Before Instagram Stories, before TikTok dances, before anyone said "influencer," there was Buzznet. This forgotten platform accidentally invented the blueprint for modern social media—and then got destroyed by its own success.

Join host Leslie Simon and explore how Buzznet's innovations in authentic community building, creator monetization, and visual storytelling became the template that every platform since has followed. From Discord's community features to Instagram's aesthetic curation, the patterns that emerged from this small music platform are still shaping your digital experience today.

Decode the foundational patterns that every platform still follows, why they keep making the same mistakes, and what happens when innovation becomes invisible.

Want the complete Buzznet origin story? Check out our two-part series on The Rise & The Fall of Buzznet.

What happened to the original influencers after Buzznet died? This bonus clip tracks the wild post-platform journeys of scene queens like Jeffree Star, Audrey Kitching, and Hanna Beth—from beauty empires to spiritual scandals to perfect pivots.

Join host Leslie Simon and explore how Jeffree built a $45 million cosmetics empire before retreating to a Wyoming yak ranch, uncover the mystery behind Audrey's disappearance and her controversial Crystal Cactus venture, and reveal how Hanna Beth mastered reinvention through reality TV and brand partnerships.

Together, the scene queens reveal the secret for surviving internet fame: treat early success as a beginning, not a peak.

Want the complete Buzznet origin story? Check out our two-part series on The Rise & The Fall of Buzznet.

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By 2008, Buzznet’s tight-knit community of scene royalty was tearing itself apart through public feuds and competitive drama, while Facebook's clean interface and mysterious algorithm systematically dismantled their kingdom.

From Jeffree Star's mainstream pivot to the Great Scene Queen Wars, from Facebook's game-changing News Feed to Buzznet's fatal celebrity gossip rebrand—this is the story of how authentic community gets destroyed by its own success.

In Part 2 of our Buzznet series, we dive into how the platform that accidentally invented influencer culture became its first casualty.

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Before Instagram Stories, there were daily photo updates. Before brand partnerships, there were featured user programs. Before influencers, there was scene royalty.

Tighten your white belt for the untold story of Buzznet—the forgotten platform that accidentally built the blueprint for today's creator economy.

In 2006, while MySpace was digital chaos and Facebook was still college-only, a small L.A. startup gave scene kids the tools to transform their carefully curated aesthetics into actual careers. Meet the original scene queens—Audrey Kitching, Hanna Beth, Jeffree Star and more!—who pioneered everything we take for granted about online influence.

Part 1: The Rise explores how razor-straight bangs and perfectly angled selfies became the foundation of modern digital celebrity.

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From Harry Potter's gothic halls to Phoebe Bridgers' whispered confessions, this episode unpacks Academic Goth, a movement that gives students permission to treat knowledge like art, studying like spell research, and homework like main-character moments.

Join host Leslie Simon to examine the indie music soundtracks that make homework feel cinematic, the BookTok obsession with "The Secret History," and why physical books have become a rebellion against the world going digital.

Let’s uncover why students choose vintage leather journals over laptops, how candlelit study sessions become sacred rituals, and what this movement reveals about modern educational promises versus reality.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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This week, let’s explore the fascinating phenomenon of musical photocopying through My Chemical Romance's explosive influence on the scene. Following MCR's breakthrough with their 2004 album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, three distinct generations of bands emerged, each more distanced from the authentic vision that made Gerard Way & Co. so compelling.

From Aiden's Halloween-store aesthetic and Thirty Seconds to Mars' celebrity shortcut to Black Veil Brides' socially optimized rebellion and Falling in Reverse's manufactured controversy, I examine how authentic artistic vision becomes increasingly diluted through waves of imitation.

What happens when bands copy the look without understanding the genuine experience behind it?

How does theatrical darkness rooted in literature and personal struggle transform into pure marketing spectacle?

And what can we learn from bands that successfully evolved beyond their copied beginnings versus those that remained forever stuck in someone else's creative shadow?

Listen now and discover the fascinating lifecycle of influence, imitation, and the ultimate price of musical photocopying.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Ever notice how some artists drop one earth-shattering album, then vanish into legend?

Host Leslie Simon explores music's most tantalizing mystery: the single-album phenomenon that rewrote the rules forever. From the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks igniting punk's revolution to Jeff Buckley's Grace redefining vulnerability, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill transforming hip-hop's emotional scope, and Postal Service's Give Up spawning countless digital imitators—witness how four debut masterpieces shattered boundaries and achieved instant immortality.

Why do these singular statements hit harder than entire discographies? What makes a debut so powerful that it becomes untouchable?

Stream now and discover how four wildly different artists achieved musical immortality with just one perfect shot.

Want more #DesperateForAttentionPod? 🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple: https://bit.ly/dfapodcast-apple Listen & Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/dfapodcast-spotify Listen & Subscribe on Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/dfapodcast-amazonmusic 💬 Follow on Instagram: @desperateforattentionpod Follow on Threads: @desperateforattentionpod Follow on Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/desperateforattn.bsky.social 🎵 Theme music: "Raving Energy (faster)" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Remember frantically switching radio stations when your friends got in the car so they wouldn't catch you blasting “Mr. Jones”?

Host Leslie Simon kicks off a new season of Desperate For Attention by unveiling our collective musical hypocrisy. From Third Eye Blind's 'Semi-Charmed' secrets to Avril's sk8er-girl revolution, let’s trace how these once-mocked Y2K artists transitioned from peak-cringe to playlist essential.

Discover the perfect storm of nostalgia, cultural shifts, and genuine talent that transformed these bands from guilty pleasures into respected icons. Stream now and finally admit what your iPod knew all along.

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