Earlier this summer time, Lizzo unveiled an entertaining sufficient mixtape titled My Face Hurts from Smiling. Now, the actor-singer isn’t precisely smiling as she’s taken to TikTok for a rant in opposition to the present state of the music trade.
Within the 3.5-minute clip, the a number of Grammy Award winner begins by saying the trade is in “full shambles proper now.” Lizzo then goes on to clarify that after years of working beneath an “algorithmic mannequin,” the trade has misplaced management to a sure extent. As such, “nobody can serve the plenty anymore,” and that inevitably means one thing just like the much-coveted Tune of the Summer time (the place disparate teams can rally round one artist in a showcase of true cultural significance) is now not potential.
There’s one thing to that argument, after all. In a latest Wired piece titled “The Tune of the Summer time Is Useless,” author Jason Parham argues the media panorama has turn out to be fragmented after “music streamers changed radio stations, [and] TikTok killed the music video.” He goes on to explain a number of the reason why 2025 was an “unpredictable summer time for music.” That features more and more eclectic musical preferences throughout streaming platforms like Spotify; an “authenticity disaster” spurred on by a deluge of “AI slop”; and even Donald Trump, whose “domineering affect could signify a brand new model of monoculture that not even the music trade can evade.”
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For her half, Lizzo says that the breakdown of the algorithm and lack of artistic authorship/management has altered the best way wherein artists handle their careers. Whereas musicians had been beforehand “servicing songs out to sure channels and radio stations,” an more and more congested “web area” meant there’s no “clear channel out for folks to place their music out and serve the plenty.” She factors to a platform like TikTok, the place even with a follower depend nicely past 26 million, Lizzo herself struggles with getting her movies/content material onto folks’s screens.
So, then, what’s the answer? Lizzo says that extra main artists “must serve your folks,” which suggests beginning non-public fan pages the place you possibly can “have a dialogue with folks that truly give a fuck…” Along with interactions along with her personal “small however mighty” military of “Lizbians,” Lizzo uplifts Taylor Swift, whose personal Swifties are “locked the fuck in.” And, to an extent, Swift’s followers are each a path ahead and an indication of the occasions for the music trade. As a result of as problematic as a few of their collective behaviors could be, one can’t deny the cultural weight held by this legion of followers. (See the semi-swaying energy of Swifties for Kamala and the way the fandom helped push “The Eras Tour” towards a record-smashing $2 billion in gross sales.)
However maybe Lizzo’s most uplifting message iz particularly for the younger/up-and-coming artists. She says this second in time means “you’ve a bonus over even main artists,” as unbiased artists can join with folks at a “means faster fee.” Lizzo goes on to say that if she had been a younger artist in 2025, she’d keep away from “the old-school route [of getting] signed” and as a substitute file ample music/different content material and debut it on-line immediately. And it’s onerous to argue that time, both. In a latest video with Drowned in Sound, British singer-songwriter Mary Spender referred to as 2025 the yr for unbiased artists, noting that her “small, not viral” strategy has helped her construct a fanbase of paying, massively supportive followers that make her profession aspirations potential.
Be you fan, main music star, or indie upstart, Lizzo’s video is definitely value your time. As a result of along with these different decidedly salient factors, she ends the video with one correct gem: “It’s been an unimaginable yr for music; it simply hasn’t been in your algorithm.” Which is to say, nice music releases and subsequent consumption imply going past the fashions and different approaches we’ve been offered and doing slightly digging. When that occurs, trade taking part in fields are leveled, extra artists get recent alternatives, and we have interaction with music as folks and never mere receptacles for algorithms.
However, no, Lizzo, I nonetheless don’t suppose PLUTO’s “WHIM WHAMIEE” is kind of tune of the summer time.
@lizzo The tune of the summer time is Whim Whammy btw #fyp
♬ unique sound – lizzo