Have you ever heard of the phrase “timing is everything”? How do two polar opposite people from polar opposite sides of the world end up walking into the same bar, bumping into one another, and then the ultimate meet-cute ensues…magic? Things like this are essentially lightning in a bottle. You have to be in the right place at the right time for great things to happen, or in Aidan’s case, you have to participate in one of the most popular, yet vulnerable TikTok challenges of the summer. But remember, not all roads to success are easy to navigate and our boy is about to find that out for himself! How does a story about a seemingly young, All American musician who went viral online and was bullied for it, use it in his favor for his up and coming hot music career and how did his physical appearance seemingly start a small cultural reset and open the door for a much bigger, overdue conversation? Oh, you’ll see. Sit down and enjoy the story. It’ll take you no longer than learning a new TikTok dance, promise!
Meet Aidan Pecoraro, an extremely good-looking 23-year-old musician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was born and raised in a pretty normal suburban middle-class family. He’s a seemingly typical all-American young man with supportive and loving parents who always encouraged his dreams, and an older brother who likes most probably gave him a hard time growing up. I know mine did. It’s a guy thing, a right of passage. Although Aidan was far from poor…he never fit in where he went to school, which was far away from the streets that raised him. Being forced to attend the rich school district where everything was handed down to his peers. Admittedly it made him a bit jealous at first…but the fact that his classmates dangled the good life right in front of his face only added fuel to the fire that burned inside of him.
He could’ve stayed bitter, wallowed, or pretended like he was something that he wasn’t to fit in, but he had a very clear understanding early on that if he wanted to make his dreams come true, he’d have to put his nose to the grindstone and work to provide for himself! After high school, Aidan tried his hand at community college, and like most college freshman…bounced around different majors in hopes of finding the career path that really appealed to him, that he could see himself getting a degree in. It didn’t take a whole lot longer for him to realize that his real passion wasn’t something a professor could teach you while you sit at a desk. It was a natural-born gift, music. Aidan knew in his heart that he was an artist and that he wanted to make people feel something through his talents just like a young up & coming rapper named Mac Miller who was still riding high on the success of his first hit mixtape “Neverland” and a young Wiz Khalifa who BOTH walked the same Pittsburgh streets that a young Aidan did!
But before he could just drop everything skip ahead and collect his Grammy, he realistically needed a safety net and decided to finish his general studies and major in business. He, fortunately, had a high school friend who shared the same passion that he did that kept him entertained while schooling. Through his musician friend, Aidan got the opportunity to get in front of the mic for the first time ever! Now, THIS was that love at first sight, meet-cute feeling that I mentioned at the beginning of the article. He took a leap of faith with his friend, and they started creating music together on the side. They actually made really dope beats and admittedly, Aidan said that he surprised himself. The spark when creating music was undeniably electric.
Life got in the way, and as a way to make money on the side was becoming an Uber driver. One day while making small talk with one of his passengers, he found out that he was on his way to drop off this client at a recording studio to record some music. Needless to say, this caught his attention. After some small talk, an invitation, a little persuading, and quite a bit of hesitation (I mean, this was a complete stranger after all) he accepted the invitation to join his new friend at his studio session and they eventually laid down some tracks together. All of this being in the booth and working with other artists really got him thinking about how badly he really needed to find his own style and what it would sound like. In time, he ended up scoring a collab with his friend who was a well-known DJ at this time, and again, although grateful for the opportunity…it wasn’t the signature style of music he wanted to be known for.
Once upon a time if you wanted to create your own music, get your name and face seen and heard, a collab with different artists from all over the world, AND get more than just your family and friends to hear it so you can get honest feedback…it would require hundreds of hours of work, traveling, recording a million demo’s with your contact info attached and then you have to single-handedly mail them out to every major record label in the world in hopes of them calling your house phone. Oh, and stalking radio stations to play your music wouldn’t hurt either. But the beautiful thing about today’s generation? Technology. You can create a Soundcloud account and get overnight success which isn’t unheard of for a few of the lucky ones. Today’s internet fame and instant gratification can make you famous with adoring fans, merch, brand deals, millions of followers and a whole lot of money in the bank IF the lightning in the bottle thing happens to you as I mentioned before. It is here on SoundCloud that Aidan started releasing his own music under the stage name Amplemind when he dropped “Bloom” which he describes as self-aware and something nobody else had heard or done, it was completely original. But by the time he dropped “Neverland” soon after, he was new and improved… AIDO! But don’t lump his sound in with mumble rap just because he started on SoundCloud because that would be doing him a massive disservice, AIDO incorporates a little electro hip hop mixed with that black and yellow Pittsburgh flavor.
The other secret weapon to a musician’s success nowadays? A little thing called: Social media! Aidan had an Instagram account like most young adults do but he only ever really posted photos with just a few small groups of followers. He soon deleted everything off his page and did a complete artist re-brand to showcase his musical talents which seemed brilliant until he soon realized that not only was he not getting the love and attention he hoped for, but he actually started losing followers. This is when he made the choice that changed everything for him. He decided to take his talents to the newest app on the block. TikTok. It’s an app where you can create small videos that pack a lot of punch. Skits, jokes, celebrity gossip, make-up transformations, but most popularly, challenges. In these challenges, you can dance or pose to your own music, the hottest songs on the Billboard Hot 100 or give old bangers a massive resurgence. Many of these videos often get hundreds to thousands of views if you have even just a little rhythm and are good-looking. As far as today’s youth is concerned…Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are so yesterday!
Like everyone trying to desperately try to stay sane during the pandemic, Aidan tried the “renaissance challenge” were mostly young, ripped teen boys with 6 packs flex their muscles and pose like the “thinking man” or some super ripped Greek god in hopes of showing off just how perfect their physiques are, it became a thirst trap and gaining them tons of followers. Aidan, with his handsome face and perfectly healthy, joined in on the fun and posed like a Greek God sans his t-shirt like hundreds of young men before him and he got a lot of attention for it, almost viral, even…just not the kind that anyone could’ve ever guessed!
Trigger Warning: This section of the article discusses forms of bullying, body shaming, ED’s and mental health struggles.
In high school, Aidan struggled with skin issues and tried to eat healthy to clear his skin up as natural as possible, and was raised in a household that was very health conscious so at a very early age he was aware of what he put into his body and how it could affect him both physically and mentally. All of this combined caused Aidan to be very thin in high school, to the point where his peers would frequently comment on his appearance and wonder if there was something more serious going on. In college, he took up working out as a sort of stress reliever and even considered becoming a personal fitness trainer. He considered himself in shape and healthy until the comments on his TikTok challenge starting coming in by the THOUSANDS telling him that if he was going to participate in a challenge such as the one he did, he really needed to lose weight, lose his “gut” and wondered what possessed him to do the challenge in the first place as if he wasn’t aware what his own body looked like.
According to a study by DoSomething.org:
– About 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online. 30% have had it happen more than once.[1]
– 95% of teens in the U.S. are online, and the vast majority access the internet on their mobile device, making it the most common medium for cyberbullying.[2]
– 23% of students reported that they’ve said or done something mean or cruel to another person online. 27% reported that
they’ve experienced the same from someone else.[3]
– Girls are more likely than boys to be both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying. 15% of teen girls have been the target of at least four different kinds of abusive online behaviors, compared with 6% of boys.[4]
– About half of LGBTQ+ students experience online harassment — a rate higher than average.[5]
– Instagram is the social media site where most young people report experiencing cyberbullying, with 42% of those surveyed experiencing harassment on the platform.[6]
– Young people who experience cyberbullying are at a greater risk than those who don’t for both self-harm and suicidal behaviors.[7]
– 60% of young people have witnessed online bullying. Most do not intervene.
– Only 1 in 10 teen victims will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse.
Aidan admitted that seeing the negative comments really hurt him, even if they were from random people that didn’t know him personally. But unfortunately, he’s in good company in that field because even those who are considered TikTok royalty like Chase Hudson aka LilHuddy have openly talked to the media about how toxic the app and social media, in general, has been for him and his body image issues due to the constant bullying. He even considered walking away from the fame and his millions of followers because of it. But for Aidan, these were all such foreign comments that he’d never heard before since he grew up so thin, so naturally, he responded on the defense, Within days, more people found his video and started commenting…but this time, the words were of support! They all said how incredible it was to see a popular social media personality with a healthy body that they could relate to, how handsome he was and how his body was perfect the way it was. Honestly, it’s how I myself found Aidan! He has an incredibly healthy body type that looks like mine and many of us in the comments praised him for not only taking part in the challenge, inspiring those of us that don’t look like Jason Momoa (love him by the way) to take part in a challenge that was formerly seen as one that only those who have achieved physical perfection could take part in. Just like Aidan’s incredible music…he inspired us! Not only did he not let the negativity get him down or make him take his video down, but he also posted another one posing as another Greek God! Pure Pittsburgh King energy!
Aidan looks back at that viral video of himself and says, for the most part, that was his normal body, he was comfortable at that size but he fluctuates like most of us. It’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. It’s normal and it’s completely relatable in a world that makes the impressionable feel inadequate due to on-screen perfection. I think the lesson that we can learn here is that the pressure we put on men, and not just women, is unrealistic. He was proud of his body, as he should’ve been but the world tried to make him feel otherwise. If there’s one thing he’s learned from that video that’s been viewed almost 900,000 times…is that he has a voice, he intends to always stand his ground and he takes pride in representing healthy young men. It took Aidan’s passion for music to land on TikTok’s platform to showcase his talent, reach unimaginable numbers for reasons he never expected, rise above it, inspire plenty and use that unplanned attention to introduce a whole new audience to his superstar alter ego, Aido. I guess you can say that he was in the right place at the right time…almost like lightning in a bottle.
“When it comes to social media, people kinda don’t take you seriously if don’t have a huge following despite your content being pristine. We don’t get the proper recognition. We get overlooked or looked at for the wrong reasons, the people with originality don’t get love. I don’t want people to idolize me or wish to be me, I just want to inspire! But shit happens. Ride the wave, go with the flow. At the end of the day if you have good intentions, good energy and put it out into the world then it’ll come back to you!” – Aidan Paciaro
Duly Noted, Aido…I’d say mission accomplished! You’re insanely smart, brave, and beyond talented. You’ve inspired literally thousands and I can’t wait for your music to do the same for even more than that.
River Ceballos: Thank you so much, Aidan, for agreeing to do this and for being brave enough to share your story. It’ll inspire so many! Can I ask you a serious question that I ask everyone that I interview and write about?
Aidan Paciaro: Sure!
River Ceballos: Do you love yourself?
Aidan Paciaro: Of Course! I know who I am, many people replicate their image off of what they hear people say or what they see online. But I love myself as I am!
Aidan just dropped his newest project called “City Lights” on March 25th, and he describes the project as something, unlike anything he’s put out before. It has a combination of rock, hip hop, pop, and R&B. It’s a definite genre blender. It’s something for everyone, as he wanted to appeal to the masses…to everyone. You can listen to it on ALL music platforms except on Soundcloud. Moving forward and looking to the future, he’s hoping to branch out and network, make music connections, and has his fingers crossed for more promotion. He’s even hoping to venture into modeling. I think that’s a great idea, brother! The world is yours!
National Eating Disorders Association
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Need help now? Text START to 741-741 or call (800) 273-TALK (8255)
* How to Report TikTok Hazing, Sexual Violence & Cyberbullying
TikTok encourages users to report harassment and other inappropriate behavior so that it can be investigated and
dealt with. If you or your child has been harassed on TikTok, it’s important to speak up.
Parents need to be involved in their children’s online activities. Many kids don’t feel comfortable speaking up against bullies. This is also common for victims of sexual assault. On TikTok, at least, you can report abusive users on behalf of someone else. While it’s better to empower youth to acknowledge and recognize harassment, the number one priority should be keeping kids safe. We should always be looking out for others and be prepared to step in if needed.
Instagram – @aido_412
Twitch – www.twitch.tv/aloptrias
Music – ditto.fm/city-lights-aido
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