The hugely popular social media app TikTok has had a negative and positive effect on music as it draws attention to unknown artists but also over-popularizes songs.
The app uses “sounds” that play on the user’s video which is often a song, and if that video blows up, people tend to play the video, causing the “sound” used in the video to play. gets more views.
This has two results. The first is that the artist is gaining a lot more attention and gaining ground, like Arizona Zervas, whose hit song “ROXANNE” exploded on TikTok and continued to be the nation’s number one song in the weeks since. followed.
Arizona Zervas, an artist whose groundbreaking song “ROXANNE” exploded on TikTok.
“TikTok didn’t introduce me to music, but it’s pretty obvious that it helped artists like Don Toliver and Arizona Zervas, because it helped them enter the mainstream scene. So many artists are taking advantage since TikTok is one of the biggest social media apps right now. Any song used in a video that explodes instantly attracts fans because millions of people are listening to it, ”said Adrian Gonzalez, sophomore at Carlmont.
“I think TikTok has positively affected little rap artists because all people need to hear is fifteen seconds of your song for it to explode,” said Trevor Douglis, a Carlmont junior. .
The other result, which can be seen as negative, is that already popular songs start to be overused and overplayed. For the artist, it’s great. More views equals more money, but some fans hate it when their favorite song gets too popular. Some popular songs that TikTok would have ruined are songs like “Toosie Slide” by Drake, “Blueberry Faygo” by Lil Mosey and “OUT WEST (feat. Young Thug)” by JACK BOYS, Travis Scott and Young Thug.
“I think TikTok ruins almost as many songs as they present to people. It’s just because people hear the same sound over and over again when scrolling through their stream [on TikTok], so they get bored of it and stop listening to the song, ”said Maia Kirkbride, a sophomore from Carlmont.
“Great artists are negatively affected because it always ruins the best fifteen seconds of a song. Hearing the main hook of a song nonstop on TikTok really tires you out listening to it all, ”said Douglis.
Meanwhile, some people are unaffected by the traditional nature that TikTok brings to songs.
“I don’t really believe TikTok ruins songs because it only takes seconds of a song. If you only like a song because fewer people are listening to it, you like it for its exclusivity, not for the way it sounds, ”said Josh Graves, junior at Carlmont.
