Flooded with online hate, the musician corook decided to keep swimming

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/28/ [login to see] /made-famous-on-tiktok-if-i-were-a-fish-is-a-silly-fun-ode-to-self-acceptance
corook was having a bad day.

After reading a slew of hate comments online directed at their gender identity and how they dressed, the 28-year-old Nashville-based musician needed cheering up, so they and their partner turned to what they do best: music.

"My girlfriend was supporting me and wanted to do something to make me feel better and decided: 'Let's write a song about it, let's make like a really weird song. Because you know, I love that you're weird and it's wonderful that you're weird. So what's the weirdest idea that you can come up with?'

"And so I said, 'I think if I were a fish I think that all of the weird things about me would be cool,' and she was like, 'that's weird, let's do it.' "

The result is the hit song "if i were a fish."

Originally a 49-second TikTok, corook (also known as Corinne Savage) goes on to sing about rocks and socks, followed by the question that started it all: "Why's everybody on the internet so mean?"