Opinion: The kids are alright (they’re just getting their metal from TikTok now)
The passage of time is strange. One minute you’re crate digging for a Fugazi tape at the local record store, and years later, you’re the guy with gray in his beard, noticing a kid in a Misfits hoodie who’s never owned a CD but knows his “She Rides” because the TikTok algorithm keeps feeding them Danzig. Have no fear though. The kids are alright, they’re just getting their metal from TikTok now.
This is the new norm. MTV is dead; people at least still listen to The Doors. Meanwhile, what used to be considered “Music Television” is just reruns of people being obnoxious on that goofy clip show, Ridiculousness. But now, with the advent of social media, platforms like Instagram and specifically TikTok are giving bands a far-reaching megaphone, without a programming schedule. Now, because kids are turned onto different bands that aren’t necessarily current, a whole new fan base in the era of “must buy everything” is gobbling up merch at massive numbers.
For metal, punk, and hardcore, and really all underground music, TikTok is acting as a lifeline for many artists who’d otherwise be lost in the noise. TikTok isn’t just for new pop stars — it’s resurrecting punk and metal veterans too.
The Algorithm Loves Riffs
So, this one is self-explanatory – who doesn’t love a guitar riff that’s gnarly and putrid? How many times have you seen someone employ that A Day To Remember riff with the “Disrespect your surroundings?” used? A ton. The algorithm loves a solid riff. Short, heavy riffs are perfect for TikTok’s 15-second attention span, landing like a punch to the teeth before you can even scroll down further. Punk and metal choruses — simple, shoutable, anthemic and stamped with logos that look good on a hoodie — these spots thrive in meme culture where recognition is everything. The platform rewards that kind of instant impact, which these older bands deliver way better than most overproduced modern rock acts fumbling for relevance. Kirk Windstein recently told fans in a Crowbar Facebook video that he’s hearing from new listeners on TikTok, and the band even ran a TikTok-only livestream to meet them where they live.
I mean, consider these moments in recent history:
- Metallica – “Master of Puppets” blew up on TikTok after Stranger Things, putting the song on the Billboard charts again nearly 40 years later.
- Slipknot songs like “Custer” and “Psychosocial” have tremendous meme traction — sped-up edits, workout videos, chaos memes.
- Type O Negative saw “Love You to Death” and “Black No. 1” trend in goth/TikTok edits, pulling in Gen Z who weren’t born when Peter Steele died.
- The Misfits and Dead Kennedys both trend often in clips — patches, shirts, songs tied to anti-authority content.
- System of a Down tracks like “Chop Suey!” and “B.Y.O.B.” pop up constantly in social feeds because the lyrics are short, memeable, and political without context.
- Ozzy / Black Sabbath: “War Pigs” is a staple on protest/TikTok edits; “Crazy Train” and “Paranoid” still circulate.
- Even nu-metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit have found an ironic second life via meme culture, introducing them to kids who missed their first wave.
The DIY Spirit of TikTok = Punk Ethos
I don’t want to hyper-generalize here, but social media, while a cesspool, does offer some aspects that are tailored to the underground. Back in the day, we relied on word-of-mouth, looking at the bands’ shirts worn in their album photos and who they thanked in the acknowledgment section of the liner notes. There were also tape traders and fanzines. TikTok and Instagram open the gate for new music to be discoverable globally. I follow a black metal band from Indonesia on Instagram entirely based on the theatrical videos of their lead singer being carried out like a corpse, covered in blood on their feed.
Kids today are remixing and stitching together songs, spreading awareness about music that deserves a fresh audience. Case in point: another band I know because of Instagram is Yosemite in Black, a hardcore band from Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve built a following by mixing breakdown-heavy hardcore with a sharp visual style, and TikTok clips of their chaotic live shows have given them an audience far beyond the Atlanta scene. Their song “Cold Shoulder” has been watched 1.5 million times; pretty good for their self-proclaimed style of “Hippie Hardcore.”
Industry Impact
Every band has a social media presence now. Catalog streams are actually climbing fast—older songs (anything older than ~18 months) saw a 19% jump in streaming volume year over year, while fresh “current” releases dropped. Legacy acts are leaning in, too: Metallica has millions of followers on TikTok now (nearly 4.4M), and artists are repackaging back catalogs for short-form clips. The cycle is real: nostalgia feeds discovery, discovery drives catalog streams, zooms back into bigger tours—and suddenly the kids who found you on their “For You” page are in the crowd, staying alive. “Enter Sandman” by Metallica has over 1.6 billion Spotify streams alone — and with YouTube, TikTok, and every cover or clip worldwide counted up, its total play count is almost certainly in the low-billions across all platforms.
“Can You Feel My Heart’ blew up on TikTok, and people all over the world wanted us to come and play, so it was perfect,” said Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes. The song has since racked up more than 770 million streams on Spotify, proof that TikTok virality doesn’t just translate into memes — it puts real numbers on the board.
Selling out used to be a thing; now, a band wants a brand deal. How does it all make sense? I don’t know. All I do know is that maybe landing a partnership with a skincare brand for a pack of sweaty punks is the next frontier, but what is important is that kids keep discovering good music. And as we’re stuck in a Taylor Swift and NBA Young Boy misery loop, it’s a welcome development.
