How AJR Mastered Their Social Media Presence

Brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met together compose the immensely popular indie-pop music group AJR, known for celebrated hits like “Bang!” and “Weak” which bring in billions of streams from fans across platforms. But while their innovative sound and unique mode of storytelling are proven to be popular, the brothers’ approach to, and willingness to experiment with, social media has also played a pivotal role in their journey.

In the mid-2000s, the brothers started out street performing, honing their skills and finding fans out in the world by putting in the hours. So they explain how it was that act of, in their words, desperately trying to put themselves out there, that naturally brought them to the world of social media.

“You’re down here begging for people’s attention, for them to turn their heads. And so I think probably social media was a continuation of that,” Ryan said.

Around then the brothers noticed how on YouTube, at the time just a rising video sharing site, there was a growing community of artists doing covers of popular songs and of viewers eager to listen. And so, they dove into that as well. But, inspired by the real and vulnerable style of presentation that street performing taught them, they intentionally put themselves forward as authentic, approachable and personable.

“I think that was the first time we were able to show our personality, like visually you know? We would do lots of covers and mashups, but I think we would just naturally be our kind of goofy, uncool selves,” Jack said.

The band grew rapidly from these beginnings, ultimately leading to their playing in front of packed venues full of fans.

But even as social media changed and things like TikTok and Instagram Reels took over, the brothers still understood the importance of promoting their work online. And so, they kept experimenting with how best to do this, even if it led to missteps.

“I think we went too far in the direction of…pandering I guess is the right word. Like, ‘Hey, this is what people are doing on social media! I guess this is what we should do.’ And it felt wrong,” Ryan said.

Jack describes how, initially, they would look for the viral trends and visual styles that big creators would use and then try to do those same things in their videos. But ultimately they felt that these efforts in mimicry paled in comparison to the creators who were more skilled at this kind of thing, and they felt that even trying to copy them was inauthentic and insincere.

“And so we kind of took a vow after that. That we’re going to be very much—as we continue to make content it’s going to be really music focused and very authentic to us,” Ryan said.

They wanted to keep promoting their music on social media, but in a way that rang true to them. And so it was in searching for that authenticity that they remembered another kind of content, and recalled how much they loved watching the behind the scenes extras of Peter Jackson’s beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Ryan and Jack describe to me how they loved watching the process of the filmmakers making models, planning scenes and working with CGI. And they found that, after having all that context, watching the actual movies was only more enjoyable because now they understood the artistic profundity behind every scene.

And so, they decided to do something like this for their fans too.

On TikTok and Instagram, many of AJR’s most popular videos show behind the scenes footage of their music videos, walk audiences through the composition process, or even offer up-close views of special moments from their live performances. They tell me that this sort of content, highlighting the how and why behind the art they so much love making anyway, rang true in a way that they could feel proud of.

So they stuck to it, and it worked. AJR’s TikTok page commands over 40 million likes to date, with dozens of viral videos behind that. And as they continued making their music and putting themselves out there, the creator community on these platforms started responding with their own creations as well. Two of AJR’s songs, “The Good Part” and “The World’s Smallest Violin,” had huge moments on TikTok where thousands of creator videos used the tracks to highlight happy life moments and positive milestones, and Jack and Ryan were amazed at all the positive reinterpretation of their music.

“So it’s been just like a—we’ve gotten to sort of stand on the sidelines watching the songs take on a life of their own,” Jack said.

Late last year, TikTok held its first ever U.S. TikTok Awards, a ceremony inviting the platform’s top creators to Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium to celebrate their achievements in putting themselves out there, growing in their art and becoming media personalities in their own right. And, perhaps fittingly given how well AJR has used the platform, TikTok chose one of the band’s newest songs, “The Big Goodbye,” as the official track in ads and promotions leading up to the event.

The choice of this song is fascinating, given its lyrics and story. Because the song is not, as Jack and Ryan tell me, the kind of high-energy celebration that one might expect for an award show. Instead, it is a deeply introspective song which reflects on the kinds of sacrifices that come with chasing an artist’s dreams.

“I think there are moments where we feel like, ‘Did we make the right decision?’ Because you have to make a lot of sacrifices when you’re chasing any kind of dream,” Ryan said.

Ryan describes how they sometimes look back at all that they gave up while chasing and building this life of their dreams, and they wonder whether this trade-off was worth it. And this feeling especially hits when they reunite with old friends, ones who opted for a quieter or less public life, friends who now come to congratulate them. And they can’t help but see how much happier they seem, and wonder why they’re the ones congratulating them. This song, then, distills those reflections into music.

And so in using “The Big Goodbye” to promote the TikTok Awards the platform is not only celebrating AJR’s successful journey on the platform but it is also, intentionally or not, bringing the kind of artistic integrity that’s always been at the center of AJR’s thinking into this reflection on the legacy of the content creator. The song’s use is asking the platform’s biggest creators, just as AJR asked themselves, to think back on all the hard work they did and to ask themselves whether, at the end of the day, they can be proud of the whole journey.

For his part Ryan Met hopes, for all the online creators at the TikTok Awards and beyond, that the answer is yes.

“I just hope for any of those creators that you’re proud of what you made, right? That you’re not just chasing trends. That you can look back and be like, ‘I did sacrifice a lot. But oh wow I have this, this and this to show for it,’” Ryan said.

For more on the creator economy, media, and entertainment follow my page on Forbes. You can also find me on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Threads.