10.5.2022

TikTok Treats, Week of October 3rd

Kali Represents for TikTok on the BET Hip-Hop Awards Red Carpet, Taylor Reveals the Latest Midnights Track Titles, the Legendary Quincy Jones Joins TikTok, and Much More

The News:

Each week, the TikTok Treats newsletter gives a snapshot of the state of music on TikTok, touching on trending hits, emerging artists, superstar moves, ascendant memes, and much more. Check out this week’s trends below:

The TikTok community continues to spot hit songs ahead of their release, rewarding artists who share snippets of new tracks on the platform. After previewing the track on TikTok in mid-August, British singer Sam Smith and Germany’s Kim Petras are receiving a boost from TikTok creators with their song, “Unholy.” Earning over 623.2K total creations since Smith and Petras gave TikTok creators a sneak peek in August, Smith’s emphatic hook soundtracks creators’ heatless hairstyle tutorials, transformations from Clark Kent to Casanova, and sassy struts down the runway. Sam Smith did their part to keep the song trending on TikTok, reacting to creators’ videos using the sound and sharing choreography from the official video released last week. Kim Petras also interacted with the song on her page, sharing footage of the duo’s iHeartRadio performance and duetting creators’ reactions to the song. Thanks to TikTok, “Unholy” earned a #1 spot on Billboard’s Global 200 charts and top 3 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart this week, becoming Petras’s first appearance on the Hot 100 and Smith’s first appearance on the Global 200.
Taylor Swift has captured the attention of her rabid community of fans on TikTok with her “Midnights Mayhem With Me” series, in which she reveals the tracklist of her upcoming album Midnights one track and one video at a time. Backed by elevator music (and occasionally her cat Meredith) and armed with a bingo-ball machine and rotary telephone, Taylor posts new videos in the wee hours of the morning, allowing her die hard fans to be the first to learn the names of her new songs (one is called “Maroon,” another intriguingly entitled “Anti-Hero”). Taylor’s teasing announcements have caused a frenzy of activity on #SwiftTok (10.1 billion views), as fans attempt to figure out what the song titles could mean, determine whether Taylor is delaying the reveal of track 5 (as Swifties understand, Track 5 is the most important track on any TS album), speculate about how Midnights fits into her overall discography, or even create theories about how Taylor’s career was changed by the pandemic. The bulk of this activity happens at #TSMidnights (229 million) views, a hub for speculation and discussion about Taylor’s new album.
TikTok is celebrating the impact of #HipHop and #RnBVibes on the platform during the first two weeks of October, and a music legend is startin’ somethin’ to kick it off: legendary producer, social activist, and pioneering Black music executive Quincy Jones has officially joined the platform! The icon shared his first video on the platform, offering words of wisdom as he highlights his accolades. “From bebop to doo-wop to #hiphop to TikTok…ya gotta go to know…so that’s what I’m doin’!” says Jones in the caption. “Lookin’ forward to sharing more with U here. Keep on keepin’ on!” In addition to sharing inspiring speeches, creators can look forward to unique video content and an overview of Jones’ peerless production catalog, including hits from Michael Jackson and Donna Summer.
An adventurous rapper signed to Playboi Carti’s Opium label, Atlanta’s Destroy Lonely has created an anthem for those who are effortlessly chic. His song “NO STYLIST” has been making waves on TikTok, to the tune of over 13.9k video creations. The song’s euphoric synths soundtrack “grwm” (get ready with me) montages, demonstrations of artful hoodie designs, or designing a fresh fit to go with cargo jeans. “NO STYLIST” has skyrocketed in popularity in the past week, after an enterprising TikTok creator mashed up Lonely’s vocals with “CRIMEWAVE,” the 2008 hit by Crystal Castles vs. Health. The mashup has over 318k video creations, soundtracking a simple dance trend that reached celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski and providing the backing track for text-on-screen videos about spontaneous decisions, the joys of living alone, and much more.
Over the past couple years, hip hop has reigned as the most popular genre on TikTok. TikTok’s presence was felt at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards as “MMM MMM” hitmaker and TikTok success story Kali represented as the host for TikTok on the red carpet. Kali interviewed hip hop legends like Lil Kim about what hip hop means to them and discussed the importance of female rap on the platform with TikTok favorites like Baby Tate and Lakeyah. Recent trending tracks and artists like Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Latto’s “Big Energy,” and GloRilla took home awards last night, underlining TikTok’s influence at the BET Hip Hop Awards.
Electropop group SM6 just wants to be happy for once and many creators on TikTok can relate. Their recent track “Let Me Be Happy” sparked a lighthearted, comedic trend in which creators reflect on a time when they felt like their life was going well right before unfortunate events began to happen. Garnering over 15.5K creations, the TikTok community is using the song to soundtrack their memories of having a great summer before remembering all their friends are about to leave for college, finally getting to play basketball again after surgery before getting stopped by knee pain, and enjoying a new, healthy romantic relationship before becoming overwhelmed by personal insecurities. SM6 is also participating in the trend on their own account, with one of the SM6 siblings revealing how they thought they found the perfect boyfriend before discovering his “icks” and all of the siblings having a standoff about the appropriate time of the fall to start playing Christmas music.

Check TikTok’s newsroom for more noteworthy stories: newsroom.tiktok.com

For more info, please contact:
Michelle McDevitt, Annjie Houston, Destiny Riley, T’Keyah Hayes, Audible Treats
Leah Linder, TikTok

The Background:

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Their mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy.

TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Links:

TikTok’s Newsroom: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us

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Taylor Track Reveals, Sam Smith + Kim Petras, and More From Music on TikTok