Still, the most visible fans are the ones who set the tone of the fandom, and in the case of the Mitski fandom, then, the artist herself has been reduced to an emotional symbol, in order to prioritize the emotional impact she has left upon the listeners. “They’re just the ones that make themselves the most visible.” Of course, stereotyping and minimizing entire groups of fans also minimizes the complexity and humanness of the individuals that compose these groups. “You hear people criticizing Mitski fans and rolling their eyes at the stereotypical Mitski fan,” said the Facebook group moderator. Not every Mitski fan is like this, of course. Mitski, who is Japanese American, has also criticized her tokenization as a rare woman of color in the indie rock scene-another request that has largely gone unheeded.
“I’m so convinced yt girls who make listening to mitski a part of their whole ‘sad girl aesthetic’ do not actually read her lyrics or watch her interviews or even care about her,” wrote another.
“If mitski decided to cancel all her shows and never perform again i’d support her fr these yt tiktok girlies ruining the entire experience for everyone,” wrote one user in response to the Twitter incident. For example, an ongoing debate among fans concerns the fact that “Strawberry Blond,” a song that references feelings of inadequacy in comparison to a blond white girl, has become one of the main soundtracks to white users’ cottagecore content on TikTok. Mitski’s hyper-emotive TikTok subset of fans aren’t exactly universally well-liked across the internet, and critics of this stereotypical Mitski fan also note the sect’s whiteness as another factor in the fandom’s ill repute. In a March 2022 New York Times profile, when asked about her particularly visible sect of emotional Gen Z fans, she said that she wished she “didn’t have to perform pain and struggle to be valued,” specifically the “screaming, most expressive, outgoing, adolescent pain” that she’s become a symbol of. For Dream, only time will tell if assigning a face to the creator outweighs the allure of mystery he cultivated up until now.Mitski, for her part, is not always comfortable in her role as a digital patron saint of agony. The latter also revealed their faces (not by choice-they were discovered by Internet culture journalist Brian Feldman, who pieced the puzzle together using public information). Outside of the gaming world, other anonymous creators have built devoted followings, including YouTuber tea drama channels like SpillSesh and the popular celebrity blind item Instagram page DeuxMoi. As someone who ascended to fame during the pandemic, he finally has a chance to meet his fans in person and connect with them as he’s done over the Internet. He has more opportunities now to be a creator in every sense of the word, without fear of his identity accidentally being leaked. It remains to be seen how this move will affect Dream’s content (although he says he will not be forgoing the mask during his streams), but it seems possible that it could serve to bolster his career. His deep voice is one of the most recognizable features about him, as his fans have also never seen his face. One of the other most popular creators in the gaming community is Corpse Husband. It wasn’t a calculated move, it was just something that happened.” He explained in the interview that while he didn’t set out to be anonymous, his popularity snowballed and it became too important a part of his persona to abandon.ĭream is not the only anonymous streamer (or the only one to reveal their face following a period of anonymity).
In a 2021 interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla (formerly of the YouTube duo Smosh), Dream said, “I just blew up so quickly and then it became a part of the fan art, and a part of the community so quickly. Why has he been anonymous, and what made him reveal his identity now? He’s previously been accused of cheating during game play by using game modifications during Minecraft speedrunner, but he claimed the use of so-called “mods” was not intentional and that he he didn’t know they were active during the game. With a large following often comes some level of controversy and criticism, and Dream has not been immune. Dream’s anonymity has been one of the most alluring aspects of his persona online and that intrigue, paired with his vibrant personality, have helped him build a loyal following across social media platforms.
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