WVAU 2014: Best Twitter Presence

December 18, 2014

#best #twitter #presence (Twitter please sponsor us)


3.Patrick Stickles (@TitusAndronicus)


+@ An intense and deeply troubled young artist +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@ +@


Hey, everyone. It’s me, Twitter. You have a good 2014? Mine’s been pretty great. Not sure if you’ve heard, but social media is changing things. Retweets and Favorites are the new forms of currency, and guess what – they’re not going away anytime soon. Welcome to the future, baby. LET’S GO.

If Twitter performance is the only way to judge someone’s worth in today’s society (Hint: it is), who had the best year in 2014? Unsurprisingly, it’s a band who has ruled the scene since their social media debut in 2011: Titus Andronicus (namely, singer/songwriter/guitarist Patrick Stickles).


They tried to take him away from us. They failed. After the +@ Twitter account went uncharacteristically dormant in mid-May, the masses were concerned. Who was going to unleash some much needed #REALTALK in +@’s absence? Then, one fateful day in late June, a sign of hope…


The man behind the machine was back, and ever since, Stickles has continued to show that he’s the only one who really gets me. Theories on “The Simpsons,” rounds of “Guess the Buzz Band,” and genuine interactions with his band’s fanbase are all abound in the +@ Twitter feed, which is also privy to retweeting fan-made compilations and concert videos of new Titus songs. This is how you do it, people. Take a bow, Titus.


-Twitter (Cameron Meindl)


2. wint (@dril)


rat with human face given medal by world health organization


How do you even write about dril? I mean, he‰’s far and above the best of an increasingly large pool of twitter accounts at tweeting poorly punctuated, seemingly random nonsense at an absurd attempt at humor, but can you even call something like that “the best‰Û? Can you justify waxing philosophically about an account that, within the past week, has stated that his “ass cheeks have two giant fingernails‰Û? 


Is there a point to trying to find some kind of sense in this account that, at its core, is just a combination of your creepy drunk uncle and a poorly translated copy of Atlas Shrugged?


Is it worth it to wonder about the man/woman/group behind the overly compressed image of what looks like Jack Nicholson? 


There‰’s a consistent character in the endless barrage of garbage that is dril, but to what end? Is this some kind of insane attempt at constructing what is certainly the worst human to have ever lived? Is this a parody of conservatism, middle America, people who don‰’t know how to use the internet, or something else?


Is this even parody at all? Doesn‰’t writing something like this completely miss the point of dril?


Is there a point? Is this funny? Are these even jokes? Do I even like this?


-Socrates (Richard Murphy)


1. Jaden Smith (@officialjaden)


If You Want To See The Future Of Music, Photography, And FIlm Making.


Frankly, nowadays many artists are using Twitter in a pretty boring fashion. Music lovers‰’ Twitter feeds are constantly clogged with endless streams of album promotion, unnecessary, incendiary remarks, and artists‰’ retweets of how awesome their fans believe they are. In this dark, monotonous twitterverse, there is a bright light, Jaden Smith. This 15 year-old artist/philosopher has uncovered the secret behind crafting 140 character posts. The perfect combination of interesting music-related news articles, casual releases of his own tracks, and his iconic stream-of-consciousness truth-seeking, has grown his page to garner 5.46 million followers. He was also able to start a movement on the social media platform, #TweetLikeJadenSmith.

In 2014, his frequency of tweets has not only increased, but their quality and variety have been elevated to new levels. It is still unclear what brought this theorist such an expansive mind when it comes to philosophy, science, music, and politics, but his tweets are simply captivating and thought-provoking:


This year also marked a release of a 3-track album dedicated to Kendall Jenner on her birthday via Twitter.


Jaden is on the rise with a growing portfolio of music on Soundcloud as well as  a feature on Childish Gambino‰’s latest EP, Kauai. We will have to wait and see how his extraordinary young innovator uses this platform and other digital tools in the future to spread his unique music and knowledge.

-Jack Fitzpatrick


Amazing, right? Tomorrow we list our top five EPs of the year.