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
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
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.
