
After a TikTok Hit, corook Gets Serious (Sort Of) The humor and sincerity of if i were a fish struck a chord with alum Corinne Savages listeners. Their new EP proves it was anything but a one-off.
By
John Mirisola
June 9, 2023
Corinne Savage B.M. '17 performs as corook.
Image by Libby Danforth
Its a story as old as music: Have a bad day. Write a great song. Maybe have a better day tomorrow.
Thats more-or-less the experience that launched corook-the artist project of Nashville-based songwriter and producer Corinne Savage B.M. '17-to new levels of notoriety. In April, their song if i were a fish exploded on TikTok, where the video has received more than 18 million views and 380,000 shares to date. The songs core question, Whys everybody on the internet so mean? was deeply serious for Savage, who wrote and performed it with their partner Olivia Barton B.M. '18 in response to online bullying theyd suffered. But the song they pulled from the depths of that struggle was such a gloriously weird and funny celebration of individuality, and it spawned such an overwhelmingly positive and openhearted response, that for one moment in the spring of 2023, it actually managed to make one corner of the internet seem a little less mean.
serious person, Pt. 1 album artwork
This month, corook released their new EP, serious person, Pt. 1-a batch of songs that reaffirm Savages talents as much more than a social media phenomenon. With each song on the EP, corook skillfully balances sincerity and humor, unpacking serious themes such as romantic commitment, body image, and queer identity in a series of witty, sharply observed sonic time capsules.
A lot of the ideas that I have on that EP are centered around those magic moments of, I dont know what this is, but lets chase it, corook says. And in this interview, conducted a few days before they announced their first-ever North American headline tour, they dig into the craft of shaping those magic moments into songs. We also talk about the challenges of balancing internet fame with real-world connection, the significance of their Nashville Pride performance later this month, and much more.
Read the full conversation (edited for length and clarity):
From the outside, it sure seems like youve had kind of a wild couple months. Its not like if i were a fish came out of nowhere, because youve been at this for a while, but that song really did seem to put you in front of a lot of listeners who connected with you in a new way. So Im wondering how youve been processing that response, and if there have been moments in the last couple months where you really knew something was different about the reaction to that song. corook: You know, Ive only had like one other moment like that. Ive posted a lot of songs on TikTok-thats kind of what we have to do now. My song its okay! kind of had a moment. And the biggest difference between that and if i were a fish was the way that it felt like if i were a fish already existed in peoples lives. For its okay! people would take the audio and make a video to the audio, but for if i were a fish, there were thousands of videos of people singing it around the house or to their kid, or, like, a childrens choir singing it. It felt like the song had been around and had a life of its own already.
Its been kind of impossible to process. And one of the things that I did to try to process this online world of people accepting and listening to the song was, I wanted to meet people. I wanted to see if these people were real people. And so I did a little meetup in New York a few weeks ago and just asked people to come, just to see who would come. I thought maybe 25 people would show up, and it must have been like 300 people that came to this park and just showed up to sing the song.
And thats when I was like, Oh, wow. This is not just me gaining a few fans. This is gonna be an actual fan base after this.
Its difficult to be an artist nowadays because the numbers can go up and my phone can ding a bunch of times, but it doesnt totally feel like Im a successful artist. So Im really excited to have shows and see people in real life reacting to the song and just telling me their stories as to how the song affected them, because thats what really makes me feel like Im held by my community.
The internet, and social media specifically, has been an engine for a lot of your notoriety, but at the same time, clearly also a source of a lot of anxiety and heartache for you. So Im really curious, as an artist who has to work on these platforms and also is pretty critical of them in some of your writing: How do you think about your own relationship to the internet? And maybe related, how do you keep yourself grounded in the real life side of things? How Social Media Burnout Affects Musicians
Chris Wares, assistant chair of music business/management, shares tips on how artists can take care of themselves while working to grow their audience.
corook: I think, like anything, I go through seasons. Some seasons its really difficult to have a relationship with social media, and others, it feels just like a creative outlet for me. I think its been a weird time to be an artist because we kind of dont have a choice. We have to be online in some capacity, and it can be difficult to not only find your voice, but also to deal with the reactions coming at you in real time, whether its wildly positive or wildly negative-because theyre both there.
I havent figured it all out yet. I think Im in a season right now of it really affecting me, which is why Im really excited for these shows to see these people and to connect in real life and kind of not have to worry about the online thing for just a moment.
But yeah, I do have contradicting feelings around it because its obviously brought me such a wonderful, vast community of sensitive, wonderful people t
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
01/07/2025
The launch of Code of Silence, coupled with the Britains Got Talent semi final, gave ITV its best Sunday night of 2025.
The first episode of the new crime dr...
01/07/2025
ITV and Mammoth Screen have announced the start of filming for Betrayal, a gripp...
01/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies has delivered its second Bombardier Global 6500 missionize...
01/07/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., July 1, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its second quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, Ju...
01/07/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations, renewing the licenses for Chesapeake...
01/07/2025
Dalet has released a new update to its Dalet Flex media workflow platform, introducing powerful new capabilities to its flagship platform....
01/07/2025
NEWARK, N.J. With the FIFA Club World Cup final rapidly approaching and the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup now less than a year away, interest in soccer in th...
01/07/2025
COW Job Listing: Laser Engraved Logo
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Laser engraved logo
July 1, 2025Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Cr...
01/07/2025
LeGrow.Studio Builds Broadcast Hub for ePro League
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
TEM Constellation HD and BlackmagicURSA Broadcast G2 drive liv...
01/07/2025
Beeble launches SwitchLight 2.0, bringing AI-powered relighting to any footage
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
New AI model delivers full-scene p...
01/07/2025
Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Created with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film camera...
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a consent decree with Sinclair to resolve a variety of in...
01/07/2025
DENVER Low-power television (LPTV) station owners looking to navigate the complexities of selling their assets in todays dynamic media environment are invited t...
01/07/2025
NASA announced today that live programming from its NASA+ channel will be available on Netflix starting sometime this summer....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has appointed Katie McAuliffe to serve as policy advisor in his office....
01/07/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Alphabet's GFiber, the broadband provider formerly known as Google Fiber, has announced that it recently worked with Nokia to demonstr...
01/07/2025
NEW YORK, N.Y. DoubleVerify (DV) has announced the launch of DV Authentic Attention for Social. The product will first launch with Snap, the owner of Snapchat....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations and agreed to renew the license for C...
01/07/2025
Compact new converter lets users capture live NDI and streaming sources into software over a USB interface
Video interface and IP workflow innovator Magewell ...
01/07/2025
Disguise, the award-winning tech company driving visuals for Broadway and West End hits including Redwood, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Disney's Fr...
01/07/2025
Vocal-processing plug-in joins NOIZ Hub series
Launched in 2024, KIT Plugins' NOIZ Hub series was created with the aim of providing a range of professio...
01/07/2025
New self-paced learning programme announced
Mastering.com have announced the availability of a new online course designed to cover the fundamentals of maste...
01/07/2025
Historic appointment ushers in unified leadership for WRAL-TV, New Media, and Digital Solutions
RALEIGH, N.C. - 6-27-25 - Capitol Broadcasting Company is prou...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
01/07/2025
cetecom advanced certifies Rohde & Schwarz test solution for the verification of...
01/07/2025
Back to All News
Watch: A Line Crossed: Netflix Drops Explosive Trailer for New...
01/07/2025
Tyngsboro, Mass. - June 30, 2025 - The 2025 ACM Annual Conference at Boston University was an energizing and inspiring gathering of community media professional...
01/07/2025
RT has announced that Teresa Smith has been appointed Commissioning Editor with responsibility for Factual Entertainment following a public competition. This s...
01/07/2025
This July, RT is delighted to support Galway International Arts Festival, Earagail Arts Festival in Donegal, Belfast TradFest and 23 other arts and cultural ev...
01/07/2025
In many parts of the world, including major technology hubs in the U.S., there's a yearslong wait for AI factories to come online, pending the buildout of n...
30/06/2025
There's nothing quite like the magic of finding music that feels made just f...
30/06/2025
When it comes to new music, Spotify's team of editors across North America is always on the hunt for songs that make them feel, think, and move. They're...
30/06/2025
SBS On Demand boosts global news offering with launch of France 24 FAST Channel
30 June, 2025
Media releases
SBS is expanding its international news offeri...
30/06/2025
Star Studded Ensemble Cast Are Joined by Richard Rankin as Filming Begins on the Second Season
[June 12, 2025 - Boston, MA]: The Forsytes, Debbie Horsfield...
30/06/2025
The Artemis II Space Launch System core stage is integrated with the solid rocket boosters inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy S...
30/06/2025
RALEIGH, N.C. Capitol Broadcasting Co. has named Heather Gray vice president and general manager of WRAL-TV and WRAZ-TV here....
30/06/2025
The Virginia Association of Broadcasters has recognized Bill Sewell, Director of Engineering at WTKR & WGNT in Norfolk, Va. as the recipient of the 2025 J.J. Fr...
30/06/2025
The Society of Broadcast Engineers said its annual member drive resulted in the recruitment of 49 individual members....
30/06/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid today released its fully integrated news platform, uniting MediaCentral and Wolftech News in a single newsroom solution, and will demonst...
30/06/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communication's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a Consent Decree with Sinclair Broadcast Group to resolve a variety o...
30/06/2025
Eurorack sequencer module reimagined
California-based modular synth innovators Qu-Bit have announced the launch of a new module that offers a fresh new take...
30/06/2025
Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics to Host 40th Anniversary Concert The celebration will be held on July 10 in Perugia, Italy.
By
Colette Greenstein
June 30, 202...
30/06/2025
PremiumBeat Tips and Tricks
Brie Clayton June 30, 2025
0 Comments
When editing to impress, you'll need quality music, and if your studio happens t...