The Politics of TikTok Hits
Exploring How the Phenomenon of “TikTok Hits” Impacts Black Culture
With a pandemic corraling millions of Americans into their homes more and more people finally gave into the video social media app TikTok. In my own family of five, four of us have the app, and we walk around the house quoting videos and memes from it. TikTok memes have practically become my baby sister’s and I’s second language. Along with memes are songs from dance challenges that become such earworms that even my mom finds herself singing the 15-second snippets of songs by artists she’s never even heard of. Once we were both playing a song from TikTok — Princess Nokia’s “I Like Him” — in separate rooms of the house. Recently I rode with my aunt, my mom, and my sister to go pick up some lunch. My aunt had the radio playing and all four of us — who regularly use TikTok — laughed when I noted that the station my aunt picked must’ve been “TikTok Radio” because each of the last six songs was popular on TikTok. This is all to say that TikTok has undoubtedly erected itself as a pop culture pillar. The presence of viral TikTok songs smattered across the radio waves and Billboard Charts is a testament to this.
The TikTok Hit Phenomenon
In 2019 Lil Nas X arguably invented the “TikTok hit” after his song “Old Town Road” went viral on there. The song was getting radio play before Lil Nas X was even a signed artist. Then after his original was kicked off the country charts, he released a remix with bonafide country boy Billy Ray Cyrus. The remix beat out Mariah Carey’s record for the longest-running number-one single. Dababy gained his first top ten hit with “Suge” after its virality on TikTok. It happened again with Roddy Ricch and his single “The Box,” the longest-running number-one of 2020. Later Dababy and Roddy teamed up to repeat their successes with “Rockstar” which again went viral on TikTok and went number one. Even Drake, who certainly needs no help making hits, used the TikTok virality formula to secure a №1 debut for his single “Toosie Slide” making him the second artist in history to have three singles reach number one upon release. Then the remixes of two viral dance crazes — “Say So” by Doja Cat and “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion — made history. Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, and Nicki Minaj all scored their first number one hit. Beyoncé secured her seventh solo number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the second artist to secure a top ten hit across four decades. It was also the first time in history that two female rap singles held the top two spots, and the first time four Black women occupied the top two. It was a monumental moment for Black women in music. And yet… for all the tangible good TikTok has done for Black artists ( I mean I left out so many others who used the formula to boost charting) it raises some concerns in its relation to Black culture in a larger cultural context.
Historical Contextualization
Contextualizing the concerns requires understanding the racial history of the Billboard Charts. The Billboard Charts have reported the most popular music in the U.S. since the 1940s and in 1942 they introduced the “Harlem Hit Parade” chart- a separate chart to measure music popularity for and by Black people.
The title of this chart has changed throughout history from Race Music to Rhythm and Blues, Soul, R&B, or Urban- all titles that demonstrated the same thing that these were Black popular songs, not mainstream (aka white) popular songs. When Black artists’ music did chart on the pop charts those artists, songs, and musical styles could become detached from the Black community and instead be attributed to the white, usually teen or young adult, fanbase that was now enjoying them, exacerbating the widespread theft and historical erasure of traditionally Black musical styles like blues, country, jazz, and rock. The formula that Billboard created helped racialize pop and mainstream music as inherently white, so when Black music became popular in white audiences, it was easy for white media and musicians to take it without credit because white audiences wouldn't even know these styles existed before they became enamored with it.
Even now the impact of the racialization of genres impacts both the charts and Black artists. Popular Black artists get relegated to R&B and Urban stations and charts regardless of whether or not their music actually reflects the components of the genre. Even though rap dominates the Billboard Hot 100 people would rarely call Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion, or Drake “pop stars.” They’re just rappers to most. Since rap and R&B are Black musical styles that haven’t been stolen (yet) their inherent Blackness sets its Black artists as an antithesis to the pop star mantle that has a white prerequisite. That's why although Ariana Grande’s debut albums are undoubtedly R&B, she is labeled a pop princess and not an urban hitmaker. Billboard and the history of genre racialization is only one example of how Black culture often fuels popular American culture without credit.
Racializing TikTok
Now let’s pivot our attention back to TikTok since understanding how TikTok itself is racialized is crucial contextual information. I want to acknowledge upfront that TikTok is a foreign-based app and has users worldwide. I can not speak to how these complexities playout or if they even exist in the context of other countries. Therefore any context I’m describing is only relevant from an American TikTok user perspective. Data shows that TikToks' key demographic is largely 16–24-year-olds, who comprise almost HALF of the app's users. While there isn’t much data on the exact racial breakdown of TikToks users and content creators from my own experience on the app and the shared experiences of others on social media here’s what I gathered. Not only are many of the most well known and followed accounts white creators, but TikTok in and of itself is also socially viewed as a white suburban teen app even if that's not true to the letter in the demographic data it being racialized that way has consequences. Since race is a social construct much of its power comes from societal perceptions and responses to those perceptions so whether or not an app is truly majority-white (even though roughly based on general racial proportions in American it easily could be) being seen that way has an impact. People who use TikTok even commonly joke about how much easier it is to go viral and be on mainstream TikTok if you're a white teen doing choreography often from a Black creator to a song often by a Black artist (see the Renegade trend). The inherent privilege white creators have on the app has been brought up countless times and even resulted in a TikTok “Blackout” protest intended to uplift Black creators. This illustrates that TikTok, like the Billboard charts, is not a raceless entity. Whether true down to the digit or not TikTok has access to the social capital of a white teen/ young adult in a similar way to the Billboard charts in determining what's popular and just like the Billboard Charts, this can hurt Black artist and creators and Black culture as a whole.
Don’t believe me? Let’s use a scenario. TikTok has a viral dance craze going around. The choreographer is unknown (but is likely a Black creator lost in the sea of higher viewed/likes videos from white teens.) The song is by a Black artist. TikTok users are posting video after video of this dance. The song itself is such a popular sound on the app that other demographics- like millennial TikTokers — use it as backgrounds to their videos whether is a tutorial or a vlog to boost views. TikTokers can’t get this song out of their head. They’re streaming it. The radio is playing it. Now everyone else can’t get it out of their head either. It’s rising in the charts steadily. Soundbites of African- American Vernacular English (AAVE) from the song are becoming memes themselves. Its a hit on the charts! Maybe it's Top 10, top 40, this artist's first appearance on the Hot 100 at all or it's revitalizing the relevance of an older song. However this “TikTok demographic” of listeners is not the core audience. Remember this is a Black artist making — for a lack of a better term — “Black music.” TikTok is catering to and spreading this to white suburban teens. Billboard is largely tracking white teens interest in this song with its Hot 100. So not only is it spreading out of the Black community, this song or this artist is becoming associated with Tiktok — a socially “white” app- even if before this song it’s users would've never listened to this artist, and after this trend, they likely won’t again unless they go viral again.
This scenario and similar ones have happened over and over again with different artists. When Nicki announced her pregnancy- who’s songs and Queens radio audio clips are extremely popular on the app- most TikTok users weren't congratulating her. Black Twitter and her Twitter stans were. When the rumors about Doja Cat being in racial chatrooms broke TikTok users didn't bat an eye, but Black Twitter did. When Megan was shot and recovering in the hospital, TikTok did not stop and lament for their virality queen. She wasn't trending and fans weren't pouring out their support like they were on Black Twitter. Although her song was a viral hit, she herself was of no concern outside of her core fanbase.
Let’s even take a general trend from TikTok: the rising popularity of what are called “slowed+reverb” songs. This type of sound is so popular because they work great for subtle thirst traps and other viral video trends because of its interesting and reimagined aesthetic quality. On TikTok, “slowed+reverb” refers to the remix style in which you slow a song down by over half the original time and manipulate the acoustic environment completely changing the atmospheric elements, and the style is largely attributed to the artist Slater. However, “slowed+reverb” is more accurately an evolution of the style called chopped and screwed pioneered by DJ Screw in Houston’s hip-hop scene during the 90s. While there are definitely some differences in the execution of the styles, “slowed+reverb” wouldn’t exist without chopping and screwing. This is a textbook setup for cultural appropriation — the adoption of cultural practices without proper credit to its originators. How long before “slowed+reverb” becomes associated with TikToks users instead of its clear roots in the Houston hip-hop scene?
None of this is to make a monolith of TikTok users or their content but to identify a general trend. Mainstream TikTok, by and large, cherry-picks sound bites and songs and audio clips from Black artists and Black culture whilst remaining uninvested in black creators, artists, and the culture at large. After the original Savage went viral for a few months when Megan dropped a remix with the Queen Bey plenty of people on social media joked that the remix had “given the song back to Black people” and “taken it from the TikTokers.” While it was mostly jokes there’s truth in it still.
First, the joke identifies the very real “extraction process” TikTok exacerbates, felt by the Black community when we’re seeing our stars and our music being associated with white teens. Second, it names how we define who belongs in the category of “TikToker” a definition that is not compromised or representative of Black people. Obviously there are literally Black TikTokers but just like we wouldn't call Drake a popstar without contention it denotes the racial undertones embued in the word. This is the same reason we have phrases like “Black Twitter” to indicate that we are identifying a particular cove of an otherwise racialized app user.
Concluding Thoughts
TikToks’ particular social capital, functionality, and the modern music industry positions the app to be the perfect influence on the Billboard Charts like it was designed to function alongside it. This isn't to say TikTok has an undue or monopolizing influence on the charts, of course, there's a litany of other factors — like you know actually liking the song, but considering that on any particular day you might hear the same audio clip 10–15 times on TikTok, and that it has been proven the more we are exposed to something the more we like it; it's certainly reasonable to say that TikTok can and does have an unprecedented influence on the charts and that charting influence can and does have a marked impact on Black culture
All of this undoubtedly demonstrates how even the smallest seemingly insignificant things in our lives are interconnected with one another, larger structures, and the sneaky but powerful cogs of race in America. Two surface level innocuous cultural pillars — Billboard and TikTok- are not only influenced by each other but by the industries surrounding them, and the “not- so-subtle-if-you’ve-got-a-keen-eye” racial politics America is embedded in. Although over 50 years apart from each other in conception neither is untainted by the way race functions as the undercurrent to our society. Something so microscopic becomes political when you examine how it functions in a larger context. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and feminists in the 60s summed it up best with the adage that “the personal is political.” Our individual lives shape politics and societal structures and in turn, politics and societal structures shape our individual lives. If TikTok and Billboard can be impacted by and play into the way the racial landscape of America, it begs us to grapple with the expansive reach of race in America. What other things in our life, benign and malicious, are touched by race (or even other socially relevant identities)? Our access to food and clean water? Healthcare? Education? Housing? Job opportunities? Representation in the media? Our dating preferences? Credit for innovations and trends? (Spoiler alert: Yes! Everything’s interconnected)
