Just a Phase?
100 Gecs, Mother Mother, Hyperpop. Skater Skirts, Bunny Hats, Big Wings. Lockdowns, Loss, Stagnation. 2020 was a once-in-a-century experience felt by all both in unison and uniquely to each who lived through it. It also saw the explosion of the video-sharing app TikTok, which shook its roots as a lip-sync app as the pandemic hit to become a household name and part of the daily routine of millions of young people worldwide now isolated from the outside world.
There were many consequences of this phenomenon, such as indie rock band Mother Mother becoming international stars; their 2008 album Oh my 🖤 exploded on the platform having not seen any commercial success upon release 12 years ago, but now single "Hayloft" and album tracks "Arms Tonite" and "Wrecking Ball" were theme songs of the ‘alt’ subculture. As of 2024, the official Hayloft sounds on TikTok has 412.2k videos posted to it, the song itself has been streamed on Spotify 506 million times; in September of 2020, they found themselves at number 11 on Rolling Stone’s Breakthrough 25 15 years after their formation. The story of niche to mainstream can also be seen through hyperpop trailblazers 100 gecs, who had reached niche success in the online space in the late 2010s with their contemporaries JPEGmafia and other noise-beat acts but exploded into the mainstream through their virality on TikTok throughout the pandemic.
A compilation of alt and tiktoks, showing the bold fashion and the commonly used tiktok sounds for those that partook in the subculture. Compiled by noassecretlygay on youtube, 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
It was not just music that saw alternative subculture move into the mainstream - alternative fashion also became a prominent part of the culture grown throughout the pandemic. ‘Indie’ took on new meaning in those years, with oversaturated photos and ootd videos featuring bucket hats, baby tees, and bleach-dyed jeans of doodles. Meanwhile, ‘alt’ exploded from the e-boy and e-girl roots that had taken hold between 2018-2020: oversized tees and hoodies now paired with mini skater skirts and fishnets, knee-high demonias, and bunny hats with buttons to move the ears. Both camps agreed on striped shirts under their t-shirts, as well as deep blush over the nose, but the alt kids gravitated towards large graphic liner and half eyebrows while the indie kids donned freckles atop their blush and a natural-looking brow.
The common question to ask is: but why? For a large chunk of these movements, lockdown laws were in place, participants were getting dressed up to film their fit checks to sit in their garden, walk alone in a forest or park, or head to a petrol station to do a photoshoot next to the energy drinks fridge. Arguments in comment sections about posers felt more redundant especially in retrospect - is this truly subculture if participants cannot organize? If normal has already been destroyed, can you subvert it in the ways society is used to?
Brilliant video essay by Shashatainment on youtube, covering the 2020 tiktok alt era and the accusations about those that left the subculture being posers, 2024 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Shashatainment on YouTube argues that yes, this is still indeed subculture. Pulling from the academic works of Hall and Jefferson, they highlight that alt still met the credentials: specific music and clothing, political beliefs (such as the ACAB and BLM movements that became prominent in the summer of 2020), and had successfully assigned meaning to their own objects, the case in point being the often high levels of consumption of Monster Energy and the making of Monster Energy guns. Alt had its own cultural signifiers, but instead of these being developed in a geographic or cultural hub, these signifiers were developed in hubs made by an algorithm. The organization was taking place on group lives, in group chats, and in comment sections instead of bars, gigs, and rehearsal rooms.
u/Lunalavish on reddit shares their original monster gun photoshoot from 2020 with a recreation in 2023, donned in the iconic demonia knee high boots and fishnet sleeves. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The digital hub of culture is a step forward in answering the “but why?” question. The pervasive opinion is one of curing the loneliness that lockdowns produced. Humans are social creatures who thrive on connection, and we come up with creative ways to seek it. Those who have since left the alternative space cite the friends made as part of the reason they engaged in the subculture in the first place (such as the interviewee in the video above), and the ability to finally look like those we see on our screens is a pull many people will have felt.
A point that has not come up in research, however, is the need for stimulus. Young people in online classes who can only go out for short walks alone experienced a loss of structure, and a loss of motivation. There was time in the day, every day, for months, to practice large eyeliner, paint bleached patterns onto jeans, or overly edit their photos and videos. Why would it matter if they had shaved their eyebrows, or if they only presented a certain way for a few months, if no one was going to see them in person without a mask anyway? Perhaps part of the reason so many turned to the invasive brightness of oversaturation, the loud and to many nonsensical noises of hyperpop, and alternative rock and indie was because being trapped inside for years during the peak times of self-discovery creates reserves of energy and a lack of structure that called for humans to once again get creative with how they connect with others and the world around them.
This idea may also explain how the content on TikTok, specifically, became really, really odd, and how engaging with this content began to offer bragging rights among large groups of young people. This content area was labeled ‘deep TikTok’, characterized by eerie sounds and visuals often derived from children’s media and absurdist humor that would put some of Gen Alpha to shame. Content was often ‘deep fried’ or oversaturated to the point of obscuring the content, with a running gag being that those who engaged and understood were entering depths together that those outside could not comprehend. Even the more surface level, or ‘straight’ TikTok offerings don’t quite fit the idea of normative, with POV videos running the gamut from creators acting out being in the mafia and reactions to finding out the man charged with your brother’s murder is getting acquitted to alternate universes where you and your unknown soulmate make decisions for each other or that you live in the storytelling game episode. Young people would act to the camera as if they were flirting in a bar, sometimes going as far as to act out a sexual interaction - a lack of social connection, plus the months long underutilization of their energy, all laid out video by video to be emphatically consumed by their peers consumed with the same notion.
A compilation of deeptiktoks, showcasing the obsurdist humour and common video editing practices of young people during the pandemic. Compiled by Alana Sanai on youtube, 2020 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The final element of this idea is, of course, impact. It’s easy to feel like the pandemic was a fever dream, consigned to a question answered with “well, it was, you know-” and “oh right, yeah” or used as an excuse for the economic state of everything. Trends have come and gone with creators cringing at how they used to dress, but even if most of the culture has moved on, the remnants can still be seen. The alternative scene had its renaissance, and the emo rap phase that marked the late 2010s and early 2020s has matured into the resurgence of nu-metal. The latter point has seen the younger half of Gen Z delve into more authentic versions of Y2K, with Fred Durst becoming an unlikely style icon in the feminine space. Though we are more insular, we are less tribal, emo and mcbling and clean girl can be seen walking the street together. Maybe it is not about how we acted during the pandemic; it’s about the friends we made along the way.
