The New Digital Dash: Musicians vs. the Streaming Era

To be a Master of the Internet is a big task today’s music artists must face. Gone are the days when musicians and singers would go on 106 & Park or TRL to debut their new music videos and promote physical units of their CDs. The streaming age has changed the music industry in more ways than one. It’s not just about selling your music; it’s about selling yourself. With the advent of social media, the mystery behind some of our favorite musical acts is gone. We don’t have to wait as long to see what they do in their day to day lives because we can be connected to them with a simple @. This means artists have to toe the line between how vocal they are within and outside of their music. Artists these days have to be able to do one of two things: be vulnerable in their music or be vulnerable to their social media platforms. We’ll refer to artists who are vulnerable in their music as Group A and artists who are vulnerable on their social media platforms as Group B.

Group A: The Enigma

These are the artists who only come out of the woodwork to drop music (sometimes by surprise), do quick/little promotion of it, and then go back to whatever hiding place they’d been in the last three or so years before. 

Group B: The Influencer

This is where Internet savvy artists prosper. They go on IG Live, have Vlog channels, and don’t take themselves too seriously. They know how to use social media to promote their music and stay relevant. 

I would like to preface that musicians/ those in the public eye only allow a certain level of visibility into their private lives, and it is impossible to truly know them. No matter how much I talk about vulnerability, be cognizant that we don’t truly know these people at all— only the parts of them they are willing to share with us.  

Group A: The Enigma

With these artists, we typically allow them grace because whatever it is we want to know about them, they explain in their music. While they might tell the occasional anecdote during an interview (if they even give interviews), most of what we know of them comes from their early career, before they could be mysterious, and the rest from their music. This allows them to keep their personal lives in exchange for all the “juicy” details in the music. 

Artist #1: Adele

Adele became a part of the collective consciousness of Americans back in 2008, after performing her song “Chasing Pavements” on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know of the Tottenham born, British artist until the success of her second album, 21. When Adele released her smash, decade-defining hit “Rolling in the Deep,” it was clear to everyone around the world that she would become an artist with staying power. The album itself proved to be one of the best of the decade with subsequent success with her singles “Someone Like You,” “Set Fire to the Rain,” “Rumor Has It,” and “Turning Tables.” You couldn’t go anywhere in 2011 without hearing Adele blasting from car radios, school talent shows, performed on singing competition series’, at bars, weddings, clubs, covered on Glee, etc. Although her first album, 19 already demonstrated Adele’s vocal and lyrical capabilities, 21 cemented her star status.

Perhaps, it helped that she reminded us of another British born, soul-inspired, vulnerable singer, Amy Winehouse, but Adele’s niche in music, by and large, is how open she is in her music. She has given several interviews where she talks about the failure of a past relationship as her inspiration for her sophomore album. With such forceful and vengeful lyrics as, “You’re gonna wish you never met me/ Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep,” and “but rumor has it he’s the one I’m leaving you for” to somber, sorrowful lyrics like, “I had hoped you’d see my face and be reminded that for me it isn’t over,” and “I braved a hundred storms to leave you/ As hard as you try, no I will never be knocked down,” Adele tore through to the heart and unearthed universal feelings we all experience when a relationship ends.

Her soul snatching lyrics accompanied her long-anticipated third album, 25. Her lead single “Hello” once again made clear that if there’s one thing Adele is going to deliver, it’s a heart-wrenching ballad. The entire album wasn’t all break up songs though, as at the time she was happily married and living blissfully raising her son. Her song “Sweetest Devotion” is about the joys of being a mother. Like “Hometown Glory,” her song “Million Years Ago” was a callback to her days growing up with her young, single mother and times spent with her friends— another example of the way Adele fuses her private life into her music. On the heels of her divorce from her husband and weight loss (which has been too closely followed in my opinion), fans are expecting that her newest album will outdo her last three. Often, fans seem to revel in the misery of her and similar artists’ personal lives because they equate it to richer, more personal music that they can use to get them through their hardest times. And to an extent it’s true. Artists, like Adele, tend to make music that resonates on a more emotional level with the general public once we know (or infer) the songs are directly tied to their private experiences. To be fair, Adele is a pretty candid person. She likes to say fuck a lot, is open about not having a relationship with her dad, and says what comes to mind on stage and in interviews, but her social media presence is quite sparse. At one point she seemed to have a Twitter account but doesn’t anymore, and when it was active she said she didn’t have access to it because she “might say something stupid”. “I like to try and not give everything away at one time, so that I can surprise people I think, sometimes. So if I had a password to Twitter, maybe I’d be on it all the time, which means that no one would miss me.” The singer does have an Instagram account where she posts semi-regularly about her life ( which sometimes includes a Jamaican bra top, and a pair of yoga pants ), the music she’s listening to, support for Black artists, throwbacks to her concerts, and most importantly her love for Beyoncé (who she famously tried to give her AOTY Grammy to after 25 beat Lemonade). It seems those somewhat frequent Instagram posts that offer small glimpses into Adele’s life are the closest we get into knowing who she is in between albums and the few little tidbits she shares with fans during interviews. 

Artist # 2: Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean started back in 2008 as part of the hip-hop collective, Odd Future, with fellow artists Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Syd— to name a few. Actually, he started in 2006 as a ghostwriter for Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy, but it was his passion to make his own music that led him to join Odd Future. While moderately famous on Tumblr (ah, remember her?) Ocean didn’t become a star until 2012, when he released the single “Thinkin Bout You.” Of course, his Soundcloud released mixtape, Nostalgia Ultra, set the stage for the singer’s debut album. Its critical acclaim caught the attention of Kanye West and Jay Z who put Frank on “No Church in the Wild”, which he co-wrote. It also spawned his tune, “Novacane”— a fan favorite. But it was “Thinkin Bout You,” the haunting, soulful R&B tune, that catapulted Ocean from the likes of Tumblr to the Tonight Show. Channel Orange, would go on to earn six Grammy nominations, and two wins; much to the chagrin of Chris Brown, who’d lost out to Ocean for Best Urban Contemporary Album, just days after Brown attacked and injured him. Much of Channel Orange’s success can be attributed to Frank’s lyrical ability. In a time when lots of artists were throwing any song at the wall to see what would stick, Frank gave us honesty, vulnerability, and his heart in rhythmic form. His ability to play with genre, and produce what I can only describe as “vibe” music, as well as the authenticity of his lyrics is what makes him stand out amongst the roster of R&B artists. His sexuality was also part of that. He’d made an offhand mention of being bisexual at some point or another, but once he confirmed that “Thinkin Bout You” was about his first love, who was a man, media outlets glommed onto that information, with some comparing him to David Bowie, who’d famously come out in 1972. This period of Ocean’s career would prove to be his most open because we barely heard from the singer in the four years it took for him to release his sophomore album. He teased snippets of songs and promised dates it would release, and when it inevitably didn’t, Ocean did not explain. It even turned into a game at one point with his late brother, Ryan, posting a link in his Instagram bio, and telling fans it was to his older brother’s album. He was trolling, of course, but the fervor for Ocean’s music coupled with his mysterious nature and hiatus from public appearances meant fans were starving for more content from him.

Fans got a taste of new Frank when he was featured on The Life of Pablo on a song called “Frank’s Track” but it wouldn’t be until August 2016 when Frank released something of his own. In collaboration with Apple Music, he released Endless, a visual album that was a 140-hour long live stream of music. In a move reminiscent of Beyoncé’s surprise album drop, Ocean released his single “Nikes” and simultaneously announced a slew of pop-up shops, and the release of his second album, Blonde. It garnered as much, if not more, critical acclaim and fan praise as Channel Orange, but he declined to submit it to the Grammy’s. For the following year or two, Frank made an effort to keep up appearances. He was featured on the Calvin Harris song “Slide” with Migos, was on the cover of several magazines, started blonded Radio, attended the MET Gala, where he was the night’s celebrity photographer, and released the single “Chanel,” one of the few tracks where he openly discusses or makes references to his sexuality. “My guy pretty like a girl/ And he got fight stories to tell. I see both sides like Chanel”. He was also set to headline this year’s Coachella, which was postponed due to COVID-19, which sparked a joke amongst his fanbase because of his notoriety with bailing on major performances.

Aside from the few essays he’s written (one for A24’s Moonlight coffee table book) and his past interviews, the world doesn’t know much about Frank Ocean, whose real name is Christopher Breaux. He’s made it clear he’s not a big fan of the spotlight, nor does he need the validation of major award shows. It’s obvious, Frank, who takes great care of his artistry, will continue to make music and then slink back in the shadows. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of his, most people don’t know or keep up with who he’s dating or what he’s doing; and he makes it incredibly hard to do so. He barely posts on social media and often deletes posts to match his aesthetic and when he does talk or post, his messages are always cryptic. Understandably, with the personal tragedy he has just faced, any call for Frank to emerge from the shadows anytime soon will have to wait. He deserves the right to grieve his brother’s death, and his fans will give him the space to do so. He has set no expectation for them to expect engagement on any regular basis, and for that, he can release as frequently or infrequently as he wants to without much worry about what that will do to his popularity. Frankly (no pun intended), his discography is already good enough that if we have to wait another five years for more music, or if he never puts out anything again, he’ll still be regularly added to playlists and audiences will still feel connected to him. 

GROUP B: The Influencer

With these artists, their music isn’t necessarily about their personal life or rife with tons of depth, but it’s fun and appeals to a large base. They engage with their fans on social media almost daily— replying to tweets, having giveaways, reposting fan artwork, sending fans gifts, and overall engaging with and acknowledging their fan base on the regular. 

Artist #3: Lil Nas X

Admittedly, I wasn’t in America when Lil Nas X first began to make waves on the Billboard charts with his history-making single “Old Town Road.” Through social media, I had heard about how the song, which is described by Nas X himself as “country trap,” was removed by Billboard from the country charts after it reached #1. The move was controversial and seen as racist by many, but proved to be a blessing in disguise. With the social media uproar from Black Twitter™ and music fans alike, as well as the intense media coverage of Nas X’s meteoric rise to fame and the song’s genre controversy, it invited in help from a special person: country artist and father to pop star, Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus. He was so touched by the lyrics, he offered to jump on the track with Lil Nas X and lend his support. With Billy Ray on the tune, the song broke all types of records and became a viral hit once again, remaining #1 on the Billboard charts for 19 weeks, besting Mariah Carey’s previous record.

Lil Nas X had probably the most phenomenal debut year that an artist could have. He was the most nominated male artist at the 2019 Grammy’s, winning two statuettes, won two VMAs, and was considered one of TIME’s 25 Most Influential People, amongst several other accolades. So how did Nas X manage to garner so much success in a year? Well, it wasn’t dumb luck, and any insinuation of such is quite the insult to the genre-bending rapper whose real name is Montero Hill. Lil Nas X has been vocal in several interviews about how intentional he’s been with every step of his career. In an interview with Gayle King, Hill spoke about his expectations for his career while in high school. “I was dreaming that last year around this time, I would make a huge footprint in music. And I would get up there as quick as I could. And I wouldn’t have to wait as long as other people would. That honestly, was like, my goal.” It’s no surprise he achieved what he set out to do. He would relentlessly release music and promote it across different social media channels in an effort to make himself go viral. He claims he would make hundreds of memes for songs so that one would be interesting enough to catch on and launch his career. Of course, that finally happened when “Old Town Road” went viral on Tik Tok, which now has other stars cashing in on making their songs pop off by creating viral dances and challenges. But it’s not just Tik Tok that helped bolster his success, it was other social media platforms as well. And for all his work, he’s been branded the first micro-platform crossover star. Anyone who follows Lil Nas X on Twitter can see just how adept he is at using the platform. He’s a certified “troll” meaning he can roll with the punches and doesn’t care much when he gets “dragged” because he can give it as good as he can take it. This probably comes from his days as a Nicki Minaj stan account which gave him lots of practice on how to navigate the Internet. His moments of hilarity and online virality make the times when he is sincere with his audience all the more special. He chose to come out via Twitter because he wanted to prove to everyone that you can be gay and have the #1 song in the country (he is the first openly gay rapper to achieve that feat). Lil Nas X’s understanding of the Internet and ability to keep himself relevant at his own hands makes him a force to be reckoned with and one of the most visible Black queer artists on the planet right now. 

Artist #4: Saweetie 

Time for us to tap in with the Icy Girl herself, Diamanté Harper, better known by her stage name, Saweetie. The Bay Area rapper made it big after she released her hit single, “ICY GRL.” The song, with its “My Neck, My Back” sample, infused with classic Cali rap sound, put Saweetie on rap’s radar. She would later do a few remixes of the song, most notably one with Kehlani. While Saweetie has famous family members (Gabrielle Union is her cousin and her other cousin Zaytoven produced some of her EP High Maintenance), her success was all her own. The ICY GRL branded herself as a “pretty girl” rapper, but not just any kind— a highly intelligent one, often rapping about having graduated from USC. I will say, I have seen Saweetie up close, in person, and she is very right to brand herself as pretty; she’s gorgeous. With the moniker “Icy Girl” and her shtick as the “cute, college girl rapper,” Saweetie set herself apart from the pack. People tried to write her off as a one-hit-wonder, and then she released “My Type.” The infectious summer jam had the girlies and gays screaming, “rich nigga, eight figures, that’s my type”— all the way to #21 on the Billboard chart, a first for the California rapper. As any good artist should, she promoted the hell out of the song, performing it during Fashion Week and on Wild N Out. Most recently, she got another success with her single “Tap In” and it’s electric basketball-themed music video. Saweetie’s music, while making some mention of her Bay Area roots and references to her relationship with Migos rapper, Quavo (whom she’s been with since 2018), it’s mostly just fun music. She said it herself in an interview turned meme, “I really wanted something fun, something for the summertime. Something for the girls to get ready and party to.” Saweetie makes music for us to have fun and twerk to, not to bare her soul and have the world know what’s going on in her life at any given moment, which works perfectly because she’s always on social media. She posts on Instagram nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day; usually of her looking stunning, but sometimes of fans engaging with her music. She’s created multiple Tik Tok challenges (which at this point is necessary if you want a hit song) and has a fashion Instagram account, where she just posts her latest looks. Genius on her part, and leaning into her branding, she most recently started the “Icy University” promotion, which sends her number to her fans and allows them to sign up for classes like “How to Start Your Own Business,” and “How to Be a Pretty Bitch.” She even recruited interns for the fictional university on her Twitter. On Twitter, she engages with fans pretty much every day, quote retweeting them, replying to their selfies, and sharing their artwork on her page. One fan, who has an anime podcast, tweeted about wanting Saweetie to be a guest on her show, and hours later the rapper appeared and promoted the show on her feed afterward. Saweetie’s knowledge of her branding, her seamless immersion into the fashion world, and her willingness to engage with her fan base regularly is going to keep her name in the spotlight for a while. And we’ll stay tap, tap, tapped in waiting to see what she does next.  

GROUP C: The Chameleon

I’ve presented it as though artists exist in a binary, but those criteria were just two ends of the spectrum, and musicians and singers all find their place within this range. Some artists navigate the gamut with ease and others fall victim to the trappings of the Internet. What happens for an artist when they just can’t seem to get their formula correct?

Artist #5: Doja Cat

Now on to one of the Internet’s most polarizing artists, Amala Dlamini, also known as Doja Cat. Doja Cat had been a signed artist for some time, making waves on Soundcloud, before she became the artist we know today. While some people knew of her earlier songs “Go to Town” and “So High,” it wasn’t until a gag song, “Mooo!” went viral, that she blew up. It was so insane of a rap song, but one that still proved Doja had bars, that the Internet had no choice but to stop ignoring her. “Got milk bitch? Got beef? (got beef?)/ Got steak ho? Got cheese? (got it)/ Grade A ho, not lean (not lean)/ Got me A1, sauce please”. An equally outlandish video was fodder that the Internet swallowed up, and Doja used every ounce of that attention to her advantage. In retrospect, knowing what we know of Doja’s personality and past Internet experiences, “Mooo!” is not that weird of a song or video to come from her. Doja’s follow-ups to her newfound attention were collabs with Rico Nasty, “Tia Tamera” and with Tyga, “Juicy,” which would be her first entry onto the Billboard Top 100. She saw some minor success with “Rules” (which I think is criminally underrated) and “Boss Bitch” a feature on the Birds of Prey film soundtrack, but it was the release of her single, “Say So” that shot Doja Cat into the stratosphere. Another song bolstered by Tik Tok challenges, “Say So”, saw the rise of Doja’s career. Accompanied by a lush, psychedelic 70s inspired video, it peaked at #5 on the Billboard, but the remix with Nicki Minaj garnered Doja her first career #1.

And what does the rapper with the number one song in the country do to celebrate her success? She shows her feet in racial chat rooms. I kid, I kid, (a little Twitter joke), but Doja finds herself in this third category because she proves that as quickly as the Internet giveth, it taketh away. Some speculate that in an act of revenge, scorned fanboys, furious with the California rapper for lying that she would show her boobs if they streamed “Say So” to #1, leaked information about her old Internet habits, but an interview she did with PAPER Magazine years ago, unearthed that she alluded to it herself. The infamous past I keep speaking of? Doja used to spend a lot of time...like A LOT of time, on 4chan, in chat rooms, allegedly with white supremacists and members of the alt-right where she would allegedly engage in raceplay and allow them to call her nigger. She has since gone on Instagram Live, against the advice of her team, and addressed and debunked each rumor. She did admit, however, to writing and releasing a song called “Dindu Nuffin,” which is a reference to an alt-right joke mocking the death of Black people at the hands of police brutality. She claims the song was meant to flip the term, but I’ll let you be the judge of that for yourself. This incident was not the first time Doja Cat was “canceled.” After the success of “Mooo!” some of her past tweets were unearthed where she used the f-slur several times. When asked about it, she doubled down saying, “I called a couple of people f*****s when I was in high school in 2015, does this mean I don't deserve support? I've said f****t roughly like 15 thousand times in my life. Does saying f****t mean you hate gay people? I don't think I hate gay people. Gay is ok”— a piss poor response that lead to her losing a lot of support. But, the Internet is the Internet, and cancel culture is not real, and Doja Cat has managed to bounce back from both of these scandals with all nine lives still intact. Her music videos are still watched, her songs still played, and as far as I’ve seen on Twitter, most people are excited for her to release N.A.S. (Niggas Ain’t Shit), a song she’d teased before, but has chosen to release now after rapper Nas took shots at her. Her willingness to sit on a song she knows her fans enjoy until a time that would be the best market for it is proof that Doja Cat knows how to use the Internet. Her knowledge of social media, and the dark depths of the interwebs, essentially makes her bulletproof in the streaming era. She can mess up and say what she wants (I’m not sure she can say/do much worse than has already been exposed) and still keep most of her core fan base. Although she’s taken a break from Twitter and posts less frequently (probably at the urging of her team) she is typically quite active, engages with fans a lot, in a somewhat surface-level way, but still gives them the attention they want from her. Having the unique advantage of propelling her career forward at the tips of her fingers, Doja Cat knows all it takes is another viral hit, gag video, or killer digital performance to put her back in the spotlight, and for that, she doesn’t have to worry much about what the world thinks of her, as long as she keeps her fans fed and her listeners happy. 

Artist #6: Normani

Last, but not least is Atlanta born, New Orleans/ Houston raised, superstar in the making, and a personal fave of mine: Normani. As a newly born solo artist, Normani will have to etch a spot for herself somewhere on this spectrum, and as a fan of hers, I am eager to see where she fits in. Normani first burst onto the scene in 2012 as ⅕ of the X Factor manufactured, international best-selling girl group, Fifth Harmony. As the only Black member of the group, she quickly stood out amongst her peers for her exceptional danceability and all-around “coolness”. She (along with Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui) was positioned as a standout of the group, a moniker that became even more evident after Cabello left the band in 2016. During their tenure, the girls of 5H often did solo projects on the side, and Normani took full advantage of that by joining the Season 24 cast of Dancing with the Stars, where she placed 3rd. Soon after her stint on DWTS, 5H disbanded and the girls set to work on establishing their solo careers...that was back in 2018. As a solo artist, Normani’s released collabs with Khalid on “Love Lies,” Calvin Harris with EP, Normani x Calvin Harris, Kehlani and Jessie Reyez with “Body Count”, and Quavo on “Swing,” and one of her most well-known songs to date, an R&B track, “Waves” with rapper, 6lack. Initially, she announced her debut album would be released at the beginning of 2019, however, that never came to be. Instead, she released a collaboration with Sam Smith, “Dancing with a Stranger,” aiding in making her the fastest solo artist without an album to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify, was the opener for the first leg of Ariana Grande’s Sweetener tour, and released her first single without a collab, “Motivation” in August of 2019. The release date of her album was pushed back to this year and was described as being “a little more than halfway” done. Like Doja, she collaborated with Nicki Minaj (on the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack, “Bad to You”), and had a song featured on the Birds of Prey soundtrack, “Diamonds”, with Megan Thee Stallion. She was also most recently featured in Cardi B and Meg’s music video for “WAP.”

With all of those co-signs from larger artists and a steady stream of music, it seems like Normani has all the makings she needs to put out her solo album, but whispers of issues with her team and possibly her label, have allegedly prevented it from coming out. No problem, right? Not exactly. While Normani does have quite a few songs in her discography, she’s not yet an established enough solo artist. That means, while there’s music being made, it’s Normani’s job to make sure there are fans around to want to buy that music. She has a good reason for being so averse to social media though. Remember that girl group she was a part of? Well her bandmate, Camila was discovered as having a Facebook page where she said many racist, anti-Black comments. This is important context when you think of how the “Señorita” singer engages with her fanbase’s behavior. What started the beginning of the end of Normani’s social media use, however, was an interview in which she was asked to describe her bandmates in one word. Although she struggled to come up with adjectives for all the girls, it was Cabello’s fans who were not happy with her response and took to Twitter to bully Normani for “shading” their fave. Anyone who at 20 years old had to endure intense racial bullying and people photoshopping them being hanged and called them nigger repeatedly, would be reluctant to open up themselves to that sort of vitriol again. Camila tweeted, “I stand by the words ‘love only,’ meaning I won’t tolerate on my timeline any kind of hate, racism, or discrimination towards ANYONE. Period,” a few days later, but never explicitly named Normani as the receiver of such hate. All of it already had been to Normani’s disadvantage. Namely, the intense racial bullying caused her immense emotional harm, and negatively impacted her self-esteem. It also means it proves a bit of a struggle for her in the way she engages those who do support her.

If she decides to carve the path for herself as a somewhat reclusive artist, her music has to be soulful and vulnerable. We have to know who she is and who she was for us to be invested in her. And I really want to invest in her, because she’s talented and we need more Black girl pop stars. One could write an entire thesis alone on the way Normani fans/stans engage with her online. Stan culture in itself is a warped, twisted reality that my only memories of include my middle school self being completely enthralled with One Direction, but the way it has manifested around Normani is something that warrants a conversation. Everyone has haters, but it seems for Ms. Kordei that even those who love her seem to have some disdain for her. While she rarely logs into Twitter, when she does she’s met with a barrage of fans harassing her for music in the same fashion they do Rihanna. There are long-running jokes within her fandom, but it seems genuine frustration and sky-high expectations have led her “fans” to resent her in some fashion. I for one think the pressure and criticism are unwarranted. Her being the only Black member of Fifth Harmony, early comparisons to Beyoncé and her first solo single “Motivation” being a callback to the nostalgia for the early 2000s (the era when Bey went solo) have set expectations way too high for Normani. Yes, she was in an internationally famous girl group for six years, but she’s still a new artist. She deserves time to carve out her own lane, sound, and persona, but it seems people are tired of waiting for her to do so. 

I worry for some artists, it will never be enough. For now, those who know where they lie on the spectrum can continue to either churn out content for their fans to see or set their lives to melodies in the hopes that it will be satisfactory enough. The social media platforms we have now won’t exist forever, and the next generation of artists will have to find new ways to make themselves stand out amongst the hundreds and thousands of other musical acts available to us. Alex Wolf said it best when she tweeted about the relationships between today’s artists and their labels/agents when it comes to marketing. Some people understand it and are comfortable doing it themselves and others who need their labels to give them a push. I hope for newer artists, like Normani, the expectations of the streaming era don’t crush them before they’ve got a chance to show us what they’re about and that artists like Doja Cat find their balance. The Saweetie’s and Lil Nas X’s of the industry will be just fine if they continue to play the game, and there’s never any worry in my mind for the juggernauts like Adele and Frank who by their current discography alone are forever relevant in the cultural consciousness.