The world of social media is a pretty tawdry place, as we all know at this point. Sensationalism, misinformation, and division are all rewarded, often with large profits at the expense of all the rest of us.
For the professional musician or artist, it has brought a number of promotional tools, but the time spent just figuring out this month’s tricks to reach your own followers is exhausting, and makes it seem far from worth the time-sucking effort. “Would Lester Flatt have ever done this?” you ask yourself (let’s admit it, though, a Lester Flatt self-promotional reel would have been an amazing thing to see).
The stoking of division, and the misinformation might be the most destructive part: some people are using sketchy or outright false information to advance a political cause, and that’s bad enough. But others use false stories just to drive up “engagement,” and get the maximum number of clicks from people either shocked by the fake story, or clicking on it to see if it’s actually true, and still others who, with the best of intentions, make the mistake of commenting below to point our that in fact Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not go on a date with Beyoncé. Little do they know that their comment will only expand the reach of this dumb and cynical post.
Speaking of Beyoncé, an extremely annoying trend in social media is the country music disinformation pages that have proliferated. Some appear to exist solely to trash Beyoncé for some reason, usually posting fake stories about George Strait or Reba McEntire “speaking out” about her: “GEORGE STRAIT TELLS IT LIKE IT IS!”. There are other targets as well, and the stories are always 100% made-up. It’s extremely rare for one artist or star to trash another one within or outside of their genre, unless one of them is extremely bitter for some reason or just mentally ill. They know better, but that doesn’t prevent some rogue Facebook account called “Country Music Fans Forever” or something else innocuous-sounding from saying it happened anyway.
There’s also the practice of posting deliberately wrong photographs: “Here’s a young Bob Dylan with Joan Baez in 1964,” and it’s a picture of Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson. This is just so people will comment and say, “Are you stupid? That’s not Bob Dylan OR Joan Baez. Time for new glasses, dumbass!!” And just like that, engagement is driven up. People are actually making a living doing this, which should make you feel so much better about your own profession, even in the hard times.
It’s all about the clickbait, and sensational headlines are key to drawing people in. A YouTube video on its own is unlikely to draw in more than our most faithful followers, so now even good quality music videos are given a cover with a dramatic looking picture and bold writing in bright yellow: “YOU’VE NEVER HEARD THIS SONG DONE QUITE LIKE THIS BEFORE!” What follows is a well-played but fairly conventional version of Blue Ridge Cabin Home.
This got me to thinking, what if we used this style of clickbait headline to stir up some engagement for some of our other bluegrass classics? (please like and share!!):
Julie Ann: FIND OUT JUST HOW LITTLE SELF-WORTH THIS MAN HAS! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE CHORUS!
John Deere Tractor: OMG! MAN COMPARES HIMSELF TO TRACTOR IN VERY SMALL FIELD! Watch video here . . .
Down the Road: ONE MAN WALKS OVER 12,000 STEPS A DAY TO VISIT NEIGHBOR. IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!!
Little Glass of Wine – HIS GIRLFRIEND ISN’T READY TO COMMIT! WHAT HE DOES WILL SHOCK YOU!!
Wagon Wheel – WOW! MUSICIAN TRAVELS WEST TO GO EAST! IMPOSSIBLE! Click here . . .
Rocky Top: UNBELIEVABLE! FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO STRANGERS ATTEMPT TO VISIT REMOTE OFF-THE-GRID COMMUNITY!! Watch video now!
Blue Moon of Kentucky – WHOA!! KENTUCKY MAN GETS PROPHETIC MESSAGE WHISPERED FROM THE SKY. FIND OUT WHAT IT SAID!!
Old Home Place – OH NO!! THIS MAN MADE A HUGE MISTAKE GOING TO CHARLOTTESVILLE! THE FOURTH VERSE WILL TEAR YOUR HEART OUT!!!
The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake – A FATHER’S ADVICE AFTER HIS LITTLE GIRL IS TERRIFIED BY THE SCARIEST SNAKE YOU’VE EVER SEEN! EVERY PARENT NEEDS TO HEAR THIS!!
