Why Steve Lacy is Upset
Words by Bruce Gregg
Images by @itsnessadolly
At a recent show on his “Give You The World Tour,” Steve Lacy was hit by a camera a fan threw on stage during his performance. Lacy, who skyrocketed into the mainstream after the release of his sophomore album, “Gemini Rights,” proceeded to take the camera from the fan and smash it.
Steve Lacy, along with many musical artists of the past years have grown victim to the effect Social Media, specifically Tik-Tok has had on the industry. Users have become accustomed to short, 10 second “audios,” which are sounds used to make videos. These “audios” are usually ripped from popular songs, allowing only certain hooks or sections of songs to go viral rather than the entirety of the track. Lacy experienced this with his single “Bad Habit,” which went extraordinarily viral this Summer on the app, leading to his tour being sold out in minutes.
As Lacy hit the road, the shows started to reveal a large group of his fanbase who only knew him from Tik-tok. The hooks from his mainstream hits were the only things fans sang along to. Genuine fans of the artist were forced to pay higher than usual amounts of money as ticket prices skyrocketed due to his fan base becoming oversaturated with fans only familiar with his tik-tok audio clip.
Steve Lacy himself has shown his frustration with his fan base through his remarks on and off stage. In one incident Lacy smashed a fan’s phone on stage, after becoming angry at a fan throwing a phone onto the stage. In another case, Lacy asked a fan who shouted during a song if they could “be quiet,” and quickly singing his song at a doubled-pace before jokingly walking off stage to mock Tik-Tok audios.
The music industry has had a bittersweet relationship with social media since the early 2000s, a period deemed the “blog era.” Sites such as Tumblr and MySpace grew in popularity before passing the torch to newer platforms such as instagram and Soundcloud.
The benefit of new platforms like Tik-Tok is that small artists are able to find an audience. Massive names in the music industry were born on Social Media such as Frank Ocean, Tyler, the Creator and the collective of Odd Future, all of whom gained popularity via Tumblr. Multiple artists came up in the “SoundCloud” era from the likes of Lil Yachty to Lil Uzi Vert. New genres developed by innovative artists such as Yung Lean or Clairo. At the same time, Instagram became the new home for streetwear as young fashion connoisseurs. Luka Sabbat and Kerwin Frost began to gain attention from mainstream giants of fashion by the names of Virgil Abloh and Kanye West.
However, when a new social media platform is introduced into the music industry, a cycle occurs. Certain artists gain recognition by using their platform to their advantage. Those new artists face backlash from more established artists with a large following. These established musicians envy the new artists because it seems as if their come up was “easier,” and they didn’t have to struggle to be recognized. Eventually, the artists who came up off the previous social media platform become the artists criticizing the next platform that follows, and the artists who use it to cultivate a fan base.
In the past, social media has given a voice to artists who have become massive on a mainstream scale. Tik Tok however, popularizes short excerpts of an artist's songs, ultimately hurting the piece as a whole. Multiple artists have begun to play into the cycle by making music meant to go viral on the platform, rather than content they truly wish to produce. Artists who put their foot down and release projects defying the current Tik-Tok standard are immediately outshined by artists creating for the sake of virality rather than good artistry.
Tik Tok, for the first time in social media history, is truly damaging what it means to be an artist rather than shifting into a platform that can be used to elevate music as a whole.
