The Men Commenting on Lorde

Whenever Lorde releases new music, New Zealand's worst men come running for the comments section.

Hi,

In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park.

When police shut down the initial popup, one of my favourite musicians Blood Orange dragged a speaker around the park, blasting the new single at top volume.

Lorde is one of New Zealand’s most successful musicians with an incredibly loyal fanbase. She also has this tendency to drop off the radar between albums, so when she suddenly appears again, people go batshit crazy for it.

As they should — it’s the joy of being a fan. In a broken, horrible world I am very into people getting excited for music, this magical thing that can somehow transform our state of mind.

A new publicity image for Lorde.

But this is Webworm, and we can’t just be having a nice time talking about music. No, there has to be some horrible twist — and today’s horrible twist is a reminder that New Zealand’s men have a problem.

They have a problem with success, they have a problem with women, and they definitely have a problem with successful women.

I know I’m just stating the obvious here — kind of like saying “don’t post horrific memes denying the holocaust” — but I feel it has to be said anyway.

I spent some time trawling through the social media pages of various New Zealand news sites. I found their posts sharing stories about Lorde’s new song and performance, and then I looked at the comments section.

There were some fans in there, but largely it’s New Zealand men (and some women) taking to their keyboards for some reckons.

If you click through into their profiles, you often see they have partners. Some of them have kids. Sons. Daughters.

That is to say, they’re not in a vacuum — they have people around them, they understand society a little — and yet they find what they say online perfectly acceptable.

And while I don’t like focussing on people’s physical appearance, it can’t be denied that these men all have a certain vibe.

And when you consider what they’re all saying about a hugely successful, talented, badass woman — it’s just kinda funny seeing what they look like.

You said it, Bruce.

David.