Rejecting the ‘viral' craze on TikTok - Grace Murakami

 One aspect of digital media and sound/music that I have found interesting lately, are the musicians who have come forward claiming that their labels are pressuring them to go viral on TikTok. As we discussed in our class this week, TikTok has become an undeniably important tool for promoting music and going viral on TikTok is a main goal for many young artistic like Katherine Li. On the same note, established famous artists are also now being pushed to accomplish that same goal. Produce a song that goes viral on the platform. 

 

Linked here is a TikTok that musician Halsey made in May, trying to draw our attention to how ‘fake’ the marketing can be in the music industry. Showing that many established artists really do not like the ‘viral craze’ the app has on the music industry. Artists like Halsey claim that they have felt a push from their labels to either make a song only for the goal of going viral or to grow their following on the platform. Halsey went as far as making a public TikTok telling her followers that she is not allowed to release one of her new songs because their label wants to “make a fake viral moment on TikTok” for it. This makes me wonder how many of the viral tunes on Tik Tok were planted or made to intentionally go viral. 


Let me know what you think !

 

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@halsey/video/7100595685912775979?embed_source=121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_masking&refer=embed&referer_url=www.fastcompany.com%2F90755182%2Fmusicians-say-their-labels-are-pressuring-them-to-go-viral-on-tiktok&referer_video_id=7100595685912775979

Comments

  1. Caraline MacDonaldJanuary 26, 2023 at 5:45 AM

    Hey Grace,

    This was a very well done discussion post with lots of good content involved in it. I really like how you touched on this topic, as the music industry is full of things that often are not shared with the public, that cause artists stress and anxiety.

    With that being said, the discussion of Halsey is one that is very good to highlight. With artists having extra stress placed on them to go viral on social media applications like tiktok when they just want to create music is not what they necessarily signed up for.

    This topic is a very interesting one and it would defiantly be a good one to explore in the coming weeks of our class. Overall, great discussion post, I look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks!

    Caraline

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