“Guys, we have to gatekeep this song,” “OMG, don’t let the normies find this one,” and “you may listen to [insert niche artist here], but I actually listen to them in a cooler way” are all sentiments that you will hear at some point on the internet. Though gatekeeping has arguably always been a thing, it appears that over the last couple of years, a sort of gatekeeping culture has cemented itself not only in various internet communities, but also in real life. From being asked to name ten songs by the band on your shirt to being given false information (if not outright lied to) when you ask for the name of a song by a so-called “niche indie artist,” it seems as though everyone is pulling out the pitchforks and fighting hard to prove that actually, they’re the coolest, most intellectual, most based person out there… but why?
In “A Series of Articles on Russian Literature,” Dostoyevsky writes that the “need to affirm oneself, to stand out, is a law of nature for every individual; it is his right, his essence, the law of his being.” He goes on to say that this need “in the crude unstructured state of society manifests itself in the individual quite crudely and even savagely.” Not to be a pessimist, but I would say that the state of our society is very much crude and unstructured, and that individuals’ responses are (perhaps justifiably so) becoming increasingly hostile and cruel. Look at TikTok, a platform that, in my opinion, has been the breeding ground for this surge in gatekeeping culture. Everyone is trying to gatekeep something or other on the app, to the point of ridiculousness. It’s so funny to me when I see people on TikTok trying to gatekeep artists like Lana Del Rey, crying and stomping their feet because one of her unreleased songs has gone viral—I’m sorry, but what do you mean you want to gatekeep a six-time Grammy nominee who gets an average of 22 million streams per month? And who does this even serve?
After much contemplation (and adding all of these “gatekept” artists to my playlist in an effort to piss off the people who gatekeep them), I can say that I understand where these people are coming from. We are all inherently unable to achieve what Dostoyevsky calls a human need because of the capitalist society we live in. Though my inner nature tells me that, to express my individuality, I should drop everything, move to a cottage in the woods, and spend the rest of my life writing and baking, I simply cannot do that because of the nature of the society we live in. Add to that the ever-suffocating weight of the patriarchy and it seems totally natural that people would turn to things like gatekeeping to try to find some semblance, some illusion of individuality. The worse our society gets, the more extreme our responses to it become, until we’ve managed to separate ourselves from each other in an attempt to compensate for what we are not with a false sense of superiority.
I think we often forget that the goal of the regimes that oppress and suppress us is precisely to keep us isolated from each other. Not only that, but also to make us crave this isolation, to view it as standing out. You can try as hard as you want to claim that Phoebe Bridgers belongs to a specific group of people, or that no one “gets” Fiona Apple like you do, but I doubt you’ll ever reach the level of self-fulfillment and perception that you truly desire. And if you have to rely primarily on withholding what are, at the end of the day, mediums of entertainment for your personality, then frankly, you need to develop a better personality. There are thousands if not millions of people claiming the same things you are, and asserting their right to gatekeep these same interests. So, who’s right? Not to sound like a guy trying to mansplain why we can’t simply print more money, but if everyone is special and everyone stands out, then no one is special and we are all practically the same.
Instead of being dismayed about this, I say let’s revel in it. Share your hobbies and favourite things with the people around you, find common ground and joy in doing that, and relish the fact that you’ve found someone who enjoys the same things you do, or at the very least is intrigued enough to give them a try. I promise you, it is in sharing your oh-so-based interests with the community around you that you’ll learn more about yourself and find a true sense of individuality, one that can’t be dismantled by your favorite underground artist becoming mainstream.
On this note, the Arts and Culture section is taking a step towards abolishing gatekeeping culture by sharing with you some very cool, unique, and underrated songs on this issue’s playlist. We hope that you’ll listen to it while dismantling your own gatekeeping habits.
Issue 11 Playlist:
- Do You Love Me? – Hector Jenkins
- The River is a Folk Song – Postfun
- Everything She Touches is Gold – Said The Whale
- Upon the Horizon – Villages
- Waking Up – Hillsburn
- Caribbean blue – Enya
- Vitamin T – KERA
- Song to the Siren-Take 7 – Tim Buckley
- Be Sweet – Japanese Breakfast
- Saturdays – Twin Shadow, HAIM
