Why TikTok Music Promotion is Cringe (with James Marriott) 

the fact that tom macdonald is talking about “his generation” like he’s 75 when he’s literally a millennial makes me want to end it all

"My generation had a drivers license by 14, a job by 16, moved out by 17. Your generation is still trying to define what a woman is and living in your parent's basement until 35." Tom MacDonald is 34. What generation does he think he is, exactly?

fun fact, the tramp stamps tried to move to tumblr and they got trolled by the entirety of tumblr using archived memes off the site. it was absolutely hilarious

i want a subreddit to be born called “charlie puth music prompts” where people do the “what if there was a song that went do do doo, and a tsst tsst tsst, and then if i go oooououuu” and then talented people actually try to make a song from that point rather than the other way around

Him saying that his generation doesn't give a fuck about the things they don't agree with, while simultaneously making an entire video bitching about the things he doesn't agree with is the best. His lack of self awareness is comical.

"My generation grew up on uncensored anything" is funny because if anything modern media is much more explicit than in the 90s or 80s if you don't count dated bigotry. Shows like The Boys would have a hard time existing during the Reagan era.

“My generation broke the law by getting a drivers license by 14, wasted my time by getting a job instead of focusing on my education at 16, and was kicked out because I have daddy issues at 17. Your generation has just begun and half of you aren’t even 14 yet.” - Old Macdonald Had a Farm

I’ll never get over the fact that a lot of these musicians who try to be “punk” or edgy are often conservative trumpies. Like just say you don’t understand what punk is 😭

Finally someone talks about this. I HATE new tiktok music promotion. There are a few good ones, but like 95 percent of are horrible. Gabi is really the hero we needed.

"your generation censors everything" do you think we Want this. i want youtubers to be able to say Fuck and not have the internet softened for advertisers. that's my idea of censorship. his is him being mad he can't call people slurs in the grocery store lmao

“Did I just invent the next big emo anthem?” *Disney music with the wildest set of words ever to exist in a sentence together*

The first dude is not Post Malone. That’s 37 year old Post Divorce

"Did that make you wet?" Ew wtf?? I know it's staged but just the idea of a stranger asking me that is so nasty

tom mcdonald is yet another thing we as canadians have to apologize for

"My generation grew up with uncensored everything, your generation censors everything." Homie has never met anyone who had unrestricted internet access as a kid. Shit wasn't censored and now we have trauma that we want to prevent others from getting 💀💀💀

“my generation only wants the truth and the facts” * *blatantly lies to the camera* *

"Eminem used to gay bash" Eminem: "But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes Then there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope" Goofy behavior

Tom MacDonald is 34 years old. He's a year YOUNGER than me, and I still managed to grow into a regular human being with empathy and an understanding of oppression. He doesn't get to blame "his generation" for being an asshole.

Only tumblr could chase away a music group by spamming the word “Bug Ass”

Tom referring to the genocide of indigenous people as "native casualties" is WILD

The last guy adding captions to the girl like "not her being shy

7:41 “eminem used to gay bash and murder his mom” I like how this lyric implies that he didn’t just murder her once, he continuously murdered his mom as if it was an activity lmao like “he used to murder his mom” bro you can only murder someone once get better lyrics 💀

7:08 THE FACT THAT YOU UNDERSTOOD THE BROKEN CLOCK THING AS IT WAS BROKEN BUT ALWAYS MOVING JUST AT THE WRNOG TIME, THATS HOW I UNDERSTOOD IT TOO LMAOO OMGG THIS MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW

Btw rage against the machine is extremely left leaning, fronted by poc, talking about politics in a really radical way and protested a lot, they aren't right wing at all, the right just doesn't understand what the lyrics to their most popular song is and use it but I promise if you look up rages songs you'll see their true views, idk why they get a bad rep

i really dislike when these creators use mental health or depression as a way to make people relate to a songs topic. it feels very disingenuous, like they know a huge amount of people who are spending a lot of time on the internet struggle with mental health and it feels like they’re exploiting that for money/attention and to seem “relatable”. i guess i can’t confirm that the creators don’t struggle with the same things, but it doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a real place, more of a jokey like, “OMG if you have anxiety, this song is for YOU!!!”

seeing James not bark and growl in a video just healed my entire world (still gonna watch every stream tho)

“oh my god, karen, you can’t just ask someone if they’re wet” ESPECIALLY after u insulted their tattoos

1:15 “My generation grew up on uncensored everything.“ Yeah maybe except gay couples, divorce, even remotely s3xy content, or anything taboo in general. But ok

A more accurate name for Tom macdonald is “rage in favor of the machine”

I believe the "Charlie Puth" method works so well (not only in Music) because it gives viewers that false sense of accomplishment that "i can turn an idea into something in a matter of minutes, If I put my mind to it"

I love seeing artists just playing their song and that's the whole video. It feels more genuine and it adds new value by giving people a "live" version of the song, and they can be excited for what will be different in a produced version when it's released

When ever anyone talks about the good ol days when stuff was not so censored I am livid because they censored sailor moon and gave us incestuous cousins instead of a beautiful wholesome lesbian couple because that's better?

I like how Tom McDonald straight up lies, no you can't get your driver's license at 14 in BC, Canada (where he is from)

8:00 this is like rage against the machine, but in defense of the machine

The irony of the first guy saying his generation doesn't give a shit about stuff they don't agree with, while literally whining about stuff he doesn't agree with

The best part is that "kids these days" happens to *every.* *generation.* Yes it's important to learn from the wisdom of older generations, but we've been continously improving as humans as time goes on. It's equally important to listen to the passion of youth. Their critiques may sting, but we also have more to learn about life.

I saw a YT short yesterday of JAX with a kid she says she babysits, and in it she was like, "yesterday the kid I babysit got made fun of for how she looks so then I wrote this song for her, and now I am gonna sing it to her!" and then she goes on to play the kid the very fully produced version of Victoria's Secret. Modern music promotion is wild.

OMG Gabi finally learning what the “broken clock” saying was actually about is the most adorable thing ever! Lol

my favorite tramp stamps verse is "gone away is my real dad, here to stay is my stepdad" because its so transparently bait

The funniest thing is that Tom MacDonald censors the swear words in his music videos as well 💀 you can't even blame that on the platform

wow.. not staring at your iphone in the 90s.. what an accomplishment. that geezer deserves a medal!

“The facts don’t care about your feeling... they only care about mine.” 😂😂😂

At this point, cancel culture is just a concept people think is always happening around us all the time, but it isn’t practiced as much as people think.

Tom McDonald is such a funny man because my mom is older than him and is somehow less transphobic, less rude, and much less "back in my day" like no Tomathy, it's not your generation, it's just you

Seeing Gabi learn how a common phrase works is the highlight of this video

lewis capaldi is the only person who is allowed to do this cause he takes the piss out of it the whole time and it is hilarious

“My generation doesn’t give a fuck about things we don’t agree with” *proceeds to go on a rant about trans people minding their business*

i grew up in baltimore city during the time when EVERYONE wanted to be a rapper and were just randomly handing out their CD's near the subway stations and that was less annoying than tiktok music promotion.

I actually really like watching someone write and play music. My partner plays guitar and electric while we're on call and it's so fun to see their brain work. So I say more real behind the scenes as music promos.

15:20, it’s very common in the rap community for it to go that way. I’m an engineer, and I have the instrumental loaded, auto tune in key the second the artist walks in and we write it together as we go

Tom MacDonald seems like the kind of guy who would've made those "SO WHY DO GOOD GIRLS LIKE BAD GUUUYS" tiktoks when they were a thing

One of the biggest issues with political musicians is that they just state their political ideologies to a beat

3:42 Tom your parents generations literally INVENTED doing that. Youre grandparents LIVED in a time where all you did was judge of race and sex ☠️ what is he on about???

“Your generation is still trying to decide what a woman is and living in your parents basement until your 35” sir. The oldest a gen z can be is like 26.

Trying to promote my music on TikTok led to more egodeath than I could’ve ever expected. Oddly enough, I’ve found it’s a lot easier for me to manage others. It’s given me a healthier degree of separation between me and how I go about content creation for myself and my clients.

Tom Macdonald is 34. He’s part of the generation he’s complaining about

No cause Tom MacDonald literally being a millennial and talking like a Booker is killing me. I hate the whole insult the new and younger generation thing. Also him saying "his generation doesn't care about the things he doesn't agree with" but also making a whole video bashing the younger generation because he doesn't agree with them.

14:43 Okay, so skit A is the school one and skit B is the producer one. So skit B is poking fun at the other skits, including skit A, but skit B is portrayed as the conception of the song for skit A, meaning skit A and any other skits promoting the song don't exist yet, but skit B still makes a reference to the song in skit A, so skit B referenced skit A and any other skits promoting the song while it didn't exist, skit A simply shows the kid _using_ the song, and skit A became a reality using the song that the producer joked about and inspired. Please it's 3:58 am I can't do this

we don't give a f about the things we don't agree with, yet makes a whole tiktok about the things he doesn't agree with.

i completely thought the same thing as gabi about the broken clock thing but never questioned how it made sense, i just accepted it as a fact

8:59 Foreshadowing intensifies

I have many mental problems, the most basic of which widdle down to depression, anxiety, and ADHD. I never like music that is so superficial about these mental illnesses because honestly, I fucking hate having these issues. It isn't fun, it isn't quirky, it's hell. I've been taking Adderall before I knew who my country's first president was. I cannot function properly in social settings, which doesn't mean I just angstly sit in the corner like a Wattpad character, it means I'm trying to talk to people and they don't fucking like me because I'm being annoying to them. I suffer everyday trying to just exist and the last thing I wanna hear about is my issues. I listen to music written about love, heartbreak, divorce, death, or literally any other thing besides my mental illnesses. The closest is The Lullaby by The Cure, but that song is only theorized to be about mental illness, it's really about a spider eating people. I hate mental illness music, write something more original than the textbook definition of a generalized group of people.

“there’s rappers pushing xanax at the top of the billboard” i’m sorry, would you like us to censor them for you?

Tom MacDonald is also only 34 lol. He's a millennial, and not even a very old one. Sure you could say his criticisms are aimed at gen z, but he's talking like he's gen x and not a millennial- who have had these criticisms aimed at them for the last decade.

how are these people not absolutely, mortifyingly embarassed. i literally couldnt

To go back on the thing with songs being shorter now, I am in a modern music school, and I play with a band (that I didn't choose), most of the people with me are the classic 'tiktok kids'. With our tutor, we were discovering the new song we now have to learn and it's 4.20 minutes long. All of the others said that it was too long, that a good music now is 2 minutes long, and that anything longer than 3 minutes quickly becomes boring... I don't have tiktok, I listen to all kinds of songs, and I saw our tutor being desperate with them, it's really stupid

i think the sad thing is a lot of artists even BIG artists have to promote on tiktok like contractually due to how popular it is

“My generation has-“ WOW so crazy that generations are completely different and evolve from the generation before the,… absolute insanity, who would’ve thought

Btw the tramp stamps were originally on tumblr but got “bullied” off through troll asks saying “BUG ASS”

Oh my god, I also didn’t get the broken clock thing until just now. I had the same thought process as you. And James Marriott of all people was the one who had to explain it so I could understand

Gabi, THANK GOD! I ALWAYS misunderstood the “broken clock” think the same way you did! I feel way less stupid about it now

That fact that James mentioned where music promoted on tiktok isn't allowed to just have a moment is so true! I feel like it's so rare to find a song I actually like though tiktok, it's either just that one section that's good and the rest is so disjointed it might as well be from another song, or it's super repetitive. Maybe like 1/10 or 1/20 are songs I actually end up liking the whole thing. It's genuinely annoying.

First guy was like “your generation can’t decide which bathroom to use” then said “your generation harasses trans people and my generation doesn’t care” like this man is a “musician” but can’t even write a script that doesn’t contradict hims😂

It's been hard for me to explain to some people exactly WHY this part of Tiktok bugs the shit out of me, but both of you were hitting a lot of the highlights. It's not that all of the music is bad, or that I don't want small artists to have a way to break through the noise re: the music landscape being so crowded and often gatekept by industry professionals. But the disingenuous nature of it all turns me off so quickly! (Though some of that may also come from being too close to how the sausage gets made, as James said. I work in video production, so I've worked on a lot of music videos and overheard artists making their Tiktoks 10 times in a row until they get it just right in the green room or on set, or overheard a manager say they "need" to make a Tiktok to post today essentially to fill a quota. It takes away a lot of the sparkly, entertaining veneer of actually having to MAKE those videos.)

Honestly I’ve been thinking about that clock adage a lot lately and I’m glad James was able to clear it up

i like that gabi's idea of a broken clock is a clock that has the wrong time, that's adorable.

“My generation grew up on uncensored everything… BEFORE the Hayes Code!!” 😂

As an independent musician, I hate that the only way I can promote my work is by reducing it to short form content. When 1 make a song 2-3 minutes long, I actually want people to hear the whole thing, not just 15s of it. The ability to self-produce, promote, and distribute all from a bedroom/through a phone has made music WAY more accessible which is great! But it sucks that pandering to social media is now just as important as the quality of a song if you want it to get heard.

Gabi you have been absolutely popping off with these collabs lately! We appreciate y'all's hard work!!

A coworker old white lady recommended Tom Macdonald then the nicer old white lady receptionist apologized to me when she looked up who that was

I hate I just found this after a month!? I watch both of their videos all the time and absolutely love when they collaborate! Honestly they need to collab on a song together! I was pleasantly surprised to find out they both produced music well after I found their commentary vids.

THANK YOU GABI, THAT IS ALWAYS HOW I INTERPRETED THAT CLOCK ANALOGY AND I FEEL EVERYTHING YOU SAID

"This guy is Rage Against The Machine, but worse" nah this guy is Rage For The Machine

i love it when videos end abruptly like this it’s so fresh and i’m being 100% serious. we need more videos that simply stop when they are over. thank you gabi belle

I thought the same thing about the clock analogy thing Gabi!! And thank you James for providing clarity!

its so hard to not fall in the hipster mentality when people make music like this

19:20 I think Jame's story here is actually a really important piece of the puzzle. I make random IG videos of my modeling projects that I do and they never get any attention outside of my friends, but one day as a joke I made a sped-up video with some cheerful music under it to look in the style of 5 minute craft type videos, and it got thousands of views. And I was pretty mad, actually. It felt like all my hard work of regular videos was a waste of time if all I really had to do was throw up some crap that took less than 5 minutes to make. I never made one like that again. So I think some of these people may have gone down a similar path where a they made a joke that accidentally worked, but they just decided to keep running with it. And sometimes I can't blame them for it.

I love when conservatives complain about cancel culture as if it's a thing that exists. It ain't cancel culture, it's accountability culture.

for some reason I had always thought of the broken clock analogy the same way gabi was thinking of it, but in my mind it was like if the clock keeps going around even if it's off it'll match up with the real time twice a day and the rest of the time it'll be fast/slow......idk but obviously the way james explained it makes way more sense so idk why it wasn't clear to me before um

4:41 macklemore [cuts to macaroni and cheese ad saying LITTLE EFFORT right of the bat] I'm sorry but that ABSOLUTELY KILLED ME I for sure thought you edited in, but it was AN ACTUAL AD!

The problem is that a lot of people do what they think they should be doing to promote on TikTok (ie: basic promo, singing to the cam videos, skits, “spontaneous” videos). In reality, they should be telling a story of the song, how the song connects to influences, the process behind it, etc. It feels like people are actively making bad promos to get boosted by the cringe factor, instead of making solid content! (This isn’t a totality statement either)

charlie puth is basically tryna do what ppl think making music is like for someone with perfect pitch

OMG. I only just found this channel a couple months ago and it's my new comfort channel so when I saw this video was a James Marriot collab, who is my old comfort youtuber (who I still watch). I can't. Perfect.

I’d like to point out that the ‘a broken clock bring right twice a day’ is originally ‘a stopped clock’ which probably clears it up

I think the worst part is some (read : not all) tiktok musicians are not that bad, but their advertising is so cringey its hard to bear.

I really struggle with promoting my music these days because I want to keep the mystery and open interpretation to my songs. I want people to be able to connect to them with their own truth. BUT it is so hard to get anything to stick with the small amount of time you really get to promote on any platform. You have to jump to these eye catching conclusions to get people to stick around. It's a weird time.... I try not to be cringe and hate trends but lately it's hard to get things to work without doing them at least a bit. Great video! I love your stuff and look forward to new videos from you all the time!

My favorite example of the tiktok promo is the guy goes “do you guys ever have that one girl that just got away” and the FIRST line of the song is “this is about the girl that got away”

6:34 thank you for admitting to not understanding the clock thing, I’ve never understood it either. I definitely thought about it exactly the same lmaoo

tysm for making this video, as someone who stopped making music because the whole management making you do tiktok thing destroyed my mental health.... this was awesome to hear and made me feel less crazy

17:45 he actually stole those lyrics from another tiktoker so like thats why he had to turn the comments off