Industry plant

The term originated in the early 2010s on hip hop-focused message boards to describe various rappers before being used against indie rock and pop musicians, such as Clairo and Billie Eilish in the late 2010s.

Upon the release of her debut studio album Born to Die (2012), her wealthy parents and her previous musical career as Lizzy Grant led to questions about her authenticity as an artist.

[12] After American rapper Raury released his mixtape, Indigo Child, in 2014, was quickly signed to Columbia Records, and received coverage from Billboard for the music video for his song "God's Whisper", he was frequently called an industry plant online in 2015.

[20] After gaining fame from her song "Bury a Friend" in 2018, American singer Billie Eilish was frequently called an industry plant online on YouTube and Reddit, where users similarly made threads about her personality being manufactured.

[33][34] After the success of their debut single, "Nothing Matters", in April 2023, the British indie rock band the Last Dinner Party were widely accused by social media users, including on Twitter, of being industry plants due to their being signed to Island Records and opening for the Rolling Stones, among other things.

[37] In June 2023, the indie rock band Picture Parlour released their debut single "Norwegian Wood" and were featured on the cover of NME, leading to users on Twitter widely accusing them of being industry plants.

[41][42] Also in August 2023, the hardcore punk band Scowl were alleged by fans to be industry plants, which prompted frontwoman Kat Moss to release a statement on Twitter denying and decrying the claims.

[47] On TikTok, users speculated that 4Batz, an American rapper who found success through his first three songs released independently throughout 2023—including "Act II: Date @ 8", the remix of which featured Drake—was an industry plant because of the rapidness of his rise to fame and his "Spotify-core" musical style.

[49] In 2024, Kyndall Cunningham of Vox attributed the increased online accusations of artists as industry plants to a rise in social media users' "compulsive skepticism" and their "questioning the legitimacy of everything" following the COVID-19 pandemic.

[51][52][53][54] The term has also been used online and by critics to describe artists such as Greta Van Fleet,[55][56] Dominic Fike,[11][57] Jean Dawson,[58] CJ,[59] Bebe Rexha,[60] Boy Pablo,[61] RMR,[62][63] Bella Poarch,[64][65] the Kid Laroi,[66] Skip Marley,[67] Your Old Droog,[68] Post Malone, 4Batz,[69] and Lizzo.

[18] Cills wrote that the term "emphasiz[ed] a narrative that suggests popular artists are either authentic or totally fake, working without any outside help or label puppets, when in reality the lines are depressingly blurrier".

[70] For Vox, Rebecca Jennings wrote that the criticism of Tramp Stamps in 2021 as industry plants became "a complete dogpile on three individual women rather than corporatized capitalization on progressive politics".