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Topster "Beware Of Satanic Music" / Shutdown Controversy
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Overview
The Topster "Beware Of Satanic Music" and Shutdown Controversy refers to discourse and memes surrounding the shutdown of the website Topsters, announced by its creator via a webpage replacing the site that warns users to beware of Satanic music, using The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" as an example of a Satanic song and linking visitors to a Gregorian chants YouTube video to "cure" themselves. The change to the site was first noticed on social media on April 24th, 2024, inspiring memes on the /r/Topster subreddit where users make Topster-style posts consisting only of Christian or Satanic music and inspiring criticism towards the site creator.
Background
Topsters, or Topsters2, is a website which became notably popular on social media that allows users to compile their favorite albums or singles into a tier / favorites list format. It was hosted at neverendingchartrendering.org.[1] The creator of the site, purportedly a Hegelian theologist named Cole Gariety, although this is unconfirmed,[2] is known to be a conspiracy theorist who, throughout the 2020s, would occasionally share conspiracy theory-related posts on the Topsters website on a wide variety of topics, including anti-vax conspiracies and pro-Trump theories.
For example, on May 13th and 18th, 2022, posts were made to the /r/Topster[3][4][5] subreddit sharing screenshots of conspiratorial posts the creator shared on the site (shown below, left and center). On August 25th, 2023, a user shared a screenshot of the site with Donald Trump's mugshot posted on it captioned "ELECTION INTERFERENCE NEVER SURRENDER!" (shown below, right).
Shutdown / "Beware Of Satanic Music" Post
On April 24th, 2024, neverendingchartrendering.org was replaced with a single page titled "Beware of satanic music." The page explains, "A lot of music has satanic lyrics that will put you in a demonic state. This is not to be laughed at. It endangers your soul and mind." It goes on to explain how The Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever" is Satanic, analyzing the lyrics to make this claim, then links to a Greek Byzantine orthodox chant video on Youtube,[6] reading, "If you've been listening to this music, cure yourself by listening to Gregorian and Orthodox chants instead." The bottom of the page reads, "By the way I'm shutting down topsters."
A lot of music has satanic lyrics that will put you in a demonic state. This is not to be laughed at. It endangers your soul and mind.
For example, look at the lyrics of The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever': "Nothing is real, it doesn't matter much to me, living is easy with eyes closed, take me down to that endless red place la la la." This is nihilism: it says, "hell isn't so bad, come try it out!" It's pure evil.
If you've been listening to this music, cure yourself by listening to Gregorian and Orthodox chants instead.
By the way I'm shutting down topsters.
Online Reactions
The shutdown of Topsters and screenshots of the "Satanic music" page gained viral spread on social media, inspiring discourse and backlash. On April 24th, 2024, a post was made to /r/indieheads[7] about the shutdown, garnering over 200 upvotes in a day.
On the /r/Topster subreddit, users began posting memes in which they create custom Topsters consisting of either Satanic or Christian music or "Strawberry Fields Forever." For example, on April 24th and 25th, u/sandcrawler2 and u/UnMielpopsFanDeLa7g posted memes to /r/Topster[8][9] referencing "Strawberry Fields Forever," garnering over 230 and 70 upvotes in under 24 hours (shown below, left and right).
On April 25th, Anthony Fantano made a post on X[10] about the shutdown of Topsters, writing, "the t*pster guy really has gone off the deep end," garnering over 1,100 likes in a few hours (shown below). He also shared a screenshot of the site page which features a slightly different final line, reading, "By the way I'm shutting down topsters. I should've shut it down long ago. The music industry is evil" (shown below).
The shutdown lead some fans of the site to seek out an alternative, with one popular suggestiong being Topsters 3, hosted at topsters.org.[11]
Search Interest
External References
[1] NeverEndingChartRendering – neverendingchartrendering
[6] YouTube – Greek Byzantine orthodox chant
[7] Reddit – indieheads
[10] X – theneedledrop
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