Tiktok, the youth and a new way of consuming music
IT HAS been a little over two years since Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road featuring Billy Ray Cyrus went viral on Tiktok, and what a time it has been since then.
The rapper/singer, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, rose to fame after Old Town Road was uploaded on the short form video-sharing app in 2019, quickly sparking a challenge in which creators drank “Yee Yee Juice” and changed into western outfits as the song dropped in the background.
This catapulted the tune to mainstream media, landing it the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a record-breaking 19 weeks. It also became the fastest song in history to be certified diamond.
The song’s success was an early indicator of a shift in the way young people consume music. It has quickly become the one sure way that the A&R departments of music labels can gauge whether a song will be a hit or not. And this is done via challenges.
Doja Cat was a bubbling under musician, whose MOOO! song in 2018 catapulted her to internet infamy. It would, however, take for one of her songs, Say So, to be a Tiktok challenge before she truly became the star she is today. Say So would go on to be Doja Cat’s (born Amala Zandile Dlamini) first song to go viral, beginning her long reign as the unofficial “queen of Tiktok”.
It got so popular that even Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern crashed her daughter’s Tiktok video and took part in the Say So challenge, which was a cute dance initially created by Haley Sharpe to Doja Cat’s song playing in the background.
Nicki Minaj jumped on to the remix, while the Tiktok choreography was used in the music video. The song was nominated for a Record of the Year Grammy – won by another Tiktok viral hit, Savage Remix, by Megan Thee Stallion.
Doja Cat’s songs continue to go viral on the app, with the most recent being Streets. The song went viral mainly because of the racy silhouette challenge people were taking part in.
For the challenge, a person would shoot a video of themselves while the mash-up of Paul Anka’s Put Your Head on My Shoulder and Dlamini’s Streets started playing in the background. Right as the music would transition, the video would switch to a red filter showing only the person’s silhouette as they danced provocatively.
The song grew in popularity, not only on Tiktok but other social media sites like Twitter and Youtube, prompting Dlamini to release a music video even though the song had initially been released in 2019.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion made her mark on the app with her song Savage, which was used over 30million times after choreographer Keara Wilson created the famous savage dance challenge.
The dance was a bit more complicated compared to other Tiktok challenges, but that did not stop millions from taking part and singing: “I’m a savage, classy, boujee, ratchet ...” As the song gained the attention of mainstream audiences, Megan, whose real name is Megan Pete, released a lyric video which featured Wilson’s choreography and later a remix of the song with Beyoncé. Her career then took off and she was announced as the most-listened-to artist on Tiktok, according to the 2020 Year on Tiktok music report.
There are plenty more success stories credited to Tiktok, like the actress Olivia Rodrigo, who was barely known before releasing the Gen Z heartbreak anthem Drivers License in 2021. Rodrigo is now about to release her debut album.
In just a couple of years of its existence, Tiktok has been able to popularise music in a way that cemented its place as a rival for videosharing platform Youtube. It has quickly become a staging ground for artists to test-drive their music before it goes out to mainstream audiences.
Tiktok has also changed the way young people discover music or artists. Instead of waiting to hear the latest hits on the radio charts or on streaming platforms like Spotify, people are discovering catchy tunes on Tiktok. Proof of this can be seen on Youtube where people flood the comments section of some of their favourite songs with questions like: “Who is here from Tiktok?” or statements like: “Tiktok brought me here.”
It has also allowed forgotten stars to get a second chance at fame. Jason Derulo is now a megawatt Tiktok star and has used the app to his advantage by managing to revive his career and release new music.
Tiktok has won over the youth (myself included) by providing access to an unlimited number of songs while also allowing people to make it personal by being able to use the music creatively without having to worry about copyright issues. It has completely redefined the way young people see music.