How TikTok Has Revolutionized Music

Over the years, we’ve seen music grow more and more into our culture and as a result, we’ve grown to identify with music and their respective artists. It seems that there is a genre for any person and those songs that we identify with become a vital part of our life. Wherever we go, there’s someone jamming out to their favorite songs, while on their way to wherever it is that they have to go. There’s another person working-out with their favorite “hype-up” playlist blasting in their ear. There’s even people rocking out to music at a hangout session. This is something that has been a part of our lives for a period of time. Music has been in the palm of our hands. This is evident with music streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music taking over this field for years. We have seen people take music with them everywhere that they go, however, with an ensuing global pandemic, everyday life changed for everyone. This is also evident with popular music.

Though we are away from others, confined within the walls of our homes, music has still been a focal point in society. I remember waking up to social media posts about artists isolating themselves in mansions in rural places to focus on making music. This was apparently the trend throughout the world, as we saw on social media that artists were working on their music as their own quarantine projects. It felt like artists were releasing albums left and right for a month straight. With all this music to go through, we had no choice but to sit down and listen to it--seen to be quite the business move. I know I listened to those newly released albums during that time. My girlfriend and I would critique each song and make a list of the ones we liked, ones we didn’t like and the ones we were one the fence about and needed to re-listen to just to make a decision about it. It was fun, but then it got old. I mean it’s boring listening to music in your room and not being able to put it to use either at the gym, on a road trip, blast it at a party, or play it during a hangout with your friends. During the quarantine, I felt that this was the time to get into music and to possibly have something that made people go, “Wow.” So, I thought about what was next. Then, something happened. I looked at my recommendations for new, popular music (I’m always open to hearing new genres or groups to keep things entertaining) and I clicked on one of the songs. I don’t remember the title of the song, but I didn’t think it was all that great. At least, not to be on the popular music board. Either way, I played it for my girlfriend and she told me that the song was popular on the app TikTok, which is a short video app where people dance, lip sync or do crazy stunts. The app was something new to everyone earlier in the year, but once the pandemic began, TikTok’s popularity grew tremendously and so did the music that came from the app.

This was confusing as the app used small samples of the songs, yet these songs were everywhere. I heard them on the radio, television ads, or in my recommendations for new music. The fact was I didn’t know what was so appealing about them. I mean maybe the one snippet of the song was what was driving the popularity of it, but that couldn’t be the case as they were popular on the radio and were played so many times. Some songs were good, but others were pretty bad, however they were all trending songs. And as the quarantine persisted, new songs started arising on the popular page. Almost all of them were from TikTok. They all had their own dances or other niche that TikTok users came up with. Another thing that was interesting was that they were from “underground artists”, such as Ritt Momney, Jack Harlow, Benee, among others. This was something that I thought would be a trend in the coming years, that more underground artists would become extremely popular, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. One thing that I thought about when I would see new TikTok songs showing up on the popular page was “Where were other artists?”

By this, I meant mainstream artist and their music. People we’ve seen time again work on their music, as we anticipated the long awaited album release. I know with one artist that was a prime example was The Weeknd with his long awaited album After Hours. I remember that my girlfriend was waiting for this album for a while. It had been years since The Weeknd released any kind of music, whether album or single. And when he released it to the public, she dropped everything and we listened to the entirety of the album. This was a long awaited moment for her, so I was there to share this moment with her. We listened through it. And. It was okay. There were a few songs that were really good, don’t get me wrong. But I remember her saying that it was okay, but it could’ve been better. I also remember social media going into a frenzy as the album made huge headway. Certain songs were highlighted as being must-listens and pictures of The Weeknd were everywhere in a costume that resembled the album cover. I don’t think he ever took that off when he made an appearance, whether in public or on social media. However, after a few weeks, the album was old news, but then it reemerged through TikTok and some songs had their own dances that TikTok creators made. I thought about this a lot and had a lot of questions about the music industry as a whole. Are artists taking so much time with their albums to build hype around it? Is TikTok going to be the way we find new music or make it relevant? Will social media be the way for artists to measure their music’s success with the public?

I talked to one of my friends, Jake, about why this could be. He is a San Jose State University alum, who now works in the music industry as an audio engineer. I wanted to hear his thoughts about TikTok and what makes it so popular. “I think it’s the fact that it’s how the clips hit hard in certain areas and what the artists are saying in their lyrics. Like I think that because they are either crazy or so simple, it makes people want to create the dances and the other things that they do. I mean it’s not the most innovating thing to music, as choreographers have created full dance routines to music in the past, but the concept of these quick dances that everyone can learn has really taken over and it has been what is making certain songs as popular as they are.” I understood where he was coming from on this, but some of the music from TikTok that I have seen was edgy too. Did this same rule apply? Jake thought about it and continued, “Well, it could be as simple as sex sells or that its lyrics are what make the song so popular. It really depends. But I think the thing is that songs that are popular on TikTok and stuff like that are there because they hear them all the time from being locked up in their homes from quarantine.” This is what I was thinking about music from TikTok and the popularity that it has on the app and outside of it. I had thought that this was a reason why this music, and the app, has gained the popularity that it has. The global pandemic caused a lot of people to turn to apps like this, just to pass the time, but as a result we were exposed to more music that we probably wouldn’t have looked for or listened to without apps like TikTok. I think that Jake viewed this as a way for artists to hone in on a style of music that many people like. I think this is why more underground artists are getting the exposure that they want through TikTok or other social media apps, because they are platforms that we use regularly, so you are able to directly send your music to the masses through a popular social media platform.

I wanted to look at this from the point of people from their quarantine experience. I mean it was the people that made these songs popular by listening to them, playing them when they are with their friends, or when they are using it for their TikTok post. To talk more about this, I went to the one person I know who uses TikTok religiously and knows all the music that comes from the app. That person was my sister, who is an avid TikTok user and who I know plays these popular songs from the app whenever she gets the chance. I knew she would give some good insight as to why music has been getting popular from TikTok. “I don’t know what it is, honestly. Like the music is just catchy and like there are dances and stuff to them. It’s just fun. It gives me something to do throughout the day. I got bored during quarantine and TikTok was a way to do something. And the music was a big part of passing the time. It’s fun to listen to and to do the dances when you hear them on the radio. It’s like the thing, you know?” Maybe that was why this music was popular. Because people hear it all the time on their phones and with how big TikTok is, there isn’t a way around not hearing it. When she told me that it was “just the thing”, I thought about if it was a fad or something like that. But it doesn’t seem that way, as new music is always coming in from this platform and it will take its spot on the popular page on any music streaming site. I think this has been the trend that the music industry has tended to follow over the years. We see new music come and go. Some songs, we definitely wonder why they are on the top of the charts, but it’s because of the people who listen to them is what makes these songs as popular as they are.

After talking to these two people, it was apparent that music looks to be taking a turn to what social media and its users find popular. The coronavirus pandemic had a major impact with how new music might become extremely popular as it was shown that it might have to adhere to TikTok users and if they are able to get behind it and find it a popular sound to use within their videos. With this being said, the question of if traditional artists need to make music that can adhere to TikTok users needs to be addressed, as with changing times, require alternative methods to success. It certainly looks that way and we are starting to see it with mainstream artists. There have been certain artists who have released songs that were extremely popular because they followed the model for how songs get so popular on this platform, but then after a while they fade away from popularity. I think that artists are starting to find that the only way to the top of the charts with their music is to promote it through TikTok and hope that they have a chance at making it big. The time of traditional promotion, music production and fame are looking to be in the rearview mirror as the times are changing in the latter. “This is the time for those underground artists to start making music and getting the exposure that they need to make it as a singer, rapper, or whatever,” Jake said. “I think that it is crazy that this is what popular music might be based off of. But it is also interesting to see this as a way for upcoming artists to have their stuff heard on a platform with millions of users. But this might be the fall of music that means something, as audiences are looking for songs that you can create or just dance to, have a hard-hitting beat, and have cool lyrics. But with that, comes the cost of no more meaning in songs. Just about making money, shaking your ass and partying, that’s what it looks like it’s going.”

The music industry looks to be taking a turn to becoming much more thematic with songs that feature sex, drugs and money as their main subjects are taking over the charts. I think this can be evident as music is going through platforms such as TikTok. I think that with the times changing and as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, artists that may not be as big as others, may try to join the social media app as a way of getting their music more popular. I think you can already see artists going in that direction. A good example of that would be Doja Cat and Jason Derulo. They have grown popular on the app as well and are even releasing music on TikTok that has shot up on the charts. Recently, Jason Derulo released a song that was big on TikTok and that song hit number one on streaming services. This feels like it’s just the beginning of what the music industry can be expecting in the near future.

Throughout the pandemic, people have found ways to entertain themselves through the long hours that the quarantine had imposed on us. TikTok seemingly has entertained the majority of people during these troubling times. And through this platform, people have been exposed to all kinds of music and have made it popular. These up and coming artists caught their break through this app and made it the standard for what music has become in an age where things are changing with every day that passes.