NURSERYVERSE
| Song | |
|---|---|
| Title | NURSERYVERSE |
| Artist | Creator Universe |
| Release Date | 19th September 2024 |
| Activity Dates | September 2024 - |
| Fan Use | TikTok Trends, TikTok Edits, Source of controversy |
| Links | YouTube |
| Related | The Nursery Nurse |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
NURSERYVERSE is a song released by Creator Universe, who manage the TikTok web series, The Nursery Nurse. The song name is stylised in all capitals.
The song acts a theme song, of sorts, for the TikTok series and was released on 19th September 2024. Any money raised for the song (through purchases, Spotify and other avenues) were donated to charity.
Fandom Reactions
There was a mixed reaction to the song. Some fans enjoyed it, relating to the lyrics and creating TikTok edits to the song, doing dance moves that had been demonstrated in a video Charlotte, The Nursery Nurse creator, had made. Others responded to the song with statements about how much they loved it or related to it. Other fans thought the song sound AI-generated and it wasn't particularly good, though many of them either reported just scrolling past it and watching her other videos or felt that since the money was going to charity, it didn't matter if they liked it or not.
what happened to fandom etiquette, who cares if they’re enjoying the song, as long as they’re having fun it’s not harming anyoneMax (Luffy’s version) [1]
Other people seemed to have an extreme reaction to how fans of The Nursery Nurse and the song were reacting to it, creating videos complaining about the reaction and the song. This prompted a much bigger backlash as more accounts made videos criticising both the song itself, the webseries, the creator, and the fandom.
Example Edits
Backlash and Controversy
Following the release of the song, a number of accounts on TikTok began to post about their dislike of the song and making judgmental or unpleasant comments about the fandom of The Nursery Nurse. There were a lot more videos in response to this than previous incidents and, subsequently, a lot more negative comments under videos Charlotte posted. In addition, previous complaints about episodes from months prior, particularly those involving implications that sexual activity had taken place, were rehashed.
Arguments began to occur hashing out topics such as fiction vs reality and the intended audience of Charlotte's videos. Ableist comments about fans of the series being "sunflower lanyard wearers" (referencing a scheme to support people with unseen disabilities) were made on the videos of fans. Charlotte made a 10-minute video, using the characters from the series, responding to the criticism. However, this only seemed to escalate the issue. As one of her characters, she made comments about the people posting hate comments and harassing fans engaging in "bed-rotting" and this was criticised heavily as being an ableist comment due to the connections to depression and other mental health difficulties.
Videos criticising Charlotte increased in number, people joined in harassing fans of the webseries in comments' sections, and Charlotte eventually blocked a large number of accounts, deleted the song and response video from TikTok, closed all comments on all videos on her TikTok, and stopped posting videos to her Instagram page. Neither videos or comments seemed to be restricted on Facebook, possibly due to accounts on that platform requiring higher verification and attachment to identity.
Fan Reaction
Opinion was divided amongst fans. Some felt that the comment about "bed rotting" was mocking and were hurt by it, especially as the song's charity donations were going to an anti-bullying charity. They felt the use of the phrase undermined the message of the song.
Others felt that the term had been used in the way it's often used casually on social media and was a careless comment that they would appreciate Charlotte apologising for, but did not warrant the volume of backlash received.
Others felt that the entire situation was being overblown and that it was just a commonly seen negative backlash to someone getting "too popular" and the desire of some people to see them brought down a peg. This also involved discussions around people waiting for someone to make a mistake and then escalating how serious that mistake was and how the TikTok algorithm and monetisation on TikTok relating to video engagement fuels harassment and hate campaigns. Others still pointed out that some of the things people were criticising and calling really weird amongst the fan base, like being video edits or fan art were very common fan activities.
Meta and Responses
- that.one.edgy.kid discussed in a video how a lot of the backlash is mean-spirited towards young fans
- justasillygoose89 had multiple videos about the song and fandom. Comments' section has a lot more discussion. Videos: One, Two, Three, Four
- Discussion on r/thenurserynurse about the video and fandom
- A TikTok asking for context on the video which has a lot of comments about the fandom and responses
Resources
- Details on the song at The Nursery Nurse FANDOM page.
- Videos using the song as a backing track on TikTok
References
- ^ Comment under that.one.edgy.kids video titled 'Why yall so mean?'