Florence + Machine’s Florence Welch explains why she changed her mind about TikTok after criticism of the app this year.
In early 2022, Welch was one of many female artists to complain about label pressure to post on TikTok, writing: “The label is asking me for low fi tik tox, here it is. please send help.”
Among those complaining were FKA Horns, who said she was “announced today for not doing enough” and then deleted her TikTok account. Charli XCX and Self Esteem also joined the conversation, with Halsey saying that their label won’t let them release a new song unless it “has a viral moment on TikTok.”
in a new interview with The New Yorker As part of an investigation into TikTok’s impact on the music industry, Welch said he warmed to TikTok and its “anarchic” audience throughout the year.
He is “active [doesn’t] I want to go viral,” Welch added. “Anytime anything of mine goes remotely viral, it fills me with dread. Any attention that is not directly related to the work or the album, I don’t want it. He also said, “My fans, the people who follow me, they can’t believe that I suddenly decided to do TikTok.”
Saying that he eventually gave up and posted the necessary videos, he added: “I was going to another meeting about this launch and they’re asking me why I didn’t do anything.”
After a TikTok of her singing “My Love” went viral, Welch said the process was “anarchic and funny and weird, and I loved it.”
He continued, “I feel like it’s a platform where you can be an outsider. For example, if I want to drink fake blood in a graveyard, TikTok is an environment that accepts it.
Earlier this year, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Respect, wrote an essay about the pressure female artists face to provide TikTok content.
Writing The GuardianTaylor said: “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the recent examples of artists who have had their labels push them onto TikTok are all women.
“My pub-psych theory is that the music industry thinks social media is inherently a woman’s thing – another patriarchal idea that women and gay men are interested in other women’s details and men are too busy and too important to be . interest in these things.”
She added: “There’s something darker and more invasive about encouraging women to use it. It just reinforces the nagging feeling that your music and art as a female artist isn’t taken as seriously.
Elsewhere, Florence + The Machine recently announced rescheduled dates for their UK and Ireland tour.
The band have been forced to cut their 2022 dates short after Welch broke his leg on stage at The O2 in London last month.