Streaming-Stadiums-Strangers

Have you ever heard a song soundtracking a TikTok video and immediately added it to your liked songs on Spotify? Have you discovered a new favorite artist through social media? Or do you use social media to stay up to date on the latest and support your favorite artist? 

Then this series is perfect for you. 

It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve done a series on here, so here we are. Back and better than ever. I’m very excited to announce my new series, “Streaming-Stadiums-Strangers,” on the TechBarbie blog. I’ll decode the hottest way for new artists to be discovered, propelling their careers to new heights or maybe to the end of it all. Everyday millions of people upload videos of themselves singing or making music on TikTok. But some of those videos hit that perfect spot and fit into the algorithm just right with the potential to go viral. Singing to hundreds of followers quickly turns into performing in front of an audience of thousands or even millions. Moreover, established artists are smart to use apps like TikTok to their advantage to boost their monthly listeners and grow their fan base. Never has an app had this kind of power to make or break an artist’s career. 

However, when they open themselves up to being discovered, they’re also open to internet trolls digging through their past with hopes of finding a punishable offense. I also want to discuss the impact of a digital footprint, tracking every phase or moment in time, documented on the internet, forever, for anyone to see. It’s a scary thought but an important factor to consider when basing your career around a social media following. 

For me, it was Chappell Roan who sparked my curiosity on this topic. It seemed one day my “For You” page was flooded with people dancing and singing along to this song that they couldn’t take off repeat. The catchy 80’s inspired beat caught my attention, then I was blown away by the power and vocal control the artist brought into her devastatingly poignant bridge — talent and style that could only be compared to the 80’s pop icons, Madonna and Cindi Lauper. The song was a new single put out by the one and only Chappell Roan called “Good Luck Babe.” 

This was only the start of my obsession with the campy extravagance and mind-blowing vocals of her latest album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” I could talk about my love for Chappell Roan for hours, but I’ll save it for a future blog post. If “Good Luck Babe” hadn’t found its way into my algorithm on that fateful day, I would have never found one of my current favorite artists. And I can attest that this time the influencers were right, I’ve had the album stuck on repeat ever since. 

At the root of the music industry’s undeniable impact on social media and vice versa, is technology. Technology serves as the most powerful engine for globalization, in the sense that relationships, music, stories, media, and more can all be accessed and interacted with by anyone in the world with access to the internet. When you enter the virtual space, a community occupied by billions of individuals across the globe, everything is at your fingertips, the good, the bad, the 

ugly, and everything in between. While we can recognize all of the good the internet brings for the spread of information and voices from all over the world, we must also acknowledge the dangers of being on the internet especially at a young age or as a public figure. It’s an intriguing phenomenon how an artist’s career either skyrockets through the power of social media or comes to a screeching halt due to the consequences of cancel culture. Stay tuned for the first edition of the “Streaming-Stadiums-Strangers” series.