Wheatus frontman Brendan B. Brown doesn’t think TikTok makes “things better” for the music industry.
The Teenage Dirtbag hitmaker can see the positives in the platform, in that it offers new artists exposure to a fanbase they’d otherwise find hard to reach, but ultimately believes the constant search for new content could prove to be damaging because it isn’t authentic.
Asked if he thinks TikTok is good for music, he told ContactMusic.com: “I think it can be in the sense that it makes things easy to find, and in the sense that it introduces new artists.
“Those are really positive things, but the idea that a new artist would need to compete, with themselves and with others for new content every day, I think that’s bad for music.
“I don’t think that that’s going to make things better.”
Brendan believes “good songs” stem from a place of authenticity rather than cynically analysing statistics and trends.
He added: “I think good songs come from meditation and contemplation and a long walk in the woods, and they don’t come from having to worry about what your manager thinks of your most recent content.”
The 52-year-old singer teamed up with Ed Sheeran over the summer to perform Teenage Dirtbag with the Shape of You hitmaker’s high school band onstage in Hamburg, Germany, and Brendan hopes to take their new friendship further.
He said: “He was quite a gentleman. Invited me to be a part of his immense spaceship show, and I was happy to jump up there. Quite honoured to be included. And his crew and his people are all really lovely, hard-working.”
Asked if they plan to hit the studio together, he replied: “I think we certainly will. Yeah, I would love to. I talked to him about it yesterday, in fact.”