“No Children” by the Mountain Goats Finds a Surprising New Audience: Gen Z TikTokers

The Mountain Goats are having a moment on TikTok.

You might think that the core Mountain Goat fanbase (Gen X and Millenials) and TikTokers (Zennials) wouldn’t naturally overlap.

But “No Children,” an irreverent shanty power ballad from the band’s 2002 album Tallahassee has recently managed to bridge the generational divide, uniting hipsters, cat lovers, and everyone feeling a little bit emo now that it’s getting colder. 

The trend, which seemed to have begun earlier this year and reached a fever pitch in October, even spawned a dance. It also propelled the song to succeed The Mountain Goats’ longstanding most popular song, “This Year,” in popularity on Spotify. See for yourself: 

@thecorbcob

Napoleon is not much of a dancer but A for effort ##fyp ##foryou ##fypシ ##cats ##catsoftiktok

♬ original sound – bleu

The song, by the way, is an extremely dark ballad about divorce, with a chorus that includes the unforgettable lyric “I am drowning, there is no sign of land / You are coming down with me / hand in unlovable hand / I hope you die / I hope we both die.” 

In an interview with Vox, frontman John Darnielle expressed ambivalence about going viral on TikTok. 

“I kind of have some fairly old-fashioned dad-like values about what an artist ought to be thinking about,” he said. “If I’m sitting here thinking about my own virality too much, then I’m going to wind up stewing in an ocean of self-contempt.”

@_x_yomama

I refuse to believe this sound has less than 3k videos, it’s overtaken my fyp. ##mountaingoats ##cheeseballs ##cheesepuffs ##millennial ##eldermillenial

♬ original sound – bleu

Be that as it may, the song’s new popularity garnered an approving tweet from Wonder Woman herself—Lynda Carter, who wrote, “I like living in a world where songs by the Mountain Goats go viral. Good job, Internet.” 

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Follow Senior Staff Writer Leigh Tauss on Twitter or send an email to [email protected].