Recently has been a huge polemic in the metal world due to toxic fandoms, stalkers, and privacy infringement to some musicians, all because of social media.
With their rising success and increase in followers, some bands also attract some unwanted persons and situations. Some people feel, because they go to their shows, and comment on their social media, that they’re entitled to a relationship with the artist. In psychology, this is called a parasocial relationship (a connection between a person and someone they do not know personally, for example, a famous person).
I’m bringing this up to comment on the Sleep Token scenario.
Mystery has always been attractive. So, when this rock British band decided to go anonymous, so people could focus more on their music than on their personas, they didn’t foresee this.
In the past, other bands have used masks, makeup, or tactics like these, to gain fame and popularity. Some examples are Slipknot, Kiss, and Ghost.
Kiss went “unmasked” (in this case, their makeup) in the 80s, for MTV and Slipknot in 2010, to acknowledge the passing of their bassist, Paul Gray.
In 2017, the singer of the Swedish band Ghost, Tobias Forge had to reveal his identity as Papa Emeritus, after a lawsuit for royalties.
In the past few years, Sleep Token has reached a great amount of success, which has only increased the urges of some people to know who the musicians that perform behind these masks. Even though there are a lot of publications on the Internet that have revealed their names, because the band itself hasn’t confirmed this information, the fans are still thirsty to know. Even though the whole point of the band is their anonymity, some people choose not to respect the band’s wishes.
Last week, things got complicated for the band from London. They removed the pictures from their Instagram after supposedly someone leaked their bassist (III)’s birth certificate and address online. These actions could not only lead, to the people responsible for the actions, to fined but also jailed. The band also put as a description on their Instagram the phrase “Nothing lasts forever”, which led to all of us, the fans, wondering about the future of the band. We were more puzzled yet, since members II, III and IV just presented their new masks to the public, some weeks ago. However, later on, they posted new tour dates for North America.
The American metalcore band, Bad Omens, also suffered significantly from harassment and creepy situations, that have resulted in all of their members deleting their social media accounts. The reason for this was mainly because there were some baby pictures of their singer Noah Sebastian, circulating on the Internet, that some people took from his distant relatives.
These behaviors in fandoms are not new, we all know how dangerous extreme fanaticism can be.
There have been stories that ended tragically: John Lennon (The Beatles guitarist and singer), Dimebag Darrel (ex-Pantera and Damageplan guitarist), and Selena (Latin artist). They all were killed by people that were obsessed with them.
Regardless of the privacy infringements and their legal consequences. These situations show how fast a love for music can become a toxic and dangerous obsession.
Of course, the majority of music fans have boundaries, and we know that the musicians we admire are people too. They deserve to have peace, privacy, and security because these actions could not only affect them but also their families or people they care about.
So, for the musicians to continue creating the art and music that we love and enjoy so much, they have to feel secure and respected and we, fans, just keep on healthily supporting them.