September 1, 2022

"Suddenly, Gregson-MacLeod was a meme, embodying the app’s potential as an amplifier of melancholy...."

"TikTok is well-suited to this particular stripe of intimacy, because 'people seem to love hearing going as in-depth of someone’s life as they can,' Gregson-MacLeod said last week in a video chat from her family’s home in Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. 'It’s a very online thing, but it’s also the same essence of what people love about people like Elliott Smith and Joni Mitchell. There are so many serious songwriters on there, but the ones that I’ve noticed doing really well are super raw, emotional and very stripped back.' Vulnerability is contagious, and TikTok... is an optimal accelerant.... [I]n its first couple of years [TikTok] was best known as an accelerant for dance trends, novelty songs and meme-able comedy, but is now just as often a home for sorrow... With her song gaining so much traction so quickly... [s]he TikToked through it, posting duets with singers covering her, answering fan questions, making new memes, taking note of the interest from people she looked up to ('fletcher and olivia o’brien now know I have an anxious attachment style I was tryna play hard to get'). On Friday, Gregson-MacLeod formally released the full song... a few days after she signed a deal with the British arm of Columbia Records."
 
From "Katie Gregson-MacLeod Sang About a ‘Complex’ Love. TikTok Responded. The 21-year-old Scottish folk singer-songwriter found a sudden hit by tapping into the platform’s appetite for melancholy with a striking, sorrowful chorus" (NYT). Here's Gregson-MacLeod's TikTok page. Here's the original post that is now at 7 million views. If you start there and click the "up" arrows, you'll go through the sequence of her reacting to success and doing things with it, including reacting to other TikTokers singing their versions and to the NYT article.

Listen to the "formally released" "full song" here, on YouTube. The key lyric is "I'm wearing his boxers/I'm being a good wife...." 

16 comments:

typingtalker said...

" ... the platform's appetite for melancholy ... "

Full circle -- we're back to the decades-old meme of greasy-haired misfits sitting in their parent's basement mindlessly surfing the web. But now they're us and working-from-home so it's OK.

Dave Begley said...

She’s no Bob Dylan. Think hetro Janice Ian.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Zoomed. Soap. Operas.

Temujin said...

A handful of initial thoughts upon listening to the clip, then the You Tube video.

I initially did think of Joni Mitchell when first hearing the clip and reading the lyrics. It had that kind of raw, open, 'here is my heart and you can view it if you like' feel to it.

It does seem to me that we've had a barrage for years now of single women sounding melancholy in music (thinking back to Sarah McLachlan, et. al.). Maybe I'm just hearing more of them because of all of our media, or maybe it's a sad generation or two. I haven't figured that out yet. In our day, Joni stood out as particularly melancholy and I cannot remember that many like her. Back then I loved Joni's melancholy. Maybe it's a particular age thing.

This is a good thing about TikTok, YouTube and other self-creating avenues available today. There is so much talent out there. For eons it was rare that it was found. Today it can all be found and judged immediately.

Tom T. said...

She's getting her unwieldy name out there, but is she making any money from all this attention? The distribution platform is new, but otherwise I guess it doesn't seem all that novel that a song where a woman is unhappy in her relationship becomes a hit.

michaele said...

I've only watched the full video so far and found its simple format very authentic and heart touching. It didn't lose the feeling of her raw musings and angst. Her talent as a lyricist, a singer and a musician is very impressive and should she want, I hope she has a successful career.

Bob Boyd said...

The song kinda reminds me of 'She Talks to Angels' by the Black Crows.

Howard said...

This is me still refusing to get sucked into the Tictoc black hole. I'm sure some of the content isn't horrible, I will just have to take your word for it.

Ann Althouse said...

Look how TikTok worked to elevate her out of nowhere — so quickly and effectively and basically just because people liked what they heard. Anyone anywhere can do something into a simple app and the mechanism works to test it and, finding it liked, spread it. What a wonderful thing for artists!

Buckwheathikes said...

"Look how TikTok worked to elevate her out of nowhere — so quickly and effectively and basically just because people liked what they heard. Anyone anywhere can do something into a simple app and the mechanism works to test it and, finding it liked, spread it. What a wonderful thing for artists!"

Have you actually read Tik-Tok's terms of service, Ann?

Quick legal question for our resident law professor: Who now owns the copyright to this music/video?

I'll wait while you read Tik-Tok's terms of service.

If Tik-Tok now owns the copyright to this music, is this still a wonderful thing for artists?

Joe Smith said...

I knew Joni Mitchell and you are no Joni Mitchell...

Critter said...

It’s unfair to compare her to Joni Mitchell. Just like it’s unfair to compare to Dylan.

She emotes well, but I find myself wanting to tell her to get her shit together and not play the victim. I know playing victim is all the rage on the left, but it gets old real fast.

Ann Althouse said...

I’m not doing legal research for you, but I would say…

1. She benefited from their system which allowed others to perform her song, presumably without worrying about paying for it and that vastly propagated her reputation

2. The released version of the song has additional words not published through TikTok

3. She got signed and won many fans and that will carry over as she continues writing new songs

4. If TikTok tries to screw her they will screw themselves. I think the TOS are designed to keep creators from suing the company and don’t think it’s in the company’s interest to sue their users.

Jupiter said...

I wasted a good fourteen seconds on that BS. Look, all she needs is a good surgeon and some hormone shots, and she can be an ugly, miserable man.

Jupiter said...

Ann, for one, welcomes our new Chinese owners!

Joe Smith said...

'She emotes well, but I find myself wanting to tell her to get her shit together and not play the victim. I know playing victim is all the rage on the left, but it gets old real fast.'

Show me a woman celebrity/artist/actress/influencer who doesn't play the victim and I'll show you a man.

Of course, these days they could be one and the same...