In recent weeks, a new video by American singer Halsey has gone viral, explaining the issue she’s having with her label at the moment. The musician shared a written message in a TikTok video, revealing that she has “a song that I love that I want to release ASAP, but my record label won’t let me.” She added:
“I’ve been in this industry for eight years and I’ve sold over 165 million records and my record company is saying I can’t release [the song] unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok.”
Metal Hammer now reports that Mike Shinoda has shared his thoughts on the same issue, explaining how this same trend is affecting all the artists he talked to. Taking to his Twitter, Linkin Park legend said:
“I’m tired of hearing musicians be told they’re not investing enough energy in social media content. Every artist I talk to right now has this feeling. They say they’re spending way too much time making little videos to support their careers, but wish they could spend more time making and playing music.“
“How is a young artist expected to put in enough time to get great at their craft when they need to feed all these content channels. The time they spent generating mind numbing ‘content’ might have been at the expense of the best song they never wrote.”
Last year’s report by Metal Hammer reflected on how rock and metal genres are becoming more and more popular among younger generations. TikTok’s UK Head of Artist Partnerships David Mogendorff said:
“We’ve seen a huge increase in the popularity of rock music on TikTok. Last year, the genre racked up over 22 million video creations – that is, videos made using the sound. A huge number.“
He added:
“Huge online communities of people connected by their love of the genre.”
In particular, he named Bring Me The Horizon, Yungblud, Biffy Clyro, and Royal Blood as the biggest influencers for rock music. However, artists like Kim Drac and Cassyette were also mentioned.
Photo: Norrel Blair (Mike Shinoda 3)
