TikTok influence on music scene ‘very depressing’ according to musician Mac DeMarco

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TikTok’s influence on the music scene is ‘very depressing’ according to Canadian musician Mac DeMarco also citing a perceived lack of enthusiasm for musicians to go on the road and tour their music.

Mac DeMarco, the singer-songwriter responsible for hits such as My Kind of Woman and Ode to Viceroy, has hit out at the social media platform TikTok for harming the music scene. DeMarco’s comments came during an interview with Variety, in which the singer explained why it is all “very depressing.”

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“A lot of my songs actually do quite well on TikTok,” he remarked, “but I never had to think about, ‘Well this should sound pretty good sped up!’ At the same time… what do people say? Get that bag, or whatever? Live your life however you want to live your life.”

The musician believes there is now a sector of musicians that rather than creating music for the love and passion of the artform are instead merely looking to go viral through social media - leading to composers solely working on short tracks for TikTok fame and fortune.

“It’s very depressing. I think that that’s the problem is artists have slipped into this role of like, “Well, I do need those things.” You don’t… but if you want to make money I guess you do. I was always of the ilk of make what you want to make, and if money comes afterward, it’s a bonus.”

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DeMarco also took aim at what he felt was a perceived lack of enthusiasm for musicians to go on the road and tour their music; a rite of passage that many musicians undertook to promote their work before the advent of technology and social media, now considered an “old school” trait. “Going on tour was the greatest gift of life for me. You get a van with your friends and drive around, party every night, share your music, see the weirdest parts of every city and meet other weird people.”

“It’s like, ‘Would you like your life to become an adventure? Here you go.’ And now people are like, ‘I’m so tired…’ I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old uncle, but it’s strange!”

Mac DeMarco’s latest album, Five Easy Hot Dogs, was released on January 20 through Mac’s Record Label and Royal Mountain Records and is available on all leading digital/streaming platforms. In a review of the new record, Pitchfork called it “a listless album about being listless, Mac DeMarco’s new collection of instrumentals summons the bleary, exhausted feeling of time spent on the road.”

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