Weezer is a 90’s band from Los Angeles made up of four members including front-man Rivers Cuomo. Although Weezer has sold 35 million records worldwide, according to Wikipedia, some might wonder why the band has recently seen a surge in popularity with young people loving their older songs.
Why exactly is this happening? A feeling of nostalgia comes to mind when listening to music from our childhood, but the reason for a sudden boost in traction for these bands and older music is because of social media.
Through apps such as TikTok and Instagram, users can create and share videos containing music, and Weezer has gone viral for their hit songs like “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So” to name a few, have been commonly played in trends or popular videos.
Junior Milosh Bell stated that he discovered Weezer through SoundCloud. “I was going through my playlist and I got recommended the song called ‘My Name is Jonas’ and ever since then, Weezer has been one of my favorite bands.”
Milosh also agreed that social media definitely brings more popularity to these bands as well.
“I feel like if we didn’t have social media, people wouldn’t even know who these people are,” Milosh said.
According to explodingtopics.com, a site that analyzes searches, conversations, and mentions across the internet, 47.4% of TikTok users are under 30 years old and younger audiences that don’t know about these bands get to learn through social media.
Multimedia teacher Stacia Greenberg-Ocampo said, “I think TikTok is a really big thing that’s been kind of getting that push for older music and I do like to see that that’s happening.” TikTok gives publicity to all sorts of outlets and bands like Weezer seem to benefit from that too.
On the other hand, English teacher James Medrano said that he thinks it’s just a cycle of peoples music taste and stated, “Things go out, things come in.”
Medrano said that “People’s demands change and things get old, things get new.” According to him, it’s normal for people to seek other forms of entertainment and music after having enough of a certain one, and as Medrano mentioned, music can just be a reflection of peoples tastes going in a cycle. Weezer could be a great band that just comes and goes in popularity.
So whether you think the resurgence of bands is due to just people’s natural tendencies or caused by TikTok, it’s obvious to see older bands and music becoming popular again. All music is timeless in its own way and it’s intriguing to see what people are interested in at the moment.