Audio Graffiti Society – Nope (2025)
Audio Graffiti Society resists the influence of social media’s culture of validation with a manifesto of a song entitled ’Nope’. Lead singer and songwriter, Aaron Douglas kicks off the song announcing, “Nope/Don’t buy it/I see through your masquerade”, with a deep, sinister voice. With hymnal like rhythm and brightness, his singing then floats over pelting double kick drums, crashes going off all over, and jagged melodic guitar notes that create an erratic soundscape. Douglas glides over the minimal yet slightly chaotic playing, singing his critiques of influencers, their carefully manicured images and what can be seen as profiteering masked as servitude to countless people.
The music is wonderfully uncomplicated. This production choice allows Douglas’s near flawless performance to stand out. The clarity allows the lyrics, soaked with contempt and disillusionment, to seep in and stay with you. ‘Nope’ feels like a desperate need to shed. Beyond resistance, Douglas sings from the desperation to create distance. The burning feel of being intertwined with what he and the band find toxic courses throughout, and is intensified with the harsh guitar melodies and improvised licks. This emotion is the highlight of the song.
A feeling of breaking away is more evident on the hook. When the drumming drags on the notes, a noticeable pause comes before the band plunges down, with Douglas distancing himself, singing contemptuously, “Fake it/Frame it/selling the dream/Hide the life inside, so it won’t seem/You’re counting clicks/You chase the high…”. They detach through critique.
On a stripped down, yet dramatic sounding bridge, the band skilfully blends in trap drum programming. The programming’s speed and the 808 bump instantly engages, clearing the way for the song’s message, “Release yourself/open up your eyes”. Influencers need to come clean.
But the song’s depth is the band’s need for direction. The fierceness in the line, “…Don’t buy it”, which returns throughout, is the audio representation of what, for some, feels like fighting spiritual warfare in the social media landscape. The band too are in need of willpower. Listen deeper, and ’Nope’ is the sound of people desperately unplugging.
Find out more about Audio Graffiti Society on their official website, Soundcloud, and Spotify.
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