Tiktok, formally known as Musically, became teenagers’ favorite application in the matter of a few weeks. As early as the stay at home orders began in March 2020, those short videos started to be re-shared on various other social media platforms, leading to more accounts being created. Yet, how is it possible to explain the popularity of TikTok? How was it able to reach this level of success? I will try to dissect this here.
First of all, TikTok’s predecessor Vine, is important to take into account. Vine allowed its creators to post 6 seconds videos in which they had to get their point across quickly. This form of content allowed precision and the consumption of a lot more content within the same platform. It is possible to see similarities with TikTok. Even though TikTok’s videos can be 15 seconds to a minute long, it also helps users to watch as much content as they want. It represents a new way of consuming content and please an audience that wants to watch add-free short content that they would not be able to find on YouTube or Instagram, even though the latter launched Reels recently.
The use of popular music also has a significant impact in the music industry. As seen last week with Castaways by the Backyardigans launching at number 1 in the charts, its impact is far from being insignificant. Many artists received an increased amount of attention after being at the center of trends, therefore joining the applications themselves or hinting at the platform. Doja Cat is one of them, by having her single Say So, being the center of many dances, which she ended up adding in her own music video. Tiktok also helps independent artists launch their own career and reach more people, as seen with Abigail Barlow. She even was at the center of the creation of Bridgeton: The Musical, working with Emily Bear. This followed the creation and broadcast of Ratatouille: The Musical, created by a multitude of creators with a final production made to help a charity. It therefore represents a powerful tool for the music industry both to launch or discover talents.
These elements contribute greatly to the rapid growth in popularity of TikTok, bringing users together creatively in a time of extreme isolation. Yet, the issue of addiction has to be brought back into the light. By helping users to consume as much content as they desire, it can lead to hours without interruption of content that is being watched. This made TikTok react by adding an advertisement asking users to take a break from the application depending on the amount of time they spent scrolling. This is a small step amongst a screen time management tool within the settings to try to regulate its usage.
Another issue remains copyrights and crediting original creators. A segment that aired on Jimmy Fallon with guest Addison Rae, popular TikToker, represented the issue of crediting original content creators of the app. It is easy for anybody to use the same dances or audio bits. Even though more creators tag original people behind the moves they are using, or simply their inspirations, it remains something that needs to be addressed. TikTok should allow users coming up with original content or ideas to receive credit anytime someone uses similar or exact content from them, as done in essays or videos on other platforms. The segment on Jimmy Fallon also highlighted the issue of racism that can be found on the platform. The dances that Addison Rae used on the show had been created by black creators without even mentioning their names or giving them credits at any point. This sparked controversy on the application as soon as the segment aired, demanding Fallon and Rae to address what has been done. Yet, the idea of racism and xenophobia as some BIPOC creators experienced videos being taken down or their account shadow banned depending on the issues they talked about in their videos or the type of content they produced.
TikTok’s fast rise to fame makes sense in the way it pleases its audience with various components they like. Yet, the contrasting argument to the application seems to show how detrimental TikTok can be to the users by silencing creators or experiences, content stealing or hyper sexualization of users.
Cover image by Chesnot/Getty Images found in Rolling Stone's article, "'If You Get Famous Easily, You're Gonna Do It': How TikTok Took Over Music": https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/tiktok-video-app-growth-867587/
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