New bassist gains her band thousands of new followers but gets kicked out after old bassist sees their newfound popularity and wants back in, so she sabotages them: ‘I started deleting followers (yes, one by one)’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Feb 4, 2026 5:00 PM EST

Band drama is the worst, and, in this case, the drama hit them where it hurt the most: their online presence. 

Unfortunately, in this day and age, you can't just be an artist who makes art and that's it. You also have to be a content creator. For some creatives, boasting about yourself online is complete torture. Isn't your art good enough to convince people to be interested? Nope. Sorry, it has to have an online presence now, too, or else it's not worth anything. 

So when this girl was asked to join as the bassist of a band with her friends that she's been close with for over a decade, she said yes and immediately got to work on their brand. When she started, they hardly had any sort of online notoriety. However, after she started, they gained thousands of new followers! They became popular enough online that they even started getting deals from venues simply because they saw how large their online following was. 

However, their old bassist saw this surge in popularity too, and decided they wanted back in now. So, overnight, with no prior discussion, they fired her and brought back the old bassist. Scorned, the new bassist, now ex-bassist, decided to get a in a little revenge…

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  • New bassist gains her band thousands of new followers but gets kicked out after old bassist sees their newfound popularity and wants back in, so she sabotages them: ‘I started deleting followers (yes, one by one)’
    via Unsplash+ (and Negar Nikkhah)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Turns out the band still does not understand how social media works, because they never changed their logins. Now, this scorned ex-bandmate takes away a chunk of their following every time they post. So, instead of having thousands of followers, they've lost thousands. She brought it down to only 1k followers now, which was a huge blow to the band. 

    Her intention is to make them think that every time they post, it is so bad and their fans hate it so much, that they unfollow them. If this isn't petty turned up to 11, then I don't know what is!

  • "Good luck gaining followers again for you music contract!"

    Well, I was part of a band for a little over a year. They reached out to me after their bassist left and asked if I could replace him.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • At first, everything was fine. Then their manager started pushing for "more social media presence." They told me I was good at it and suggested I take over their accounts.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • I agreed. From that point on, I basically became their entire brand. I handled the designs, merch, reels, Tik Tok, posts, visuals, everything.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • I grew their following to the point where, honestly, the band itself wasn't even that good, but venues started inviting us purely because of the online presence.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • They didn't help with any of it, not even a little. Damn, I even started writing songs for them (that they keep using btw).
    via ivygrowsgold
  • A few months ago, after a gig, they kicked me out, without any prior conversation. Just because the old bassist wanted to come back.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • I was angry, but mostly hurt. I had put so much time and effort into getting them opportunities, only to be replaced overnight.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • So here's the petty part. They were actively trying to get a music contract, and one of the main requirements from the company was their number of followers.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • Knowing this, and knowing they were stupid enough to forget that I still had all the passwords, I started deleting followers (yes, one by one) I've been doing this for almost two months now.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • Their once decent following is now down to around less than 1k, and they can't figure out why engagement keeps dropping.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • So it basically goes like this: everytime they post a video or an IG post, I delete almost 50 followers, just for them to think that not only the engagement is wrong but that they are creating content so bad that is making them lose so much following.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • I know it's not really big, but I didn't want to make anything huge like deleting their accounts or something like that (just bc I want to have opportunities with other music projects).
    via ivygrowsgold
  • New bassist gains her band thousands of new followers but gets kicked out after old bassist sees their newfound popularity and wants back in, so she sabotages them: ‘I started deleting followers (yes, one by one)’
    via Unsplash+ (and Artem Beliaikin)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Band drama is always messy, and I'm sure there is more sides to this story that we are not getting. But to hit a band in the social media area is a harsh blow in this day and age… 

  • Afraid Baseball_3962 It sounds like they had it coming, but it doesn't seem smart to post so many specifics so that you could be identified. They're probably not smart enough to figure it out, but somebody you know who doesn't like you could possibly rat you out. Enjoy it in the meantime.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • OP ivygrowsgold well, if that happens. It was good while it lasted
    via ivygrowsgold
  • Coder Joe1 Wow, they must've really missed their old band-mate or really hated you. Good job on the vengeance.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • OP ivygrowsgold I think both?? but it was really weird because one of them was my friend from like 10 years, so idk. I honestly thought we were all friends
    via ivygrowsgold
  • Interesting-Long-534 I guess your followers liked you better as a bassist.
    via ivygrowsgold
  • OP ivygrowsgold I love to think that they're becoming paranoid about this
    via ivygrowsgold
  • CharlieUpATree Let them get a contract then go after them for your songs
    via ivygrowsgold
  • SpiritFunnel I'm not mad at it. They should have kept both of you
    via ivygrowsgold
  • random-guy-here Don't worry, the only guys that get caught for this sort of thing are the ones bragging about it on social media...
    via ivygrowsgold

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Music fired satisfying bassist petty social media manager bandmate band drama entitled people
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