How TikTok Progressed Music but Also Ruined It

by Emily York

edited by Kavya Gurunath, Manushri Bapat, & Cindy Zhang; Layout by Aathmika Radhachandran; Artwork by Evelyn Chen

TikTok, the rapidly growing social media app that has hundreds of millions of users, has progressed creativity in unimaginable ways. The app encourages users to showcase their different talents within short videos, many utilizing music in the process.

Users manipulating music for their content has advanced music greatly. However, it is also arguably ruining music through its impact on high standard music charts.

TikTok has a major influence on the music industry and has the ability to drastically increase a song's popularity through the app’s short videos. However, some question whether some of the songs deserve the hype. For example, as reminded in How TikTok is Ruining the Music Industry, author Will Bavier recognized that the song Times We Had by Barlito trended on TikTok as a joke, making the song popular in the process. However, Bavier then reveals that “despite its low quality, the song debuted atop the Spotify US Viral 50 chart on May 18th, a couple weeks after blowing up on TikTok.” While other artists work towards such an achievement with higher quality music, a song released as a joke was able to overcome them, showing just how TikTok was able to ruin music.

TikTok has caused music to be judged unfairly. When TikTok trends are associated with certain songs, the viewers then tend to associate their judgment of the trend to their judgment of the actual song, subconsciously or not (Bavier, 2020). For example, in How TikTok is Ruining the Music Industry, author Will Bavier explains, “Doja Cat’s Say So ([then] No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100 List) maintained its high popularity much longer than what the song deserved due to the viral dance that accompanied the song”. The song maintained such a high rank, not necessarily because people liked the song so much, but moreover that people liked the trend. The TikTok trends that are seemingly dictating high standard music charts are, therefore, arguably ruining music.

TikTok has, however, managed to allow progression in music and still continues to do so. As said earlier, TikTok gives people a platform to showcase their talents, including musical talents. There have been several successful artists found through their music on the app such as Lil Nas X, the artist behind the hit song “Old Town Road” that trended on TikTok and even reached high rankings on Billboard's Top 100 chart (Alexander, 2019). Lil Nas X even won the CMA awards for Musical Event of the Year 2019 (Ducasse, 2020). However, it is notable that TikTok was crucial for the success of his song, Lil Nas X agreeing (Alexander 2019). In the article, ‘Old Town Road’ proves TikTok can launch a hit song, author Julia Alexander supports that “TikTok is a discovery platform just as much as it is a place to waste time participating in meme culture”. Even though TikTok is recognized as an app showcasing meme culture, TikTok has provided platforms for people to be given the opportunity to be recognized for their talents.

TikTok’s outcomes regarding music are controversial, but nonetheless, TikTok is a great place for aspiring artists to showcase their talents with the possibility of being recognized and becoming successful.