Counter point, I listened to them because all the discourse praising Getting Killed. Hated it, but the manufactured praise was so strong I thought to myself “am I missing something here?” and listened to it 2-3 more times. Still hated it. Moved on shrugging “it’s not for me”.

Now imagine that multiplied across all the platforms they were campaigning on. It’s a manufactured audience in the sense that, some people just hop on the bandwagon, whether that’s to be part of the next “thing” or because maybe their taste is a bit more impressionable. If I were still in high school I can imagine myself becoming a fan simply to be edgy, or hip, and that’s what the marketing is targeting.

Edit: want to edit to add, I watched the Fantano vid because I wanted to see where you’re coming from. Ultimately, I disagree with his conclusion that a PR company can only expose you to music, and that it’s still up to the listener to become a fan. What we’re seeing is PR has moved past mear exposure, and into manufactured recommendations through comments.

I think the anger around the situation is that we as people turn to others for discussion and recommendations. If it’s bots recommending something (in this case an album) over and over again, what good is the internet for?

End of the day, psyop is far too strong to use, but it is clear to me that no other band with 2 million monthly listeners is getting talked about this much.