Tik-Tok is still around, and most likely will be for a while longer, having 689 million users as of January 2021. This ranks it as the 7th most popular social platform behind, from 6th-1st, Wechat, Instagram, FB messenger, Whatsapp, Youtube, and Facebook. Now available in over 200 countries, this powerhouse holds huge influence over the youth- around 69% of teens in the US have the app. As of now, the popular style of tik-tok being made often involves some sort of song or sound. When a song goes viral, it goes viral. From lesser-known artists getting well-deserved new listeners, to huge artists like Drake manipulating the system, and even Tik-Tok stars making their own songs, Tik-Tok is gonna stay around for some time and the music industry has to deal with it. This essay will show you the good and the bad sides of Tik-Tok, as well as the dangers that come with them.
To start, we'll talk about the good that Tik-Tok can do. Countless artists have gained massive followings due to one of their tracks blowing up on the app. Arizona Zervas’ hit song “Roxanne”, Claire Rosinkranz’s “Backyard Boy”, and Cookiee Kawaii's “Vibe” provide three examples of artists who were relatively unknown before their songs went viral on Tik-Tok, amassing millions of views- Most notably "Roxanne" with around 140mil on Youtube. These are an example of a useful spotlight on these smaller artists. It can be agreed that regardless of whether you personally enjoy their music or not, mainstream recognition is a good thing for the musicians. Some artists found their first mainstream success and continued to stay on that path. Rapper Coshise found fame after his hit song “Hatchback” blew up with 1.6 million videos made with the sound, the most viewed having 107.7 million views followed by the second having 30 million. Cochise did have a very strong and grounded fan base before he sold out like Carti. However, he recently did a Cole Bennett shoot with industry plant $NOT, whose song is also trending on Tik-Tok. Again. Personally, I am most happy to see BENEE maintain a fan base after her viral song “Supalonely” which is super-catchy. Honorable mentions: Conan Grey, Ricky Montgomery, Trevor Daniel, and Lyle Kam.
With such a huge number of users and such a massive amount of users being youth, Tik-Tok is a surefire way to get your song played millions of times on the app and on playlists of Tik-Tok songs on most streaming platforms. Yes, people actually listen to these songs outside of the app which can be surprising but fuck it. Artists amassing these crazy numbers overnight have not gone unnoticed, however.
Huge mainstream artists eventually caught on to this goldmine of streams. Drake is the one that capitalized the most. The rappers song, “Tootsie slide”, is the most pathetic cash grab I have ever seen. Huge mainstream artists like Drake intentionally making songs expecting them to go viral is, IMO, pretty corrupt and wrong. It's not like they need a platform to gain traction when they are already some of the most influential in their respective category. The Weekend is another example- although in his case it isn't as bad. He is a huge artist that has been pretty dominant on the charts for the past 5 years. His song, “Blinding Lights”, went viral after a dance trend for the song became popular. The difference in this case was that The Weekend didn't intend to have his song go viral so it is less of a problem. Justin Beiber falls victim to this same offense. His hit song “Peaches” was marketed heavily by trying to create dance trends on the app. This type of brute force advertising only prevents other songs from gaining popularity. These are teens, after all, they don't (or can't) have too many songs and trends going on at once. When these superstar artists manipulate and abuse the power of Tik-Tok through blatant attempts at making viral songs for dances, or using popularity to unnecessarily push your songs, it becomes a problem, considering how useful the app is for lesser-known artists as a way into “Hollywood”.
Finally, Tik-Tokers making their own music. Regardless of your opinion on their music, the most popular Tik-Tokers are serious heavyweights in the music industry. Dixie Demilio putting up 100 million views on Youtube on her first-ever song is not a normal thing. Olivia Rodrigo dominating the charts with her new album and having the most popular song in the world at one point with “Drivers Licence”- These are not normal instances for the music industry. Every single big Tik-Toker has put up 1 million views on their first song easily. What will happen as they release more songs? Only time will tell. But for now, after seeing the massive success of Olivia Rodrigo, Tik Tokers have a serious chance of staying around in the music industry and branching out from the app in general.
To conclude, Tik-Tok's trend-following user base and huge pull on the younger generation of consumers make a great environment for mainstream growth in the music industry as well as allowing lesser-known artists to get well deserved new listeners, huge artists like Drake to manipulate the system, and Tik-Tok stars make their own songs.
VLw
sources:VLONE wolf
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