Gatekeeping: I didn't knock, I didn't wait, I stayed

Some people spend their whole lives at the door. They create nothing, they risk nothing, but they decide who gets in and who doesn't. Gatekeeping is written for them, in English and with very short sentences, almost like sharp blows.

The song works like a list of reproaches. You say it doesn't count. You say it's not the way. You say anyone could do it, but you never did. You say that isn't art and you stop listening. Each line is one of those phrases thrown at you by the people guarding the entrance, handed back as is so you can hear what it really is.

The image I like most is that of drawing a line around yourself and calling it culture. Because that's often what gatekeeping is: not defending quality, but defending a territory. Hiding behind good taste, talking with borrowed rules, measuring other people's pain with a ruler instead of with the truth.

Fear with clean hands

There's a very short verse that for me sums up the song. It's not care. It's not craft. It's just fear with clean hands. That fear of someone different entering your space and changing it, disguised as high standards and judgement.

The chorus repeats the word until it sounds like a slammed door: closing every door, always wanting more, saying it's not like you, deciding who's inside. It's catchy on purpose, so it sticks with you and you recognise it the next time you see it.

And then comes the ending, which is my favourite part. Three tiny sentences. I didn't knock. I didn't wait. I stayed. No revenge, no shouting, just the observation that you're already inside, like it or not. It seems to me a very elegant way of winning the argument.

Here I think of anyone who has felt left out of a scene, a crowd or a group that thought itself exclusive. For artists starting out without patrons, for whoever arrives late to something and is made to feel like an intruder, for queer people who have always had to sneak in through the window. Listen to it before walking into a place where nobody is expecting you.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify