With the increasing popularity of TikTok, gatekeeping has become more common. Gatekeeping serves as a way to guilt-trip people out of fandoms or liking a new artist/band. I find this extremely annoying and unnecessary, especially since I have had my own encounters with gatekeeping. 

I understand that some people think that if new fans discover an “underground artist” they will ruin it. In some cases, I will say that I agree. I don’t necessarily think that new fans ruin things, but they make it a bit less enjoyable due to acting like they have known the artist as long as other people have. But really, when did it become so cool to be judgemental?

WHAT IS GATEKEEPING?

Gatekeeping is the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something. For example, I have been listening to a band called Vundabar for quite some time now. Recently, a song of theirs blew up on TikTok called “Alien Blues”. 

I was quite surprised to see the song being used all the time while I was scrolling through my For-You page. Most of their fans were ecstatic to see the band gaining popularity, but a handful of fans decided to gatekeep and deride the new fans. They were saying, “Oh you guys just found out about this song? I’ve known about it for years.” Honestly, why does it matter when someone finds out about someone or something? All that matters is that they enjoy it.

WHY DO PEOPLE GATEKEEP?

From my experiences, people gatekeep because they want to feel like something belongs to them and only them. I know what it feels like to discover an underground artist and how it’s pretty cool to see them blow up, but that doesn’t give people the excuse to gatekeep or be mean to newer fans. 

I feel like people forget that music is for everyone’s enjoyment and that’s why it was made. You would think that most people would want their favorite artist to have a spike in popularity and money in their pockets, but sometimes that’s just not the case. Gatekeepers should put themselves in the artist’s shoes because they would see how amazing it is to blow up and have a larger fanbase. The people gatekeeping the songs are really the ones ruining it. 

THE PROBLEM WITH GATEKEEPING.

There’s quite a few things wrong with gatekeeping. For one, it discourages people from wanting to listen to an artist’s music or even join the fandom due to fear of being teased for being a newer fan. I’ve seen scenarios where a fandom has been called “mean” due to one person being rude and gatekeeping. I think that one person gatekeeping should not lead to the fandom being called “mean”.

Another reason that gatekeeping is a problem is that it can turn people and fandoms toxic quickly. I’ve seen some of the nicest people ever turn hateful due to an argument about gatekeeping or even just them gatekeeping in general.   

GATEKEEPING IS OKAY… SOMETIMES.

Even though I’ve described it as bad, gatekeeping is okay SOMETIMES. I’ve encountered fans that spread rumors about the artist or make them seem like a bad person. In those types of scenarios it’s okay to let them know that it’s not okay and that they shouldn’t be in the fandom unless they can respect the artist.

In May 2020, Lana Del Rey’s song “National Anthem” started to become more popular on TikTok. With this sudden spike in popularity came gatekeepers and newer fans. People started rumors about how Lana apparently “burned a bible”. That rumor was not true and was made up to drag fans away from Lana’s music and make Lana seem like a bad person. 

GATEKEEPING=POPULARITY?

There have been many cases where Commentary YouTubers have taken a gatekeeper’s comment and made a video about it. Even though they may have blurred out the user that posted the comment, they are still bringing attention to the whole topic of gatekeeping. The Youtuber makes money and the gatekeeping gains publicity. 

If people stop bringing attention to the topic of gatekeeping, it might result in gatekeeping becoming way less popular and might completely stop. Videos with #gatekeeping in the description have obtained more than 70 million views, proving it is an extremely popular topic. 

INSTEAD OF GATEKEEPING TRY THIS.

There’s many different alternatives to gatekeeping. For example, instead of being annoyed or mad that a song you like has reached a wave of new people, try to befriend some of the new fans. It will most likely be pretty easy since you already have at least one thing in common with each other: music taste.