If you’ve ever owned a band T-shirt, chances are you’ve been asked to name five songs by that band. Whether you know them or not, it is still a frustrating situation to be put into by someone you might not even know. This phenomenon is called gatekeeping, which is the idea of limiting people’s access to, or enjoyment of, something due to certain factors. For example, if you were born in 2003 like I was, and listen to a band that isn’t from your time, people who listened to the same band during their era of relevance could say that you have “no business” listening to a band that old.
Based on what I’ve seen on social media, namely TikTok and Instagram, gatekeeping is a huge issue among so many people. Another interesting example of gatekeeping is when a song goes viral on TikTok. Those who were original fans of that song or artist will get upset at the fact that people are using it as background audios to their videos. However, I see this in a totally different way. When a song or band goes viral on social media, it should be seen as a good thing. Artists gain more supporters, and therefore they will be able to make more music and do more things in general due to a bigger fanbase. Every artist wants to be known, and social media is the way to do it these days.
Circling back to the T-shirts, what’s the deal with that? I think that a lot of it has to do with misogyny. At least from what I’ve seen on social media and from personal experience, it’s usually men asking women the “name five songs” question. I’d like to reiterate here that this is all my opinion based on my observations in life. Men who are very big music fans tend to put women down for liking the same kind of music as them. One of the most interesting examples of this that I’ve been from TikTok is joking about how Nirvana fans that are women only know the basic songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Come As You Are.” There seems to be some kind of stigma towards women liking bands that men like within society, which leads to gatekeeping.
I often ask myself why this is the case. What is it about certain rock bands that make men want to gatekeep it from women? It’s especially weird to see teenagers do this with older bands, because it’s not like they were around during the times of these older bands either. In my opinion, this kind of thing is very deeply rooted in sexism and the way society views women; they’re strictly pop music fans and shouldn’t get involved with anything that is more “hardcore” than that.
People will do anything to make the smallest thing a competition, even when it’s not necessary. Everyone should be able to listen to whatever music they want to listen to, and everyone should be able to wear whatever shirt they want to wear. If it’s a band shirt, who cares if they don’t know any of their songs. Some bands have very fashionable merchandise, and people can appreciate the way they look without knowing where the drummer’s mom was born.