31 | May | 2024 | Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News

By: Fletcher Pike

Screenshot of Dylan LaBadia’s repost of Haylee Baylee’s original post

The 2024 ‘Celebrity Blockout’ is a newly formed social media movement that has recently started in the past few weeks to bring awareness about the events that are happening in Palestine, more specifically Gaza. It was mostly formed on TikTok and has now spread to several other social media apps.

The movement initially began when a TikTok influencer and content creator, Haley Kalil, also known as Haylee Baylee, posted a video on her account, featuring her at the Met Gala. In the video, she wears an extravagant outfit with an audio over the video from the 2006 film, ‘Marie Antoinette’, saying “let them eat cake”. The famous sentence was supposedly said by the French queen Marie Antoinette in response when informed of the famines occurring in the country.

The video received severe backlash and angered many people at the lack of awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how several celebrities and influencers have remained silent about it or brought awareness about the situation. People on TikTok began posting videos, suggesting that they should begin to block celebrities who have not spoken out about Gaza.

Several popular celebrities have been mass blocked, with some even losing millions of followers. Some of the celebrities that are being blocked include Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, and the Kardashians, with Kim Kardashian having lost about 3 million followers since the Met Gala.

People on TikTok have overall mixed opinions about the Celebrity Blockout, with many standing for it and blocking many celebrities, while others argue that blocking celebrities will not help bring awareness or help the situation in Gaza.

In my personal opinion, I believe that it is extremely important to bring awareness about Gaza or Palestine in general and do as much as we can to help, but I’m uncertain that blocking celebrities is necessarily relevant to helping Gaza.

By: Calla Fragassi

Dominic Fike is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his role in the hit TV show ‘Euphoria’, but is also recognized for his music that falls under the Alternative/Indie genre. He released his fifth studio album on May 3, 2024, called ’14 minutes’. The 8 tracks on the album add up to 14 minutes exactly which is where the name comes from. Here is a quick review of each of these 8 songs, and the album as a whole:

The first song on the album is “megaman”. This song is one of the shorter ones on the album at 1:18 and focuses more on the instrumental aspects of the song. Throughout the entire song, he gently plucks the cords of an acoustic guitar to give it a sharper tone and uses a kick drum as the second instrument. He mumbles most of the words while singing, making the song more simplistic and relaxing. Overall, I usually like my music to be a little more upbeat, but I can still appreciate the sound and slowness of “megaman“.

The second song on the album is called “hi grace”. In “hi grace”, Fike uses sound effects to make his voice higher, as well as make his words sound glitchy. Throughout the song he uses piano, guitar, and drums which makes the song more upbeat than the previous song, but it’s still not super loud or intense. How he sings the chorus of the song reminds me of Bob Dylan’s voice in his music, and is one of the more popular songs on this album; I would rank this song in my top three favorites from this album.

The third song on ’14 minutes’ is “1.23.23”. This song reminds me of some of his older music from his previous album ‘Sunburn’ because he sings at a lower tone and uses a similar glitchy effect as “hi grace”. The lyrics in the chorus talk about scars and changing along with verses that are written about going back in time and fixing mistakes. This song gives a more hopeful message to listeners but is not one of my favorites on this album.

The fourth song on the album is called “THICKRICK”. This song sounds more like it is directed towards someone with anger based on the instruments and intensity of the song. Fike uses an electric guitar in this song and purposefully makes it the loudest sound in “THICKRICK”. This one is also not one of my favorites, but the lyrics in the song like “Don’t let the tattoos fool you, love” are full of anger and make it worth a listen.

The fifth track on the album is “Bowie Box”. The only instrument in this song is acoustic guitar. He only sings for a very short period at the beginning, making most of the song just him playing the guitar. This is one of the slower songs on the album and somewhat reminds me of the song “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver because of the tone of voice Fike sings with.

The sixth song on the album is “misses”. This is my favorite song of this album and is currently trending on Apple Music and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This song is very upbeat and cheerful and has quickly climbed to Dominic Fike’s number-one song. It’s easier to understand and learn than some of his others on the album and is the perfect song for summer.

Number 7 on the album is “to say to say”. He again uses the same glitchy effect in this song as he did on tracks 2 & 3, but this song only has 10 verses in its 80 seconds. Although it’s a little different from some of the other songs, it still fits in with the indie alternative style Fike typically works with.

The last song on this album is called “coast2coast”. It’s another one of my favorites out of these tracks because of the instruments he uses and how fast it is. It’s only 1 minute long, but he manages to make a great song out of the small amount of time he uses.

Overall, I would recommend this album to anyone who enjoys a different play on traditional indie music. He uses different instruments and effects than what are normally seen and it’s super fun seeing what he’ll incorporate into each song. I do wish the songs I enjoyed like “misses” and “hi grace” were longer songs, but I think the idea behind the album only being 14 minutes long is very interesting and I haven’t seen it done before!