Dec. 14, 2023
By Camille Echols
Editor-in-Chief
Has a song you heard while scrolling through TikTok ever gotten stuck in your head? If so, you’re not alone.
With over 1.5 billion active users, TikTok offers a variety of content, including videos paired with music.
Its library of around 150,000 pre-cleared, royalty-free songs offers an easy way for creators to share their music. Frequently, songs by unknown artists go viral on TikTok when they are used for trends or dances.
Music teacher Mr. Cardone said TikTok is a valuable platform for rising artists.
“It’s another point of contact for a target audience,” Cardone said. “If you’re trying to become a successful musician, why wouldn’t you use something that millions, if not billions, of people are using?”
Musical duo Flyana Boss rose to fame on TikTok by making videos of themselves running through various locations while their song “You Wish” played in the background. This caused their song to show up in more than 100,000 TikTok videos.
Cardone said even in the 1970s, music artists felt the need to project a unique persona and look.
“It’s not just the music and what people are hearing that is important, it’s the whole image–the way they dress, the way they act, even the way they dance and perform on stage,” Cardone said.
Earlier this year, the news website Business Insider published the results of a study in which it analyzed 33 songs that appeared within the top 50 trending sounds on TikTok from June 6, 2021-Oct. 15, 2022. These songs were all originally released before 2003 and did not include any remixes, covers or holiday tracks. A third of the songs increased more than 45% in Spotify streams following TikTok popularity. Another third showed an increase of more than 12%.
“Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse, which was released in 1970, had a streaming increase of 700% since it gained popularity on TikTok in January 2022, going from 8.7 million to 67.7 million streams.
Cardone said he is glad TikTok is repopularizing older music.
“It brings back old [songs] that we forgot about and lets us appreciate it again,” Cardone said.
Similarly, English teacher Ms. Burns said she enjoys hearing songs from her youth–such as “The Freshmen” (1997) by The Verve Pipe and “Leave (Get Out)” (2004) by JoJo–rise to fame through TikTok trends.
“It’s fun and nostalgic for those of us who grew up on these songs,” Burns said. “I always wonder what it is about them now that brings them back.”
Burns said TikTok is also advantageous to music artists who are just starting out in the industry.
“Many songs that first dropped on TikTok went on to become Top 40 songs on the radio. Spotify has entire playlists devoted to viral TikTok songs. The exposure TikTok offers can definitely propel a new artist into the spotlight,” Burns said.
She said she has mixed feelings about the impacts of slowed down and sped up versions of songs.
“On a positive note, it generates more likes and exposure to [their] song. On the other hand, listeners might find themselves only liking the sped up or slowed down version of the song and, therefore, not listening to it as the artist intended,” Burns said. “This could even turn listeners off to exploring additional music from that artist.”
Junior Tyler Casaretto said popular remixes of songs help artists maximize their success.
“It gives them the opportunity to make a second version of the song, making double the profit of the original song,” Casaretto said.
He said TikTok helps artists get noticed, but it does not ensure their long-term fame.
“It’s a good way to gain some attention, but [success] is a reach,” Casaretto said. “Although so many people can collectively agree to like a certain part of a song, [having] people listen to the entire song would be a little harder.”
Sophomore Chloe Sanchez said TikTok’s platform is more appealing than other apps because it is easy to immerse oneself when scrolling through the content.
“There is an overwhelming amount of people who use TikTok, especially on a daily basis,” Sanchez said. “I am most easily influenced when I’m watching promotional videos on TikTok instead of Instagram or YouTube, so I’d assume other people feel the same way.”
She said artists are posting their music on TikTok to appeal to Generation Z.
“We tend to be open to a lot of different genres, and we’re easily the most important when it comes to promoting music since we are the ones who are mostly consuming it,” Sanchez said.
She said TikTok popularity gives artists a chance to triumph in the music industry.
“Artists like Ice Spice were able to create more music within those 15 seconds of fame to really grow… and gain a huge fan base. It just really depends how the artist uses that fame to grow,” Sanchez said.
“The exposure TikTok offers can definitely propel a new artist into the spotlight.”
Unlike Sanchez, sophomore Isabella Bartlett said TikTok dooms artists to be one-hit wonders.
“Especially the younger generations, who use TikTok the most, have very short attention spans, which means that they can only focus on a new trending song for a matter of weeks before it gets old,” Bartlett said. “Songs get old and overplayed quickly because of how much they are heard on the internet or radio in a matter of days or weeks if an artist’s song goes viral.”
The market research company MusicWatch conducted a study that determined 25% of TikTok users have discovered music they enjoy through the app.
Bartlett said she first heard the songs “Thoroughfare” by Ethel Cain and “All I Wanted” by Paramore on TikTok.
“Those are two of my favorite artists that I wouldn’t have started listening to if I hadn’t found them through the app,” Bartlett said. “Another song I have found thanks to TikTok is ‘Venus in the Sea’ by Ha Vay, a more obscure artist that I would have never found without the internet.”
Bartlett said despite its benefits, artists should not rely solely on social media to become successful.
“They must engage with their local community and play shows, not just expanding their reach over the internet but in the real world as well,” said Bartlett.
