Attack on Titan and Banana Fish fandoms created a star in Ricky Montgomery
If you also chronically scroll through TikTok, and you’re an anime fan, then you likely know of musician Ricky Montgomery. His songs have commanded enormous audiences, and clips from “Mr. Loverman” and “Line Without a Hook” have been used and reused for trends. TikTok has launched numerous musicians into stardom, and Montgomery took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, around the same time anime and manga fandom intensified online. At the time of publication, his music has surpassed 1 billion streams globally, and he has two platinum records.
His success is uniquely a product of TikTokers’ anime obsession, a fandom his music has become “fully enmeshed” with, Montgomery told Polygon. It’s a blessing and a curse that has buoyed his music career. Montgomery’s music has become the soundtrack for anime fan edits and memes of Banana Fish, Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more. The same force that brought viral success to the indie-pop artist is also responsible for connecting Montgomery’s music to videos where people paint their feet to look like characters.
Prior to his current success, Montgomery dipped in and out of the music scene for several years. Montgomery released the now-popular album “Montgomery Ricky” in 2016, but left the music industry for a career in marketing. After returning to music and a canceled tour due to the pandemic, he once again considered leaving music — but the internet held on to him. Or, at least, a bunch of anime fans obsessed with Banana Fish did.
In 2020, Montgomery noticed his music was being streamed more and more on Spotify and TikTok. Fans of Banana Fish — an anime series following the friendship of a photographer and a gang member that ends in tragedy — had started to create fan edits
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