The TikTokification of Music
Written by Brooke Shapiro
In 2014, 13-year-old Billie Eilish joined SoundCloud, where her song “Ocean Eyes” became an anthem for edgy middle school girls on Tumblr. Today, she has over 50 million monthly listeners on Spotify, seven Grammy awards, and five top hits on the Billboard charts. However, Eilish’s story is not unique. Other huge names in music today started their careers on SoundCloud, such as Post Malone, Lizzo, and Lil Nas X. But with the decline in SoundCloud’s popularity, the new self-starters of today’s music industry have better chances on the app formerly best known for lip syncing: TikTok. With 1 billion active users today, there is no doubting TikTok’s ability to create a platform for the musicians of tomorrow.
The Globalizing Power of Tiktok
Along with SoundCloud, Youtube held a spot as a popular option for talented young musicians such as Shawn Mendes and The Weeknd to build a fanbase. But with apps like TikTok showing users 15-second clips of content targeted specifically towards them, who has the patience to sit through a 4 minute Youtube video of a guy just strumming a guitar? TikTok provides the perfect opportunity for self-starting musicians to pitch themselves to a wide audience – as long as they land on your FYP.
Take Ella Jane for example. In January of this year, she made a TikTok with the opening line, “My name’s Ella Jane and here’s my audition to be your new favorite indie pop artist of 2022”. With selling points of her being small enough to be able to call yourself an original fan once she blows up, likening her music to that of Lorde and Taylor Swift, and being the “fuel to your fire that is your music superiority complex,” Ella Jane captivated her Gen Z audience whose FYPs she popped up on (myself included). Since January, the video has reached 86k likes and 330.5k views, and her monthly Spotify listeners has skyrocketed to nearly 765k, as she is set to tour across the US in October and November.
For some new artists, a viral song on TikTok has the potential to be a complete game changer in their musical career, like 23-year-old quinnie and her song “touchtank.” After quinnie strategically teased a snippet of the song repeatedly in May, “touchtank” quickly became a hit, and now sits at almost 15 million listens on Spotify. quinnie and “touchtank” prove that with proper marketing, building a music career off of TikTok can be achievable.
The TikToker to “musician” pipeline
In addition to musicians using TikTok to gain a platform, the reverse has also become a trend among popular creators: reach enough followers through dance trends, make sub-par music, call yourself an artist. Among the many TikTok influencers who have taken advantage of their title to make music are Dixie D’Amelio, Lilhuddy, and Bella Poarch, just to name a few.
IHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball 2021 - Show
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 10: Dixie D'Amelio attends iHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball 2021 on December 10, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)
Piggy-backing off of her sister’s TikTok fame, Dixie D’Amelio gained a platform through dance videos and her membership in the Hype House beginning in late 2019, and today sits at 57.5 million followers. When her first single, “Be Happy,” was released in June of 2020, the internet was quick to poke fun of her attempt at songwriting. To be fair, with lyrics like “Sometimes I don’t wanna be happy” and “just leave me there, let me be… sad,” the bullying was justified. Time didn’t prove valuable to her songwriting when in December of 2020 D’Amelio released “One Whole Day,” with the main refrain being “For one day, one day I was really really really really sad”. Dixie’s apparent sadness was shared by TikTokers after hearing the song.
D’Amelio’s music career continued to take questionable turns when she collaborated with Liam Payne in 2021 on a Christmas song entitled “Naughty List.” As if the chorus of “Santa saw the things we did / And put us on the naughty list” wasn’t bad enough, collaborating with Liam Payne after he put out a biphobic song and recently claimed that One Direction was formed to “work around” him, objectively lowers D’Amelio’s standards as a musician.
“The TikToker to “musician” pipeline is one that often overshadows new artists genuinely trying to start a music career from a very small platform.”
CAN YOU REALLY GATEKEEP ON TIKTOK?
Another, rather contradictory, trend seen on TikTok is when bigger musicians’ lesser known songs become “TikTok songs,” and their fans become livid. Most recently I’ve seen this with “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers and “Brazil” by Declan McKenna.
With “Scott Street”, Pharbz have made videos with captions such as “me fighting the urge to get mad about this song trending even though phoebe is a wildly popular artist and I wish her nothing but success”. As being a fan is a lifestyle for many people today, this caption perfectly encapsulates how many fans often feel when their favorite artists gets a viral song on TikTok.
With “Brazil,” Declan McKenna himself used the trend to further promote his music, despite the song being released in 2015. He took the opportunity to create a new lyric video to the song, with his usual funky graphics, and promoted it on TikTok with the caption “here’s a lyric video for one of my deep cuts called Brazil, MAKE IT FASTER”, referring to the sped up version of the song that became a trend.
Photo by Simone Joyner
As a huge fan of both Phoebe Bridgers and Declan McKenna, I am not immune to this common twinge of annoyance, mostly for the reason of getting concert tickets at a reasonable price. However, having a trending TikTok song gives artists an opportunity to perform at larger venues and create larger communities of fans. So while I have no doubt that when Declan McKenna comes to the 9:30 Club in October the crowd will be loudest during “Brazil,” that’s what to be expected.
Music & TikTok: The Good, The Bad, and The Trendy
There’s no one right answer to whether or not TikTok is doing a service – or disservice – to modern music. It is clear, however, that the app has created a new culture for listening to music. The ability for an 80’s new wave song, a new song from the Queen of Rap, and a sped-up version of a 2013 Kanye song to all be trending at once on the same app goes to show the versatility of TikTok’s music trends.
The insane popularity of TikTok has been proven to have the ability to make new artists, break influencers attempting to make music, and take away fans’ music superiority complexes. Whether or not these are beneficial to the culture and making of modern music, however, is up to you to decide. ✧
