My new music just went (kind of) viral for a very interesting, unintended reason
In December 2021, I released the first EP for my new punk music effort, Everything Sideways. The four songs on the EP are, by far, the best music I have ever written and recorded, and I want to get that music to as many people as I can, especially the people who might like it.
One of the ways I do that is through Twitter.
I open the web app and search Twitter for “punk music.” From there, I look at the latest posts and respond to anyone talking about punk music. Some are asking specifically for punk music recommendations, others are talking about bands they like, and others are talking about more abstract things.
For each of them, I’ll respond with something simple like, “Hey, if you want some new punk music to check out…listen to the new EP from Everything Sideways” and I add a link to the Everything Sideways Spotify page.
One of the tweets to which I responded was the one below.
I didn’t think anything of it, other than it was someone who liked punk music. Maybe they were making a poop joke. Maybe not? Like I said, I didn’t think anything of it, but I responded:
I wanted to make my response at least relatable, so I added the comment about the diaper. After I posted it, I went back to the “punk music” search and continued responding to people’s tweets.
But then I started to get a lot of notifications in my Twitter feed. People were responding to my tweet, liking it, and even retweeting it. Why? Because the original account to which I responded, tweeted this:
What? It was a fetish account? And what’s a diaperfur? I had no idea, so I had to look it up. It turns out that they are a subculture of adults who like to wear diapers, some in a fetish sort of way and others just because they enjoy it. The acronym they tend to use is ABDL, which stands for “adult baby diaper lover.” Two days after that tweet was posted, it had 85 retweets and 506 likes. I don’t use Twitter often, so I’ve obviously never been retweeted or liked that many times.
In the comments and replies to my tweets, I said that I didn’t know about their culture, but that I respected their choices to do things that made them happy. And it seems as if my interactions with them are things they also enjoyed:
I really appreciated the comments. They liked my music and appreciated my doing what I could to get my music out. But the more notifications I received, the more I learned about their subculture. It seems as if they like to wear diapers, sometimes in their “regular” daily lives…going to class or going to work, and other adults wearing diapers is a turn on for them.
Good for them, right? They’re doing things that bring them joy and happiness, and I respect that. They’re not pushing their views on others. They’re not harming children. They’re adults making choices that they want to make. Good for them.
Their tweets and responses to my music were so supportive and positive that I tweeted the following:
And I was serious. I thought it would be fun to write a song about the encounter and what I learned. So I started writing lyrics, and also asked the community if any of them were artists and wanted to contribute the artwork for the cover of the single that I would release. It seems that there are plenty of artists, so I hope to be able to work with one.
In the end, it was a very unexpected, surprising way for my music to go far beyond anything I thought it could. And I never would have imagined that there was a community of adults who liked to wear diapers who would react so positively to it.
Much respect to them. Thanks for being supporters of my music. Horns up to you, diaperfurs!
As always, be sure to check out Everything Sideways, diaperfur or not.
