“Writer In The—Shush!” Lorde’s big TikTok break and what artists owe their audiences

The astonishing phenomenon of pop-indie singer-songwriter Lorde shushing her audiences during a solo a cappella version of her song “Writer in the Dark” from her album Melodrama has stormed the nation by TikTok—as someone who strives to stay off the app as much as possible, even I have been made acutely aware of this sensation through friends and other social media platforms. The sheer audacity that Lorde presents in these recordings where she frantically silences her audiences as they try to sing along with her has been received by her fans as everything from completely stuck-up to entirely justified.

The range of these reactions has brought up many fascinating questions regarding what artists and performers “owe” to those who participate in their art through observation and spectatorship—is it Lorde’s right to manage every response to her music to protect her understanding of her work? Is it fair to control how a group of people will respond to a piece of art that they resonate with?

The initial reaction that I had to these TikToks was one of genuine hilarity. It was baffling to me that an artist could be so full of awe for their own performance that they would silence those responding to their art, even after the audience had paid massive sums just to see the stage. I laughed out of shock, as well as disdain for the ego that I felt Lorde presented in these recordings; additionally, I jumped to Google Lorde’s astrological chart and discovered that, unsurprisingly, she is a Scorpio.

Of course, the audacity that Lorde presents in her performances cannot only be attributed to her November birthday, though it does explain quite a bit. Personally, I found this objection that Lorde had to the authentic reactions of her audience to be a result of her privilege as a successful artist and celebrity with a net worth of 16 million dollars.

Over the release of three highly successful albums, Lorde’s popularity has grown exponentially, and with it her value as an artist. While I would argue that the quality of her most recent album, Solar Power, flopped in comparison to her older albums, Melodrama and Pure Heroine, it would be almost impossible to argue that Lorde lacks the skill and talent necessary to own the platform that she’s garnered for herself over years as a singer-songwriter. I would argue that it is this fame and value (more specifically, Lorde’s acute awareness of her fame and value) that resulted in the gall that Lorde demonstrates in these viral TikToks.

Contrary to my arguments, many of her loyal fans feel that Lorde has earned the right to perform to her preference, at least for one song—that above all, her art is her own, and that she should have control over how she presents it. Don’t get me wrong—just like any other god-fearing queer kid, I’ve been a die-hard Lorde fan since before her music was pop. That being said, I love the environments of concerts because of the authenticity of live performance that combines with the vulnerability of the audience’s reaction; I think that revoking one of those elements makes a concert a shell of what live music has come to represent in our musical culture. 

This is not to say that artists “owe” their audiences anything specific, but rather to say that I find it saddening that some artists have grown so comfortable in their fame and platform that they can revoke some of the joys that many concert-goers pay to experience.