heady has his occasional outburst at the random online troll here and there and we say, good on him for standing up for himself! Quite frankly, why would Headhunterz (a well renowned producer for over a decade) change his whole musical course because some butt hurt fan told him to? He already has enough money for 5 generations of Rebergens to live comfortably so hold your tongue – the dude is rich enough. Why are you really hating?

After investigating some factors that may cause someone to act in a hateful manner we came to a few conclusions. With the widespread coverage that hardstyle is suddenly getting as opposed to the last decade where it was classified as quite an underground genre, fans are undoubtedly scared for the direction of hard dance music. They don’t want it to be ‘Americanized’ and blown up like passing genres such as mainstream EDM, Dubstep, Trap and so forth.
Hardstyle has always held a unique and underground feeling and the community has always been strong, so of course when a well-respected artist is moving over to ‘make accessible music’, fans are going to feel threatened that the genre is sinking. Different genres of music have their ‘time.’
For example, right now deep house and techno sounds are HUGE, however five years ago (when I was actually listening to them) nobody even knew who Joris Voorn was. Producers of deep house/techno may make more accessible music for those not so dedicated techno listeners in order to push the genre out a bit further, this can also be known as ‘those mainstream tracks that make it onto the radio’. This concept can be relative to hard dance music too, fluctuations may come and go and artists will undoubtedly make productions to reach out to listeners outside of the scene, but it doesn’t mean that the genre is going under. So butthurt fans, don’t be so selfish, hardstyle isn’t suddenly going to morph into ‘mainstream house’ and die a death quicker than fluoro.

The next conclusion is a bit of a LOL, but seriously, some kids really need to ease up on the MDMA. No wonder why some kids lock themselves in their bedrooms, posting abuse on forums and social media – they have no god damn serotonin (or Vitamin D for that matter). Yo kids, eat a banana and go out for a walk in the sun. An ongoing lack of serotonin has been proven to show higher levels of irritability, depression and anxiety and sadly enough, one’s general mood can correlate with the way they behave on social media.

All jokes aside, we came to one more conclusion – everyone wants to be important. Humans LOVE being correct and emotional defense mechanisms are activated when something or somebody challenges their opinion. Nowadays on Facebook, likes = importance. Your opinion only really matters if people ‘like’ your comment and the amount of shit that people write to get likes is atrocious. The way that some internet trolls get their opinion across is by giving the ‘good ole’ sound design critique.’ C’mon – you made a track using a kick that Frontliner gave away for free, ripped some vocals from a movie and you now classify yourself as a producer. Artists are signed to labels for a reason – because they can produce good music and tracks that pass through a label have to be of an exceptional quality anyway, so I don’t really think that artists care too much when you pull out technical criticisms. If you don’t like how their track sounds well why don’t you try and do it better?

Lately as a little experiment I’ve been having a little look through artists pages and the nasty comments on them. When I came across a few comments on a euphoric-sounding producers page, I clicked on the bandit only to find that they were a die-hard fan of raw hardstyle – the exact opposite. I was boggled by why this dedicated raw hardstyle fan had even liked the page of this euphoric artist and felt the need to comment abuse on his new track. If you like raw hardstyle, fine, that’s your personal music taste and raw hardstyle is great! But why do you even like and comment on the pages of euphoric artists when you hate their music?

If you don’t like something that doesn’t directly affect your life then you shouldn’t feel the need to comment on it and bring somebody down. You should always thrive on the things you love and listen to the music that you love, don’t even pay attention to stuff that you don’t like, there’s no point and it won’t give you any personal gains whatsoever. So kids, next time you are ready to type a hateful comment to a producer who has probably spent weeks working on a new track, bite your fingers and remember to respect the people who make this genre of music possible.

Keep the hate off the keyboard and your feet on the dancefloor!