Fake fans, fake buzz? How your favourite band got big

虚假粉丝,虚假炒作?你的最爱乐队是如何走红的

Today in Focus

2026-05-05

28 分钟
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Shaad D’Souza explains how bands such as Geese have faced a backlash since a marketing company revealed its tricks for pushing them into the limelight, and Eamonn Forde discusses what it takes to succeed in the music industry today.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, the fake fans behind your favourite band.

  • Yes, let's do it.

  • Discovering new music you love, I'd argue, is still one of the most satisfying ways to feel good.

  • And so when fans flocked to Geese in the last year and made its frontman Cameron Winter the most talked about indie star

  • of the moment, it felt like a genuine rush of emotion and connection.

  • A win for the grizzled Brooklyn aesthetic that hadn't been hip for at least a decade.

  • They ruled end-of-year lists.

  • Their tours sold out.

  • If you 've never heard of them, I promise this was a big deal for a band that were barely

  • born the last time New York bands were called.

  • But what if all the hype wasn't entirely authentic?

  • What if it was cooked up to make Geese go viral?

  • The story of how one band dominates the cultural discourse would have been an argument

  • left for the music press and indie blogs.

  • But in 2026, it's a saga that reveals a whole lot more about how we all consume music now.

  • How we find it.

  • How it 's fed to us, and how the industry and musicians are desperately trying to adapt to technology

  • that threatens their very existence.

  • From The Guardian, I'm Nosheen Iqbal.