In the past 3 years or so, the way we consume music has seen a drastic change. This change is largely due to TikTok and its huge influence on viral trends. Before 2019, songs would chart on Billboard Hot 100 largely due to their quality, radio play, overall impact, and popularity. Now any song can chart on billboards depending on its virality on TikTok. The majority of the songs that charted in the top 10 of the charts are popular sounds used on TikTok.
Usually, for a song to go viral on TikTok, one part of the song would be used for literally any kind of trend. It could be 10 seconds of a verse or 30 seconds of the chorus. Either way, the part would have to be catchy and fit a particular type of trend. A perfect example of this is Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single, Driver’s License. At the time of driver’s license release, Olivia was known for her work on High School Musical: The Musical the Series. She was not extremely popular but had a decent-sized fanbase waiting for her music debut. Driver’s license was released in January 2021 and saw huge success, breaking all sorts of records. The biggest source of this success was the song going viral mostly due to teenagers using it for relationship/heartbreak TikToks. The song had a long run at the top of the billboard hot 100. It’s safe to say if it wasn’t for TikTok, driver’s license and other songs that recently hit the chart, would not be nearly as successful as they are now.
Record Companies have been trying to recreate viral hits as a result of this.