I often have the feeling that kids today lack the experience of being part of something.
Metal can provide this, especially live concerts and the fandom is pretty stable: You meet the same people again and again in your tiny very noisy social bubble.
The whole 6-7 or „chicken jerky“ madness felt very similar to classical group formation dynamics: Be part of it by knowing the secret rites and separate yourself from outsiders that don’t.
The sad thing about those TikTok movements as opposed to metal is: The feeling to belong is an illusion. There isn’t real group just a set of strangers that share a fleeting experience that rarely creates something lasting, a „one-night stand“ like experience if you will.
I think you've nailed it and it's kind of depressing in a way since there were a lot of things kids were part of just a few decades ago. The local football group, the bunch that gathered together to watch a TV show at one guys house that would air at 7:30 pm on a weekend, the circle of cousins kids would hang out with during a stretch of holidays, the circle of people who they'd meet regularly during a congregational prayers, etc. etc.
These things are as missing as they're necessary in kids' lives and (non-mainstream?) music gives people some semblance of community that has a stabilizing effect.
The Discord "communities" don't have the same effect unless the group actually meets in person regularly.
Metal can provide this, especially live concerts and the fandom is pretty stable: You meet the same people again and again in your tiny very noisy social bubble.
The whole 6-7 or „chicken jerky“ madness felt very similar to classical group formation dynamics: Be part of it by knowing the secret rites and separate yourself from outsiders that don’t.
The sad thing about those TikTok movements as opposed to metal is: The feeling to belong is an illusion. There isn’t real group just a set of strangers that share a fleeting experience that rarely creates something lasting, a „one-night stand“ like experience if you will.