Hi, everyone. Irony Joketano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd.

It's time to talk about art consmption and humor. This has become a bit of a trending topic in the past week within the online music sphere, mostly due to Ms. singer and songwriter Ethel Cain throwing out some thoughts on social media. This is understandably something that would be on her mind as of late as she is gearing up for a new album cycle. Given all the discourse around her last record, she seems not to be looking forward to the release of this new album.

Seemingly, it has nothing to do with whether or not the reception of the record will be negative. Will people hate it or hate on it? No, according to this lengthy bit of commentary she has just posted to the internet, she seems more upset at the idea of people turning her art into a joke or mostly using humor to engage with it.

ok honestly this is probably such a stupid rant but i've been thinking about it for a few weeks now but like. nobody takes anything fucking seriously anymore. it makes me feel so crazy and annoyed because i am constantly bombarded by jokes constantly. it’s not even just me, i see it with literally every artist across multiple genres and mediums. and listen, i LOVE to laugh and i love funny shit but like. we are in an irony epidemic. there is such a loss of sincerity and everything has to be a joke at all times. the number of times i have to read the same stupid shit like "yes you ate that like isaiah ate ethel" over and over, it makes me SO mad. it's not everyone obviously but it's such a huge portion of the people who engage with me online and in real life that it's truly inescapable. i feel like no matter what i make or what i do, it will always get turned into a fucking joke. it's genuinely so embarrassing. i hate feeling like im constantly complaining but i'm honest to god so turned off by so much of the way people engage with the shit i do and with most things in general. it's so beyond frustrating. i am so stressed out already anticipating the stupid shit i'm gonna have to see about perverts lol. it literally makes me never want to share anything again, i miss when i had like 20 fans who actually had something interesting to say in response to what i was making. I HATE IT HERE

Okay, I would like to address what Ethel has said here in two steps, the first of which is me pretty much relating to this. I've been making content for 10 plus years on the internet around music and music reviews, and the phenomenon that Ethel is talking about here is absolutely 110% real.

Way, way, way, way, way earlier on in the life of my original YouTube channel, The Needle Drop, the quality of discussion and discourse around the albums I was reviewing in the YouTube comments was much, much, much better. Way better in terms of people actually engaging with the material I'm discussing, engaging in the things I'm saying. And actually leaving thoughtful responses about the music I'm talking about or even stuff I've said that they disagree with, legitimately taking me to task and dropping in some actually persuasive arguments and perspectives or leaving comments that just lend more context to the art that the video is about. These types of comments defined the comment section.

While certainly people did make jokes in the comments, more thoughtful awful discourse, pretty much defined the comment section for the most part. But as the audience for what I did grew and grew and grew and grew, that became less so the case. And look, it wasn't because I got way funnier, or I willed it to be so, or I started seeing stuff in my videos like, 'Okay, guys, let's see if you can be the funniest person in the comments.'

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. All I'm saying in this section of the video is that what Ethel is discussing is true. It is a slippery slope that I think most online communities fall down that surround certain pieces of content as they get bigger and bigger and bigger. As thoughtful discourse around the music I'm talking about in any given video is not what's rising to the top in my comment sections. Even when you go to places like my subreddit, for example, where you would presume that you might get some more focused, specific discourse on a review on a topic, whatever, the commentary is just so fucking stupid and completely lacking in context.

For example, this is in response to my recent Smile review.

Man's stuck on his high horse of wanting crazy song progressions, catchy melodies, or volatile politically charged lyrics.

He should stick to reviewing hiphop and pop albums. This ain't his cup of tea.

He really doesn't like introspective/artsy music unless it's politically or racially charged.

Now, to think this, not only would you have to be a total fucking idiot, but you would also have to ignore the fact that The Smile dropped two albums this year, the first of which I loved and gave a very positive review. So you're telling me within a matter of months, I've completely fallen out of favor with art rock or abstract music in general?

If you dig deep enough into the various common sections on YouTube, you will find that here and there, there are actually thoughtful comments being dropped on a regular basis when you're digging through just the sea of memes and pithy responses. But the thing is, these takes and these paragraphs of well-thought-out text are not rising to the top because they take more time and focus and effort for people to process. And sadly, because of that need for more reaction time in order for people to actually engage with thoughtful discourse in comment sections, that pretty much disincentivizes these types of comments. And what gets prioritized instead are things that people can react to more quickly, be that with a thumb up or a thumb down or a comment. That pretty much leaves you with three major types of responses that are rising to the top in these comment sections and on social media.

The first type of comment is that psychotic level of glazing that you typically see coming off of Stan accounts. 'Oh, this is the greatest thing to ever happen. It's the deepest thing to ever be recorded or posted to the internet. It's blowing my mind. This person is the second coming of Jesus Christ. Oh, my God.' Two, really stupid or ignorant or negative comments, which obviously get a lot of reactions because the hardcore fans that are there ready to defend the thing with their life that they love. They're firing back, they're getting into it. And then the third type of comment, which Ethel is talking about here, is the joke.

Nowhere you go on the internet, be it Twitter or Instagram or YouTube or wherever, no comment section you see is organic anymore. The first comments that you see and that you get hit with in any given comment section are from either people or accounts that you follow or comments and responses that are already being responded to or engaged with in mass. You are seeing curated responses, you are seeing spam, you are seeing bots. You're not seeing the discourse flow and unfold in a real or, again, organic way.

So repeatedly, the discourse around any given thing, especially art, is being defined by extremely positive comments, extremely negative comments, or again, just jokes, just humor. While the audience most certainly has a responsibility in all of this, what I want to stress is this is literally how social media platforms work. Frankly, it's destroying discourse around things. Not just art, but politics, too.

And look, especially when you get a large, large audience around something, the majority of the comments around that thing are never going to be super profound or super deep. That is true because most people aren't prepared to engage in art that way. Maybe that could change if more people on a regular basis in comment sections were exposed to thoughtful, in-depth discourse around art, politics, or whatever.

But the thing is, none of these sites, apps, or platforms are here to educate you or hold your hand through these types of processes. They exist to make money, to sell advertising, and to keep you on the app, keep you on the platform. Unfortunately, in terms of numbers, all of these places have figured out simultaneously thoughtful, in-depth, time-consuming discourse is not what keeps people on these platforms. What keeps people on these platforms are things that validate them, things that piss them off, or funny stuff.

Unfortunately, now that the internet and social media becomes a prime mode through which we interact with other people on a regular basis, this crap seeps into real life. Individuals like Ethel here have the misfortune of dealing with people who have this terminally online brain rot. They're repeating these stupid jokes around her art in front of her, in her face, as if this is how I need to show this person that I appreciate what they do, when in fact, there are lots of other ways of doing that.

Still, at this point, it is my wholehearted belief that the vast majority of people are not like this. They're not fully brain-rotted quite yet, and they are actually deeply appreciating the content that it is they're engaging with. The problem is the internet doesn't really incentivize them to share in that. In fact, it's just a waste of time on their part to write these three or four or five whole-ass paragraphs about why the album is amazing and how it touched them, because for the most part, people are just going to ignore that. It's like once in a blue moon that that comment actually rises to the top and people love it and people engage with it and people respond to it thoughtfully.

If you feel like the comment sections around a given thing are lacking profound observations, maybe do your best to post some of those yourself. Or when you go into any given comment section, maybe don't thumb up the fucking joke that you've already seen posted 200 times already. The joke has been posted. You've seen it a bunch of other times. Maybe it was funny the first two or three times it was around. But we don't need to give the 40th person to post the same unoriginal joke for the millionth time a cookie for doing so. Maybe throw a thumb up to the person who's actually saying something meaningful instead in order to facilitate a bit more balance between the silliness and the seriousness.

Keep in mind, that this is not anti-comedy or an anti-humor. I myself, obviously, employ a lot of humor in my videos and in my reviews. And as Ethel says in this rant that she posted, she herself loves to laugh and has engaged with her fans on the internet in ways that are funny, that play into an irony around her or her music. In some respects, Ethel is very much a shit poster, too. But it just doesn't need to be that all the time. While humor is most likely always going to reign supreme on some level on the internet, let's just try to strike a bit more balance from here on out, possibly.

And I think I'm going to leave it there. Those are my thoughts on what I think is a very important topic. I mean, I'm somebody who literally makes a living off of talking about art. Art discourse is my life. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments, to what degree you can. You guys are the best.

Anthony Fantano. Irony. Ethel Cain. Forever.