It is no coincidence that the band named after the subject of a viral video from years ago also went viral.

That kind of thing happens when you have the entire music industry ready to thrust them upon the world because they have already been working with them for years.

The definition of industry plant.

Tramp Stamps

Here’s Why People Are Mad at This Viral Pop Punk Band Tramp Stamps

Nashville pop punk trio Tramp Stamps are likely this year’s most reviled band even though they formed last year, have never played a show, and have released just three songs. While they first achieved online virality posting earnest covers of Machine Gun Kelly, Paramore, and Taylor Swift hits, amassing over 400,000 followers on TikTok, the internet backlash for the past week to their latest single “I’d Rather Die” is so severe it eclipses whatever positive momentum the group previously had. “There’s a ‘“punk’” band that everyone on [TikTok] is making fun of because they’re obviously an industry plant and their music has a lame “tumblr edgelord” vibe,” wrote Twitter user @DannyVegito. “[Like] their entire aesthetic is so forced that I almost feel bad for them.”

The controversy has everything: allegations of the Tramp Stamps being “industry plants,” allegedly problematic lyrics that critics say promote rape culture, rumors that the band is affiliated with controversial producer Dr. Luke, and even a notes-app response written by the group that decries “cancel culture.” It’s as confusing as it is bizarre, but the staggering pushback against Tramp Stamps and the band’s very existence is a microcosm into how cynical music marketing can go awry. This is more than just TikTok teens thinking a band is corny and the blowback against these three musicians is proof how easily artist press campaigns can backfire.

Watch the hundreds of videos posted on Tramp Stamps’ TikTok page and you’ll be inundated with as many 2000s pop punk signifiers as you would be walking into a Hot Topic or Spencer’s Gifts: neon-dyed hair, mall-goth outfits, and shoutouts to artists like We The Kings and Plain White Ts. Their page is full of content that’d make most people approaching 30 consider deleting TikTok, with a capella renditions of Avril Lavinge songs, memes featuring their own music, as well as jokes about mental illness and being emo. Their website is polished with cutesy-yet-professional graphic design and an “About” blurb that claims the band’s music “[speaks] the truth on societal ills like white-boy privilege and fragile masculinity.” “It’s the kind of stuff women talk about all the time with their friends, but no one’s ever put it to this kind of music before,” reads a quote from guitarist Caroline Baker. – Source

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