The never-ending conversation about the role social media plays in boosting young artists’ careers.
The music industry has changed a lot since 2020, when TikTok came onto the scene. The sort form video content app helps many artists get discovered, boosts the careers of established names in the music space, and allows up-and-coming artists to share their takes on the industry.
It’s an app full of good and bad. Since it’s heavily changed the roads a young artist has to walk to reach fame, it’s led to a lot of conversation among country music veterans on whether they think it’s a good thing or a bad thing, with younger stars not learning their stripes playing the bar scene and having to rough it for years before breaking through.
Miranda Lambert recently sat down with Joe Rogan for the most recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. The Texas native covered a wide array of topics during their almost two and a half hour conversation, ranging from her golf journey, getting involved in mounted shooting, missing the road during the pandemic, and more.
During their conversation, the two brought up the topic of social media and how it can be damaging to society. Which, in all honesty, is a fair point. Rogan joked that he feels like he’s doing something crazy when he goes to use the restroom and leaves his phone on the nightstand instead of bringing it in the bathroom with him.
We are all glued to our phones so much so that when we decide to take a break from social media, we have to announce it to the world, which we learned via this conversation is one of Lambert’s pet peeves.
“Something that’s annoying, if I can just say it, is that like when people do take a break from social media, that’s like all they tell you about the whole time. ‘Well. I’m on a break from social media.’ Like, can you be on a break without telling anybody that you’re on a break from social media?”
Lambert admits that, while she gets overwhelmed by social media because of how it’s changed the music landscape, as the founder of Big Loud Texas, she feels as though she’s missing out on talent discovery if she abstains from it.
‘It overwhelms me, honestly, like I’m trying to, you can’t keep up with it, so I don’t try to keep up with it. But like I was just talking on my way here, and I was like, ‘Maybe I need to get on TikTok.’ Like, there’s a lot of music on TikTok, there’s a lot of musicians.
We have a label now called Big Loud Texas, our office is in Austin, and I’m like, I know there is amazing talent on there, and one of our flagship artists, Dylan Gossett, posted something awesome on there, and now he’s out there crushing it. So I feel like I’m missing out, but then I’m like, ‘Do I need one more thing?’ I don’t know. It’s like a battle.”
Rogan offered Lambert the idea of having her assistant scroll through TikTok to scout talent, which Lambert shared she already does, and that has helped her discover one of their artists. It’s all about balance.
Rogan shares that although he does not love how addictive social media is personally, he thinks it’s great professionally for musicians and comedians to share their work, music, and upcoming events. Lambert wholeheartedly agreed and shared that, while she’s thankful for the blood, sweat, and tears she put in to build her career the way she did, she’s sometimes jealous that younger artists can get discovered overnight off one viral moment.
“Oh, me too! I was stapling my posters to a phone pole when I started. Like I did it old school —boots on the ground, walking up to the radio station, knocking on the door and saying, ‘Can I play a song?’
Have you ever seen Loretta Lynn’s life story? Have you ever seen Coal Miner’s Daughter? That. Like me and my mom with a baloney sandwich in my mom’s Ford Expedition, like driving around all over Texas. Me going, ‘I’m a singer/songwriter.’ Now, I’m jealous of the way that people can do it now.
I’m thankful for that, but I’m also like, ‘Well damn.’ These kids just post something, and 100 million people see it in a night. What’s happening?”
Rogan brings up the point that while it’s excellent for young stars to be discovered this way, there is something very respectable about settling into who you are before getting a spotlight shone on you. Also, climbing the ranks makes you a more well-rounded businessman or woman entering the music industry, because you know what a good deal looks like and what a bad one does.
Rogan brought up his good friend and viral sensation Oliver Anthony in this example, noting that he was established as a man and had lived a lot of life before he was discovered. However, even after he shot to the top of the charts with “Rich Men North of Richmond,” he was being thrown to the wolves, as record executives were giving him offers.
Lambert says that when you become famous like this without experience, you end up paying your dues backwards.
“You can’t learn… You do the journey in reverse. It’s so mind-boggling, like I can’t even put it into words, because I’m thinking how you get your chops, and you did it fight by fight. You did it stage by stage when doing comedy. It just happened so fast, and it’s like, and then you still have to pay the dues, it’s just like backwards.”
At least in Anthony’s case, they both agreed that he was much more well off, given that he had paid his dues in society as a working man. However, for the younger generation, it’s hard to make these big decisions while figuring out who they are as individuals.
“For someone that’s like 17. It scares me. I’m just like, we still got to go do the work now. Still got to start developing who you are now, even though the world knows who they think you are.”
Lambert shared.
Social media is both a good and a bad thing. It can launch careers, but it can hurt an artist if their first shows are in front of huge audiences and they don’t have time to perfect their craft. However, once an artist has reached the limelight, most artists don’t care how you got there. While some might feel animosity toward not having to put in the sweat equity today that was required in years prior, each struggle looks different in the context of current music industry trends.
I think Ashley McBryde said it best while talking to Whiskey Riff Raff earlier this year, saying that the scars on their knuckles look a little different than hers, but they are still scars:
“Maybe you are a theater kid. Maybe you got to country music and you started out in professional theater. The scars on your knuckles are different than mine. It doesn’t mean you didn’t fight.”
If you want to check out the entire interview, you can fire that up while you’re here:
