trend rant

what pisses me off about tiktok is the insane pace of trends, its gotten to the point where trends blow up and last a month, effectively ruining it for people that were actually into it by inflating the prices of clothes and accessories associated w the subculture sky high and turning the music into something watered down and basic and changing the entire meaning and look of the subculture to suit the trend at the time and then moving on to another trend all in the next month because no one who participated in that trend was actually interested in it

and dont get me wrong, i love when new people start getting into the stuff that im into because maybe a trend helped introduce them to something they like, theyre not the problem. its the people who will change styles almost weekly because theyre so caught up in trying to follow the fast paced trends that come from tiktok. these people arent being themselves, theyre wearing subcultures like halloween costumes and theyre ruining it for anyone who are actually into the music and the fashion and the lifestyle and it really sucks

people that follow trends refuse to be respectful towards the subculture that they took something from. they refuse to acknowledge the trends roots and it eventually loses any ounce of meaning or ideology that it originally had. tiktok will take things and rebrand them to suit the tastes of its trend followers, changing the name and look of it. subcultures become something soulless and watered down, the ideologies and experiences and purpose completely erased from it. 

and not to mention it has to be so extremely exhausting trying to change your style to fit into a tiktok trend almost weekly. how much money are you spending to replace your entire wardrobe just to get rid of it later because you dress a different way? i hate tiktok because it trends things and then immediately discards it when it finds something else after making it virtually inaccessible or unenjoyable to the people that were actually into it

some level of "gatekeeping" must be kept or we end up with neonazis and skinheads invading goth and punk, taking elements from subcultures that are inherently against neonazi ideologies and changing them to suit their own. its how we end up with white supremacists in goth subcultures that tell people theyre not pale or white enough to be goth. its how we end up with pedophiles in scene or emo subcultures that use the social hierarchies placed in communities of primarily 13-17 year old scene or emo kids to gain power and admiration that they use to exploit the kids who look up to them. its how we end up with wrath shirt wearing columbine school shooting nazi germany obsessed losers invading rivethead and industrial subcultures that obsess over kmfdm and nine inch nails simply because the columbine shooters happened to like them. its how we end up with japanophile asian fetish weirdos invading lolita gyaru and visual kei subcultures that will obsess over any and every asian style, so long as its japanese

yes, anyone should be welcome to immersing themself in a subculture, but these subcultures need integrity and they need to stick to their core beliefs and ideologies as well because the wrong people with the wrong intentions will feel welcome and they will ruin it for everyone else. some people are just not welcome. is that a gatekeepy thing to say? maybe, maybe not. id rather be a gatekeeper than have to deal with another natural selection columbiner incel weirdo