The DePaulia
Jackson Healy, Contributing Writer|May 9, 2021
Who knew people could lie on the Internet?
On April 9, a Nashville-based pop-punk girl group by the name of Tramp Stamps released their third and latest single, “I’d Rather Die.”
Containing lyrics such as “I can’t recall a memory/Of someone driving me home and not asking for a b job/I’d rather die/Than hook up with another straight white guy,” the song epitomizes the band’s image: a “girls rule, boys drool” trio of self-made, independent rag-tag women unafraid to call it like they see it.
Within a matter of days, however, the band was flooded with accusations of inauthenticity and claims that they were capitalizing on a trendy aesthetic in the hopes of financial success. Their image was quickly stained, and the Internet collectively dismissed the group as industry plants.
The band Tramp Stamps, who are accused of being industry plants
Credit: YouTube
The first two posts you see on Tramp Stamps’ Instagram tell quite the story. One, uploaded April 14, is the video for the Tennessee band’s new single I’d Rather Die, a colourful, defiantly-spirited pop-punk affair in which they (twentysomethings Marisa Maino, Caroline Baker, and Paige Blue) declare that, “I’d rather die than hook up with another straight white guy”.
Three days later, the next post. “Hey fu ers”, it begins, before angrily hitting back at the “misinformation, lies and cancel culture” about that band that spread through the internet in the 72 hours between dispatches. “You have gone to the ends of the f -ing earth to sh-t on us, have told us to kill ourselves, and have used conspiracy theories on TikTok as a trend to get more views on your own videos.”
Meet TikTok’s most controversial band of 2021. - by Julian Rizzo-Smith 26 Apr 2021
A new controversial internet band named Tramp Stamps is being labelled as an “industry plant” by TikTokers. But, who exactly is Tramp Stamps, why are they so controversial, and what exactly is an industry plant?
WATCH: Tramp Stamps -
I d Rather Die Music Video
Tramp Stamps is a new internet band composed of singer Marisa Maino, guitarist Caroline Baker and drummer Paige Blue.
The pair, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere in November last year, are Gen Z alt-girl culture at its peak: dressed in hair dyes of blue, pink and purple, ripped fishnet stockings, dramatic tie-dyes and jean short-shorts, the pair say they’re “three girls [who] got drunk at a bar and wrote a song.”
Over the past week, an up-and-coming pop-punk band has consumed TikTok but not for a viral song or trend. The trio, a group of young women called Tramp Stamps, has more than 385,000 followers on TikTok and more than 27,000 Instagram followers, gaining fans on social media with only three songs out to date. But they’ve also attracted a lot of critics. The band has faced numerous allegations about whether their claims of being “indie” or “feminist punks” are legitimate and whether they’re just industry plants.
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The outcry across social media grew loud enough that the band finally addressed it in an Instagram post on April 18. But instead of acquiescing to their detractors, they used their platform to defend their backgrounds, speak out against “cancel culture,” and criticize mainstream coverage of them and the drama for fanning the flames. While Tramp Stamps’ response did little to satisfy the haters, it did highlight an ongoing problem with the music i
As a result, Tramp Stamps have been fast-tracked to a modern music career milestone, their first notes-app response, after releasing just three songs (including the latest single “I’d Rather Die”). “The misinformation and lies that feed this cancel culture are so fucking toxic,” the statement reads. “We are three women who have been writing and producing music for many years, busting our asses in the music business while building our personal careers.”
“You have gone to the ends of the fucking earth to shit on us, have told us to kill ourselves, and have used conspiracy theories on TikTok as a trend to get more views on your own videos. Fuck you. You don’t like our music? Don’t fucking listen to it. We’re not going anywhere.”