From thrifting to hardcore music, gatekeeping is rampant within so many subcultures today. On the latest episode of teenVoice, Heights Herald Lead Photographer Dominic Baker, along with special guests Graydon Evans (12) and Felix Schaefer (12), tries to figure out why this happens and whether it helps or hurts niche communities. Is the problem online or is it present everywhere? Listen in to find out!

Here’s a partial transcript of the episode to preview…because we don’t gatekeep here at the Heights Herald:

Welcome back to Teen Voice, the official podcast for the Heights Herald, the student-run newspaper at the Columbia Heights High School. I’m Dominic Baker, lead photographer for the Herald, and I am here with Graydon Evans and Felix Schaefer. How are you guys doing today? I’m doing great. Good to hear. So I have you here today just so I can hear some of your opinions on gatekeeping in the sense of, like, the internet and music, TV shows, anything regarding pop culture and your stance on it. As a general concept, gatekeeping is just excluding somebody from something because you think they aren’t cool enough or aren’t worthy. So I just wanna know, what are your guys’ personal experiences with gatekeeping?

Coming from the hardcore scene, I see a lot of people, like, excluded, especially, like, newcomers to the, to the scene. You know, I don’t have as much experience gatekeeping arts or more, non-tangible things, but, like, I’m really into thrifting and finding cool little stores, and, like, I’ll gatekeep a little antique store. Like, I don’t want a lot of people to know about it, coming and taking all the good stuff, things like that, or gatekeep a food spot, you know.

Have you ever had it perpetrated against you? Like, have you ever been excluded from something or had something gatekept so you weren’t able to access it? Not that I was aware of, so if it happened, they gatekept very, very well because I was not aware of it. Felix, anything to add? I agree. I think that– Well, you have more experience gatekeeping the non-tangible things like music and things like that. Yeah, and I was gonna say that, like, from where I come from, my experience in, like, the hardcore scene, I see a lot of new people coming into the scene, um, like, gatekept from bands or from moshing and stuff like that.

Okay, but I mean, what’s your stance on that? Like, good or bad? As a general thing, what do you think about gatekeeping? Is it a good or a bad thing, would you say? I think that, uh, to an extent, it’s a very good thing, like, to keep just people that aren’t really, like, about it or whatever, and to not keep things from being ruined. Like he said, the antique store is like, if you have all these people going there, it’s not going to be good anymore. Okay. I, I mean, I hear you, but would you not argue in the same breath that, like, how are people to really embrace that, and feel that culture, and, like, know what’s up if they’re being excluded from it? Do you get what I’m saying? Like, there are two sides of the argument there.

If you don’t know it, you don’t know it, though. If you don’t know about it, you can’t be mad about it. I w- I would argue in there, like, if I’m really passionate about something, I want that scene to grow and to be discovered and to share it with more people. And, like, especially if it’s something like music, the more people who are listening to that artist or band are creating more revenue for them to make better music, better equipment, et cetera. So I think if you’re really about something, you benefit in every way by having more people about it, but I also understand your take.

I feel like when it comes to Felix, I think he’s not that cool, so he likes having something small and [laughs] No. I’m kidding. He likes having something small and exclusionary that he can be a part of that not everybody else is a part of [laughs] and, uh… No, I’m, I’m kidding, but I feel like a lot of people, that’s why they gatekeep, and I mean, I’ve definitely done it in the past. I feel like mainly it just boils down to that, like, “Oh, this is something that I’m a part of that is not everybody is a part of, so that’s why it’s cool.” You know what I mean? Like, I feel like a lot of people feel that way. Is that what you would say?

I think in music, uh, a lot of new people coming in is, is good for the artist for sure, but I think that if you have people that don’t understand, like, the core values of the message, you end up… it ends up getting watered down. Especially when you have, like, new bands coming out of people that weren’t there or don’t understand what it’s all about, you end up with bands that aren’t even related to the original values of the scene. It’s performative. Performative people kind of ruin the scene.

Click ‘play’ to listen to the entire discussion!