TikTok is a social media app where people can post videos or picture slideshows with any audio. It allows anyone to voice their opinion, create content, or do anything. The app has created jobs for multiple influencers, whether it is with brand deals or just from the app directly. In addition, the app has allowed small artists to have a big platform to show their music. While this may seem positive, it can also be negative.
Discovering a song on TikTok can have some benefits to it. Whether it is finding a new artist, album, or different remixes. It is common to find new music either with a trend or just a viral sound. Most of the time an artist will become mainstream and have one song blow up to create their fame. Artists like Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, and Doja Cat have all gained fame from the platform. For Lil Nas X it was his single “Old Town Road,” for Olivia Rodrigo it was her single “Drivers License,” and for Doja Cat it was her single “Say So,” which also had a viral dance trend with it. But now with the TikTok algorithm, these songs get lost in the For You page and lose their spotlight quickly.
Every week a new single will take over the For You page. It starts with a catchy hook, viral dance, or a lip sync moment. This leads to the single becoming the background noise of a GRWM, a montage, or an outfit reveal. Each video posted makes the song more and more recognizable and familiar to the point where it becomes annoying. Music apps like Spotify have created playlists called “Viral Hits” because of how many different songs have that viral moment.
In 2021, GAYLE’s “abcdefu” went viral on TikTok, but some people had already moved on by the time it was played on the radio. More recently, Benson Boone and Noah Kahan both had to deal with how their music became viral entertainment first and art second due to TikTok fame. The way a three-minute song is made into one memorable moment can be irritating. Rarely the whole song is played but instead it is just the same chorus played over and over. It flattens the emotional effect and devalues the experience. Furthermore, a song typically loses its uniqueness as it becomes a meme.
Yes, TikTok can launch careers and expose smaller artists, but it also puts them at risk of becoming one-hit wonders, with their blockbuster songs becoming the tired sound everyone has heard. Music is intended to be experienced, revisited, and lived with. But once TikTok gets hold of a song, there is not much time to fall in love with it. Overplayed does not just mean overexposed. It means it was overlooked, undervalued, and burned out before it could truly flourish.