Blog: So… This Woman…

Yes. I’m sorry for the jump-scare…sorta.

The woman that you’re looking at is Shanin Blake, an American pop singer and TikTok influencer who blew up in 2023 for her songs and hippie aesthetic. And as you can probably guess by looking at the thumbnail, she’s a bit into the New Age with all her crystals and tribal jewelry that makes her – as one person put it – look like “the Coachella final boss.”

I first ran across Blake when watching a clip where YouTuber Benny Johnson was reacting to her hit song, “Peru Song.” He like many people (including me) were wondering what the heck he was watching and after laughing at the video, I just forgot about it and Shanin was pushed to the farthest, dustiest corners of my mind. Until a little bit ago when I saw a YouTube video critiquing her pop up on my feed. I watched it, cringed, and thought, “I should make a post about this lady.” So, I did some research and what I found probably isn’t surprising to any of you.

Blake apparently grew up in Moscow, Idaho and became a single mother at 17. Later, in 2019, she took off in the San Diego music scene with her song, “Stop, Wait a Minute,” before really taking off around 2023, mainly on TikTok, though she’s since become a viral sensation on other sites as well. And, as you might’ve guessed, most of her songs are built around New Age themes and are very narcissistic, talking about drugs like pot, shrooms, and ayahuasca, good vibes, divine female energy, energy in general (the hippie idea of energy), crystals, law of attraction and manifesting, money, etc. And if you watch her videos (which I do not recommend since you may need to wash your eyes out with bleach afterwards; no wonder she became a single mom), these themes are just even more reinforced.

So why am I talking about this lady. She’s a weird hippie influencer who looks like if Burning Man was a person. Why is she important? Welp, the reason I bring her up is because I think she’s probably the most concentrated form of the secular music that we listen to today. While some of it isn’t as overt as Blake’s music in its promotion of New Age ideals and practices, many of the themes (especially of divine female, vibes/energy, and law of attraction) are still there. As Christians, we should pay attention for those things because what we listen to does affect us. The more we listen to this type of New Age brainrot and just mindlessly absorb it, even if it is subtle, the more we may end up believing it and being decieved.

Until next time,

M.J.