TikTok is Changing the Way We Use Music

If you’ve been on the internet in the past year (or even if you haven’t), you’ve most likely heard about the hit app “TikTok”. Formerly known as “musical.ly”, TikTok has grown significantly in popularity over the course of the past year – especially with the events of the global pandemic.

The platform relies heavily on music as a supplement for jokes, dance crazes, and even informational videos. Most of the popular, charting songs of the past year have grown in popularity because of TikTok. In 2021, if your song isn’t being used on TikTok (even if it’s just for a small trend), it’ll most likely fade to the background of all of the songs that are on the app.

Songs like “Say So” by Doja Cat, and “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion were released during the beginning of March last year, and – although popular without TikTok’s help – are now some of the biggest songs to come from the platform. In Doja Cat’s case, users are claiming that her songs aren’t hits unless they’ve appeared on TikTok in some form – and I would partially agree. Songs like “Streets,” “Like That,” and “Won’t Bite” have all been used in trends over the past year, and they’ve also gotten significant radio play because of those TikTok trends.

Because TikTok is such a fast-paced, powerful platform, many musicians have attempted to broadcast their music there in order to gain traction. One example of this is Abigail Barlow, a musician who posts on TikTok to display her songwriting process. During 2020, her song “Trust Issues” went viral, because she had posted a TikTok sampling it. Similar tactics have been used by other musicians, including creating their own trend or dance to match with the song. Sada Baby’s “Whole Lotta Choppas” was a dance craze for a while; created specifically to gain traction for the song.

I think that TikTok is significantly changing the way that we use music in our daily lives. Now more often than ever, hearing certain songs triggers a specific memory in our heads – or even a dance move or two. TikTok’s ability to get us all hooked on these songs definitely makes the songs themselves even more memorable, as well as making us feel like we’re all in on some sort of large inside joke!