The Power and Influence of the Viral TikTok Song

The Power and Influence of the Viral TikTok Song

Globally in the last year, TikTok has become one of the most popular social platforms and there is no denying the effect TikTok has had on the music industry. Take for example, Dinero by Trinidad Cardona, which was released in 2018, and is now viral all over TikTok in 2021, or even songs like Trackstar by Mooski, La Mamá de la Mamá by El Alfa, CJ, and El Cherry Scom, and Body by Russ Millions and Tion Wayne. TikTok has become a breeding ground for creating viral music. In this month’s article I want to discuss to what extent this TikTok viral effect is good, and to what extent it is not. Please keep in mind that this article is purely subjective, and you may not agree with some or all of the statements being made.

Let’s begin with the benefits of TikTok. Not only are people being exposed to more music, but more and more artists are being discovered by TikTok’s algorithm where if the content creator uses a popular song, there is a higher chance their TikTok video will be seen by more people. In turn, a song gains traction and the streams for an artist significantly increase, leading to artists becoming more known, and part of the current ‘pop-culture’. Therefore, from a marketing point of view, an artist can hugely benefit from broadcasting their music and pushing it through TikTok. Especially with the new addition of TikTok ads. It should also be noted that by using TikTok, more and more artists can connect with their fans who are typically the ones creating the challenges behind viral songs. Also, through these challenges we are realizing the importance of dancers within the music industry, and while they have always been an important factor, TikTok has shown just how much they are needed to make a song go ‘viral’.

While TikTok is massively beneficial, it’s also necessary to discuss some of TikTok’s negative influence, and to an extent, problematic behavior. On the note of challenges, often if a song goes viral, you don’t tend to know who created the first challenge video and giving credit to the original creator sometimes becomes an impossible task.

There is also an issue we have always faced with music; overplay. Every video you see on your ‘For You Page’ becomes the same song, and some people start to tire or feel annoyed by hearing the same song repeatedly. Keep in mind, we previously spoke about artists having a better chance of getting their song heard, and while this remains true, there is the issue of when songs become overplayed, the space for new songs coming into the scene is extremely difficult. Most of the time, it’s the same artists who are creating ‘viral’ songs. In other words, the extent that TikTok helps underrated artists get seen is a bit of a grey area.

It’s also important to mention here that unconsciously we don’t realize how TikTok is shaping our music choices, which can be a good and a bad thing. While it is a great thing to be exposed to different kinds of music, people are also being exposed to what I like to call ‘fast-fashion music’. I personally call it this because it works like the fast-fashion industry, in that, trendy music is being created, and there is lots of it, but in turn for creating lots of trendy music, quality is often forgotten about. However, keep in mind that everyone’s idea of what it means to go ‘viral’ and what makes a ‘quality’ song is different.

Music is being mass produced with artists being put into a pressurised climate of creating the next viral TikTok song. Obviously, this marketing rush of fighting to get consumer’s attention has been around for years, and ‘fast-fashion music’ has always been prevalent in our society. It’s just what makes music ‘trendy’ that evolves as time goes by.

This article is purely a brief discussion. It is not to judge the choices that people make nor to create a negative conversation around TikTok. It is simply to discuss how TikTok has affected the music industry from what I have seen, and of course as time goes by, new changes and developments will be made.

Would love to hear what you guys think about TikTok in regards to music, so comment below your thoughts or come interact with us on Instagram, @iambeyoutifuluk