8.27.2020

TikTok Treats, Week Of August 24th

Dua Lipa’s New Challenge, 24kGoldn’s Effortless Virality, and More Interesting Music Stories From the World of TikTok

The News:

TikTok is an essential tool for artists of all stages of their careers, from nascent talents just starting, to rising stars looking to find repeat success on the app, to established superstars looking to get an engagement boost. Music is TikTok’s universal language, each song representing a complicated web of emotions, in-jokes, and dances. Below are a few of the latest examples of how artists and the TikTok community bend music to fit their own inventive ends.

Dua Lipa’s dancefloor anthem “Don’t Start Now” and her stay-at-home instant classic “Break My Heart” caught fire on TikTok earlier this year, and now, for her latest Future Nostalgia single, Dua Lipa looks to give back to the community that helped propel her songs up the charts. Using the hashtag, #DuaVideo, the British singer is giving a lucky fan a chance to appear in the music video for “Levitating.” Eager fans have responded to the tune of over 8 million video views on the hashtag, and by showing off their best dance routines.
19-year-old rapper 24kGoldn is no stranger to TikTok virality–his song “Valentino” was a massive hit in 2019 and propelled the rapper to heatseeker status. This month, the 2020 XXL Freshman struck gold again with “Mood” ft. Iann Dior, a seductive single with bright punchy guitars that’s taken the platform by storm. Videos with “Mood” earned over 167 million video views in the past week, as users turned to the song to soundtrack flying golden retrievers, ambitious travelogues, and weird face tutorials (Goldn joined in on this one). Propelled by TIkTok, “Mood” rose to #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and launched Goldn to #1 on the Emerging Artists chart.
There’s nothing TikTok users love more than a good glow-up. Arriving in the form of a user-generated sound by @amandaabananaa, J. Cole’s 2014 single “No Role Modelz” has been recently used to soundtrack dramatic changes in appearance. Timed to Cole’s verse-ending “I’ma need my shirt back” lyric, the trend is an inspiration to anyone who struggled to emerge from an extended awkward phase (including Charli D’Amelio). A remix to Chicago singer Njomza’s 2016 single “Ridin Solo” has spurred a similar, more brooding and dramatic glow-up trend.
A Billboard number two hit in 2007, Ne-Yo’s sultry “Because of You” is the latest classic hit to get the TikTok treatment. The song is the soundtrack to a new dance craze, pantomiming a meet cute in which two people collide, play fight, and finally break into a coordinated routine inspired by the song’s original music video. Inspiring over 300k video creations, the trend has reached couples, siblings, and even Kevin Hart.
Tessa Violet is the latest emerging artist to make herself known on the platform. The singer-songwriter is a self-proclaimed TikTok addict, posting dozens of times per week to show off her sense of humor, tell engaging stories, and cover her favorite songs. Lately though, she’s been focusing on pushing her new song “Wishful Drinking,” demonstrating multiple versions of a new outfit transition trend that uses her song and even recording a tutorial for video-editing novices. Her hard work is paying off: “Wishful Drinking” generated over 113k video creations and is rapidly approaching 2 million streams on Spotify.
Though plenty of new trends popped up in the past weeks, the biggest song on TikTok remains “WAP,” the culture-conquering phenomenon by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. The song inspired millions of creations and generated over 1 billion views on videos of the song’s athletic dance challenge and other more absurd creations.

Though it’s enabled by innovative technology, the core appeal of TikTok speaks to our primal need to connect with one another. With its massive and engaged user-base and its emphasis on virality, TikTok eliminates traditional gatekeepers and builds a new kind of monoculture, one that reflects the consumption of the outside world, but operates with its own internal logic. The platform is bringing people together at a time when people can’t physically gather, with music as the driving force.

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