Femtanyl

Submission 345

Part of a series on Electronic Dance Music (EDM). [View Related Entries]

About

Femtanyl is an American hardcore dance duo consisting of producer, lyricist and vocalist Noelle and DJ and designer Skyla Hearsethief. First achieving virality with singles released in the spring and summer of 2023, in September 2024, the band became a subject of viral discussions and memes on social media. The band's mascot, a pointy-eared creature resembling an anthropomorphic cat, has been a prominent subject of fan art among the band's fanbase.

Online History

"Femtanyl" is a portmanteau of "female" and "fentanyl," a synthetic drug. The band consists of producer and vocalist Noelle and DJ and designer Skyla Hearsethief.

The band posted its first single, "S33K H3LP," on X^[1] / Twitter and YouTube^[2] on March 28th, 2023 (shown below). The song accumulated over 243,000 views on YouTube and over 1.7 million streams on Spotify in one year.

The single was followed by more releases in July 2023. On July 3rd, 2023, Femtanyl released its single "P3T," which garnered over 692,000 views on YouTube^[3] and 5.6 million streams on Spotify in one year. On August 27th, Femtanyl released CHASER, the band's first EP.^[4] The single included "KATAMARI," the band's most popular song as of September 2024 with over 1.5 million views on YouTube and 9.6 million streams on Spotify (shown below).

As of September 17th, 2023, Femtanyl had over 123,000 followers on YouTube and 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Online Presence

Mascot Fan Art

The band's mascot, a pointy-eared cat-looking creature that has appeared in cover art for the band's singles, has been a popular subject of fan art and animations among Femtanyl's fanbase. Notably, on October 25th, 2023, YouTuber^[5] SunnyIsOnline posted a fan crossover ULTRAKILL and Femtanyl animation that received over 1 million views on YouTube in one year (shown below).

September 2024 Discourse

On July 6th, 2024, X^[6] user @creepy_susie posted the earliest notable meme related to the discourse about the quality of Femtanyl's music, a This Fucking Sucks, Actually meme that received over 780 reposts and 5,600 likes in two months.

On September 14th, 2024, X^[7] user @NovaNationReal posted an ironic video caption meme about the band that gained over 2,400 reposts and 28,000 likes in three days (shown below).

The post was followed by several more posts critical of the quality of Femtanyl's music. Notably, on September 15th, artist Fallenchungus posted a comic about the artist that gained over 1,500 reposts and 32,000 likes in two days. On September 16th, the artist posted a follow-up comic with a different opinion, which received over 780 reposts and 13,000 likes on X^[8]^[9] in one day (shown below, top and bottom).

These and other posts were followed by some users implying that those who didn't like Femtanyl's music were being transphobic. For example, on September 16th, 2024, X^[10] user @ThatOne_Kid39 made a post contributing to the discourse that received over 4,600 reposts and 34,000 likes in one day (shown below).