Self Esteem on pressures to provide TikTok content: “The music industry thinks of social media as an inherently female thing”

nme.com:

Self Esteem, has penned an essay about the pressure she believes female artists face to provide TikTok content.The article comes following a number of artists speaking publicly about their experiences of their labels and management pushing them to post on the social media platform.They include FKA Twigs, who has said: “It’s true all record labels ask for are TikToks and I got told off today for not making enough effort” and since deleted her TikTok account.

Charli XCX, Florence Welch and more have also expressed similar sentiments.Halsey, meanwhile, said earlier this month: “I have a song that I love that I wanna release ASAP, but my record label won’t let me… my record company is saying that I can’t release it unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok.

I just wanna release music man, and I deserve better tbh. I’m tired.”Writing in The Guardian, Taylor said: “I think it’s no coincidence that the recent examples of artists who say their labels have forced them to get on TikTok are all women.“My pub-psychologist theory is that the music industry thinks of social media as an inherently female thing – it’s just another patriarchal idea that women and gay men are interested in the minutiae of other women, while men are just too busy and important to be interested in that stuff.”She added: “There is something darker and more invasive in the way that women are encouraged to use it.