When Lil Was X released his now 12x platinum hit Old Town Road in December of 2018, he was an independent artist who relied heavily on social media, particularly TikTok to promote his music. The single gained traction in late December of that year when the ‘Yeehaw Challenge’ swept the platform and nation alike. The single was growing so fast in popularity that radio stations had to obtain the song’s audio from YouTube as Lil Nas X was still unsigned at the time. Eventually Lil Nas X was able to parlay the song’s success into a record deal with Columbia and two Grammy awards. The single made history twice: it’s the quickest song to go diamond (10,000,000+ copies sold) and when it entered it’s 17th week at #1 broke the record that Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men & Luis Fonsee/Daddy Yankee/Justin Bieber held two become the longest running #1 (it later went on to spend two more weeks at #1, becoming the longest running #1 in American chart history).
Meanwhile, Doja Cat’s label was all set to service the Gucci Mane-assisted Like That to US radios as the fifth single from Doja’s sophomore album, Hot Pink, until Say So until another song on the album saw it’s popularity skyrocket thanks in part to the song being used in a viral dance challenge aptly named after the song. The song was quickly sent to a variety of radio formats and as of this week entered the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Doja’s first. The single’s success has helped the album reach a new peak on the charts and Doja’s then scheduled North American tour sold out in minutes. Say So has also been viewed more than 7.5 billion times on TikTok alone. But perhaps the biggest indication of the platform’s pull was proven when Lizzo’s Truth Hurts (originally released in 2017) received the “TikTok treatment” in 2019 which enabled the song to debut for the first time on the Billboard charts at #50 before eventually peaking at #1 for 7 weeks and later becoming certified 6x Platinum by the RIAA.
One reason the singles that have been at the center of these viral dance crazes on TikTok have seen exponential growth in the weeks following is because unlike radio, this platform sees it’s trends reflect on the charts in real time while radio stations have a habit of playing the same 10-15 artists singles on repeat all day long. Artists and labels are quickly strategizing ways to build album and single campaigns on the strength of viral TikTok challenges. Drake famously sent his 2020 single Toosie Slide to top influencers on the app days before the song officially was released in effort to capitalize on the traffic the influencers.
Other artists like Megan Thee Stallion have been able to score multiple hits per album cycle thanks to their tracks getting exposure via the app. When the Houston born rapper released Savage, a track on her EP Suga early last year, it quickly exploded on the app and its popularity was furthered even more thanks to a remix featuring Beyonce. The single was featured in more than 30 million videos shared to the platform last year and it was added to the deluxe edition of Megan’s debut album. When the rapper released her debut, Good News, she released the video for its 3rd single Body on the same day which got its own challenge to correspond with the choreography in the video. in addition, album track Cry Baby featuring DaBaby is currently seeing fans urge Thee Stallion and her label to make the song the album’s next single as it is currently surging on the platform.
The platform continues to see exponential growth but more importantly it signals a turn in consumers being able to determine the singles, artists and projects that get mainstream pushes and takes control from industry executives and radio programmers. More importantly it gives more artists access to reach new heights as nowadays an artist is only one challenge away from reaching stardom. If radio programmers were smart, they would hop on the trend of being more consumer minded as the medium is already seeing its relevance dwindle not only in relation to the charts but also in the average American home and car.
The Sounds of Music 