Billie Eilish, performing at the Grammy Awards in April 2022, has faced unfounded accusations that she is an industry ‘plant’.
(Picture: Getty Images)There’s been a lot of chat on music fan message boards recently about the idea of the ‘industry plant.’ This is an accusation, levelled at certain breakthrough musicians, that they’ve been concocted by the industry itself. Originating in the rap world, the idea is that if a new artist suddenly seems to be everywhere, a label is secretly manipulating this in the background. A brilliant band I’ve recently had the pleasure of working on have been accused of it. For reasons of propriety, I won’t name names here, though a simple bit of internet detection would reveal all.
In my experience, it’s mainly female artists who get called industry plants. This is because it’s essentially an internet troll’s term, and there’s a large overlap in the Venn diagram between people who post negative comments on the internet and misogynists. The same probably applies for angry keyboard warriors and failed musicians. Thwarted creativity can quickly turn dark. It can’t be a question of quality – it must be something to do with ‘the game.’
