May 9, 2026 · 2h 19m
Algorithms are rewriting the rules of modern metal music
Nik Nocturnal - How TikTok Hijacked the Future of Music - #1095
The survival of independent music depends on how artists navigate the forced transition from pure creators to algorithmic content producers.
- 1TikTok and YouTube have altered songwriting structures by prioritizing short, viral moments over cohesive album experiences.
- 2The metal genre is actively shifting from traditional thrash to atmospheric and groove-oriented subgenres.
- 3Modern musicians are forced to act as full-time content creators to maintain visibility on digital platforms.
The brief
The traditional path to musical success has been dismantled by digital platforms, forcing modern metal artists to choose between authentic creative expression and writing songs designed to satisfy social media algorithms.
Music creator Nik Nocturnal argues that platforms like TikTok have fundamentally altered songwriting structures, pushing artists toward short, hook-heavy moments rather than cohesive, full-length album experiences.
This digital shift coincides with a major stylistic evolution in heavy music, as the genre transitions away from classic thrash metal toward more atmospheric, groove-oriented subgenres that thrive online.
To survive in the modern landscape, musicians must navigate the exhausting reality of becoming full-time content creators, balancing the demands of self-promotion with the preservation of their artistic integrity.
What was said on this episode
34 statements · 18 positive · 7 negative · 5 mixed · 4 neutral
TikTok’s short clips make modern metal immediately intriguing to new listeners.
“TikTok, I think, really enforces that, where people will be scrolling and they'll just hear like this crazy noise or breakdown or some dude screaming and doing goblin noises, and it'll be like, oh, I want more of this.”
Listen at 1:34
TikTok has helped expand metal music into a more normalized audience.
“And I think that has really helped play push metal into a bigger kind of, more just normalized audience.”
Listen at 1:52
Knocked Loose naturally fits short-form media because its intense music is well paced.
“because their music is so intense and so. Well, moment, like. What's the right word? It's. It's paced so well. They. They naturally work in that way.”
Listen at 4:35
Songs built around viral moments often lack replayability and lasting appeal.
“you won't get replayability. You won't get that timelessness of a song.”
Listen at 5:21
Loathe’s songs had lasting qualities that helped explain their delayed growth.
“they had a bit more of that timeless effort where they.”
Listen at 12:05
Bring Me the Horizon has an unusually broad trajectory from deathcore through pop and back.
“I don't see another band that says, hey, we started Deathcore, made a pop record, and now we're making deathcore music again.”
Listen at 32:24
Every musical sequence of notes has already been used.
“I think in terms of music, every single one has ever been done is done.”
Listen at 37:10
Sleep Token’s breakthrough resulted from a strong catalog, a great song, and Internet momentum.
“It was just. It was the perfect storm.”
Listen at 57:08
Internet promotion and breakout momentum can be engineered to some extent.
“The other stuff I think you can engineer to a point, especially in modern day with the Internet”
Listen at 57:34
Labels may use Reddit accounts and clip farming to manufacture attention for new bands.
“I'm not surprised if people post Reddit posts of their brand new band and it's like the label actually getting a new account or something where they're posting a bunch or clip farming with that”
Listen at 58:28
Metal fans are more personally invested in bands than typical pop or rap listeners.
“I think a lot of metal fans are more, are more invested in like the actual band and it means a lot more to them than just like, oh, another like you know, pop record or rap record.”
Listen at 1:05:52
Creators burn out because online feedback is weaker and slower than live-performance feedback.
“I think creators burn out because they don't have sufficiently loud and sufficiently quick feedback mechanisms to give them the positive reinforcement that bands and comedians and DJs get when they go on the road.”
Listen at 1:30:54
The creator lifestyle is highly isolating.
“It is a very isolating thing.”
Listen at 1:31:18
Greater separation among band members worsens their mental health.
“I think that mental health will decline in line with how separated the members of a band get.”
Listen at 1:33:48
Content creators and musicians should diversify beyond a single platform or income source.
“I would always advise this to, like, other content people and as well as even musicians of just like, please, God, do not just trust this one thing.”
Listen at 1:39:17
Artists’ low streaming income also reflects contracts and recoupment obligations, not only Spotify’s rates.
“Spotify should pay more, but there's other stuff involved.”
Listen at 1:42:01
A typical five-record deal can commit a band to roughly ten years of releases.
“If we do the two year cycle of most majority of bands of release schedule, you signed away 10 years of your life.”
Listen at 1:46:33
Musicians lacking business guidance are likely to be exploited by the music industry.
“they're going to get taken advantage of because that's how the industry works”
Listen at 1:47:48
Alternative music is becoming less genre-bound, potentially producing more good songs.
“I think the scene is becoming more and more genreless, which I get excited about, because then the focus is not, hey, can we make a deathcore or a metalcore or a pop, you know, popcorn, whatever the fuck banger is. Can we just make a good song? You know, like. And, you know, I love that because then there's going to be a higher quantity of good music.”
Listen at 1:56:35
Metal’s growing popularity is increasing commercialization and gamification.
“metal is the good and the bad. Metal's becoming more popular than ever. But now it's also almost like cool to like it. So it's being more gamified.”
Listen at 1:57:17
Metal’s rising popularity is producing both more creative and more formulaic bands.
“heavy music's getting more popular. Great. And that's getting injected in a way where bands are becoming more creative with it, but then also bands are becoming more sterile with it.”
Listen at 1:59:34
Cross-genre experimentation is creating unusually distinctive extreme metal.
“So there's bands that do that. I've been doing that for a while. And then there's a band like the small band Marauder, which they took that and they're like, oh, dubstep sick. Oh, I love like Beethoven. And so they infuse, you know what I mean? So they infuse that with these sounds and it's like a whole nother world of like music.”
Listen at 2:02:12
Current metal subgenres are broadly classified as modern metal.
“it's all modern metal, basically”
Listen at 2:12:31
Mirar creates the featured sound using a guitar.
“He's making that noise with a fricking guitar.”
Listen at 2:13:34
Mirar’s musical moment ranks among Nik’s coolest experiences of the past decade.
“It's one of those. Where it is one of the coolest moments I've heard in music in the past, like 10 years”
Listen at 2:14:12
Boundaries combines 2000s nostalgia with a modern, heavy sound.
“they're a mix of kind of like that 2000 nostalgic stuff with a very Modern, heavy edge.”
Listen at 2:15:15
Boundaries uses clean singing from its drummer and screaming from its vocalist.
“the drummer is clean singing and then the vocalist is screaming.”
Listen at 2:15:58
The metal scene continues to exist and remain active.
“The scene continues to live on”
Listen at 2:16:19
Nik’s project will write complete songs daily on livestream with music-controlled rave lighting.
“We're gonna be writing songs every day on stream from start to finish with crazy rave lights controlled with the actual songs.”
Listen at 2:16:54
Nik will release songs when audience demand is sufficiently strong.
“you're gonna release them if people want them enough.”
Listen at 2:17:13
Song releases will be determined entirely by audience demand.
“So it's gonna be based fully on demand.”
Listen at 2:17:16
Strongly demanded songs will receive full campaigns including music videos.
“I'll do the music video in the room or like in. You know, in the swamp in Florida.”
Listen at 2:17:30
Nik Nocturnal’s wife will produce and create her own music during the project.
“she's gonna be producing and doing her own stuff”
Listen at 2:18:00
Nik and his wife will collaborate livestreamed when a project gains major traction.
“when something goes crazy and you want to do it together, let's go. We'll do it together on stream”
Listen at 2:18:10
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.