Did Tiktok Ruin Music for Everyone?

ART BY DEANA DIEUJUSTE Everyone ? Did TikTok RUIN Music for WRITTEN BY RYAN MANNEY The highly successful app TikTok has taken the modern social media scene by storm. We all know of TikTok, and the vast majority of us scroll on it daily. The app plays a massive role in pop culture and constitutes what people think is cool and what is not. Music is one of the most prominent aspects of pop culture that is hugely impacted by TikTok.

Music can be made more popular, less popular, completely forgotten about, or even “canceled” just from TikTok. Although many fans have started to become irritated with the effect TikTok has on their favorite music, it has evolved into a breeding ground for all types of content creators. For musicians, it has become the place where their songs go to either make it or break it.

When artists come out with new music, they’ll often use TikTok to make their debut or post little snippets and sneak peeks of their songs to garner attention and excitement from fans. When this technique works, it has the potential to change the artist’s life. Take a look at “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. In 2019, the song blew up as a TikTok sound. Lil Nas skyrocketed into fame and, three years later, became a millionaire artist. The TikTok algorithm

can be advantageous for artists if it works in their favor. In 2020, Lizzy McAlpine posted a TikTok video of her singing an original song about someone in her life-ruining the band the 1975 for her. The video now has around 2 million likes, and she’s making songs with the likes of John Mayer and Jacob Collier. These are just a few examples of how TikTok can jumpstart a musician’s career. If an artist continues to post videos of them playing, singing, or performing, the TikTok algorithm will work in their favor. This means that if you keep posting videos of you singing, they’ll continue to be shown to users who typically interact with similar content. TikTok users who love music videos are shown more of the content they enjoy, and the artist gains more publicity. This is how artists like Lizzy McAlpine can reach a large audience on TikTok. It’s a win-win, right? Not always.

If the snippet of a song that the artist posts is not well received by TikTok users, then it can struggle to gain any attention at all. This is where the algorithm can fail. If enough users don’t interact with a post, it will cease to pop up in the algorithm after a while. In addition, popular TikTok users hold a lot of weight with what they say. So if they decide to not like the song or not use it as a sound for their video, then smaller users who piggyback

off of what the big users are doing will never find the music. In the end, the song or snippet is never seen or noticed by anyone on TikTok. Additionally, as TikTok continues to gain popularity among the masses, artists are increasingly pressured to use the app to promote their music. This means that on top of making music, touring, or meeting deadlines from their labels, musicians now also have to learn how to become successful content creators. With every new TikTok user, the demand for musicians to start promoting their music on the app rises. In May 2022, Grammy-winning artist Halsey posted a video about the pressure of TikTok for marketing. She said, “I’ve been in this industry for 8 years, and I’ve sold over 165 million records, and my record company is saying that I can’t release it unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok.” The added pressure put on musicians to become their promoters and content creators is negatively impacting the music industry. Halsey

continues, “They are doing this to basically every artist these days.” Musicians already have plenty on their plate on top of actually making music. This pressure to become TikTok content creators is an unrealistic expectation that could hold back many talented artists from ever reaching the following they deserve. up on TikTok, and then it's overplayed I hate when I really like a song, and then it blows From a music fan’s perspective, on the other hand, TikTok’s impact on the music industry could have a much more negative influence. Here’s why: over the past few weeks, I have gathered opinions from many people on whether they think that TikTok has or is ruining music. The majority of the answers were a hard yes. TikTok does ruin music. A minority of answers were no, but a few people were simply indifferent on the subject. When asked why they answered the way they did, people were pretty passionate. Two of the most

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common explanations for why someone said yes were: “I hate when I really like a song, and then it blows up on TikTok, and then it’s overplayed,” and “I hate when a song I’ve been listening to for like six years blows up on TikTok and then everyone thinks I got the song from TikTok.” Both of these are totally valid answers. I’m sure most of us have felt this way at some point since TikTok’s takeover. One of the worst things that can happen to your favorite song is it becoming overplayed to you. A song that once had a very special place in your heart now becomes just another skip on the playlist.

Now, let’s explore why hearing your favorite songs on TikTok is so repulsive. It stems from what our generation likes to call “gatekeeping.” For those who don’t know what gatekeeping is, if I hear a good song that I really like and refrain from showing anyone else and refuse to tell people what song it is, I’m gatekeeping the song. TikTok stealing your favorite songs right from under your belt and throwing them into the mainstream is frustrating. It is entirely understandable to want to gatekeep songs and keep them from blowing up and being overplayed. The reason we may feel this way is that if we go out there and put in the work to find new, good music, it feels a bit like a betrayal to have a song thrown into TikTok users’ faces disregarding how hard we worked to find that song on our own.

On top of that, there is also a pretty negative stigma surrounding “TikTok songs.” When a song becomes a “TikTok song,”

it is either sped up, slowed down, or has reverb, echo, or some other effect added, and it’s generally way overused by the TikTok masses. Basically, by the time your favorite song has become a “TikTok song,” it has been so overused and distorted from the original track that it becomes repulsive. In that aspect, TikTok can ruin music for us. Moreover, TikTok trends are getting worse and weirder as the days go by. Having your favorite song become part of some cringy trend can be especially irritating.

As frustrating as TikTok can be for music fans who prefer to not have their favorite music ruined by a social media app, the effect TikTok has on the music industry cannot be overlooked. As previously mentioned, TikTok can shoot an artist into fame rather quickly. The more artists that TikTok gives a voice to, the more good music we, as fans, get, and the more the music industry thrives. Those of us who hate TikTok for ruining our favorite songs may benefit from receiving more beautiful music from the artists that are rising to fame through TikTok. Despite the agitation that may come from our songs being ruined, it is arguable that a true music aficionado would be content with the part that TikTok is starting to play in the music industry. That being said, the ruin of our favorite songs for a potential increase in good, new music that is not even guaranteed is not worth it. Are we, as fans of music, to discredit the contribution TikTok makes to the industry simply because we are upset about some of our favorite songs? Maybe. Maybe not. Does TikTok ruin music for the masses? Yes. Does it help the artist? Yes. Objectively, TikTok might not ruin music for everyone. Subjectively? TikTok might be one of the worst things to ever happen to music.

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