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Let's get into our dissection of Yaelokre. I encourage you to read this if you're interested in someone who's had a lot of success treating TikTok and Instagram more as an art project than as "content," trying to get attention.

One of the things I think is so cool about this dissection is this: someone is just building a world and taking you along in it. They've done a lot of thought about this world, and that's really what I appreciate about it.

I will be honest with you, this is the type of music that you'd have to listen to for a week or so to really get. I really would have to think long and hard because it's not my thing. I don't think they do it badly. I'm just saying I respect the hell outta this, even though it is so not what I am into.

I think that says a lot—that anybody could see that this is actually something pretty extraordinary, what they're doing. So I invite you to come along for a ride and check out an art project.

From 141 to 2.5 Million Monthly Listeners

I just found them through one of your suggestions. I had clocked them a little while ago, and when I found them, I will be honest, I stayed up all night taking in what they did and really looking at it and trying to figure out what it was about. I thought it was super interesting.

One of the most interesting parts about them is this: 18 months ago, they had 141 monthly listeners from January 5th of 2024. Presently, they have 2.5 million. Things started to change around the summer of last year, but then we really went bananas right here. Since then, it seems like we've had almost a year of pretty hard and active consumption around their music, because if you're the type of person who's into this, you're going to be very bought in.

They only have eight songs, one EP, a two-song waterfall, and two other singles. I think one of the most telling things here is gonna be the overarching thing: fans want a narrative to follow along. I'm not saying that they're doing it mediocrely—I think they're doing it very well—but even when I see it done mediocrely, I really see people kind of put up with a lot because now there's a story, there's something to buy into, there's something to talk about, and they really like it. You just have to really put a lot of flesh on the story.

The Artist Behind the Story

They're the rare artist we cover that has a Wikipedia. I should also say they are signed to my former employer, Atlantic Records. They weren't back when they were still small, but they are now. As you can see, they're Filipino-Icelandic in descent. I like that they classify them as a multimedia artist, which I think is very apt. It's very children's storybook, fan fiction, renaissance fair folk. It's just super interesting. Their music is part of OPM, which is Original Pilipino Music.

Enjoying this? Forward it to a music friend you’d like to be closer to and start a discussion!

I think one of the things we should really get into first, though, is let's just show what they're doing for a bio on Spotify, because I think that's super interesting.

SPOTIFY

Spotify Bio

That Spotify bio can sound like a lot of gibberish if you're not looking, but here's what's really interesting. There's this playlist, "Meadowlark"—these are the songs in the order that they're putting them in. It's a story with chapters, and each one has a narrative inside of it.

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