How TikTok is redefining music hits and viral content
With a billion-user gravy train, the social media platform is changing how music is being produced, marketed and consumed.
Towards the end of September, TikTok announced that the monthly users of the app had crossed the 1 billion mark. This is a big deal of growth for a platform that became a global sensation during the pandemic.
The impact of TikTok’s growth - from 689 million monthly users in July 2020 to 1 billion in about a year after - is one that is felt not only in social media circles but also in an industry that is becoming increasingly dependent on social media – music.
YouTube is the primary platform for music videos while Instagram usually serves as the marketing support. Twitter on the other hand helps with trend virality, particularly when a hashtag is involved. Arguably, all these apps, to a large extent, still do not define music hits.
Hardly would you find a song that became a hit because of some Facebook influence. Perhaps only Instagram came reasonably close due to the #challenge started by artistes and hopped on by their legion of followers.
If Instagram came close, TikTok definitely took it across the finish line, even beyond.
From Ayra Starr’s Bloody Samaritan to Joeboy’s new single, Alcohol, TikTok appears to be spearheading the campaign of making songs ‘blow’. Where it gets better is that recency is not a criterion. A song might have been released months back before it hits the TikTok jackpot. But once your song goes viral on TikTok, just get a bottle of Champagne.
The Rise of Hypemen
Apart from songs, TikTok has also given rise to the phenomenon of hypemen, or hypers (for the sake of gender balance). Such a thing was unheard of a few years ago but now hardly would you have checked five posts on TikTok before coming across:
“Who be that sweet girl now? You get yansh, you get breast, you get sense, you kon still fine, you kon sabi cook normally you be wife material…”
Or
Odunlade Adekola’s “Are you fvcking want to shey yeye mi?”
In other words, the kind of content that can go viral now is not just songs but also anything with a beat playing in the background. And special mention to the beat of Soweto baby by DJ Maphorisa featuring Wizkid. I think Junior boy and 9ice also sampled the beat. That beat just seems perfect for hyping.
The TikTok effect: Pop music and catchy hooks
Apart from the viral power of TikTok, its effect is also telling on the fact that pop is the dominant genre right now. You only need to take a glance at music charts.
What all the chart-topping songs have in common is a catchy hook. A hook has effectively become a song’s USP (unique selling point). The more it resonates, the harder it hits.
Give it to TikTok.
In what other ways do you think TikTok has affected music production and consumption?
Don’t forget to share and subscribe.