New England, the hometown of America where residents are proud sports fans and celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day bigger than Christmas, the wonderful land of Nor’easters and apparently now music. First off, let’s clear up what exactly is considered New England; traditionally New England has been made up of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Sometimes New York is considered but for this article, we are just going to look at this excluding New York (they already get too much attention in the music world and in general)
TikTok has been helping bring attention to artists that have gone unnoticed or have yet to resurface in a couple of years. The short 15-second videos are enough to get the song in its entirety back on the charts and stuck in the minds of thousands of people. The replaying of the song over and over in the mind usually leads to the user playing the song off of a streaming service, leading to more revenue for the artists. I myself am very guilty of randomly saying Tik Tok sounds throughout the day, but people usually know what I am talking about, which makes me seem not as crazy. Lately, I have been using Tik Tok to find new music, especially since I find myself in niche corners of the app that offer recommendations apart from the songs that are already stuck in my head.
One of the artists that came across my for you page was Noah Kahan, a singer-songwriter from Vermont who makes amazing music! I was in shock that a person from my corner of the world just blew up from a social media app. The shift from discovering music from Youtube or off the street has turned to people making short 15-second videos with their music that could possibly reach millions of people. Now, when you say his name in a crowd, at least one person will know who he is. His hit album “Stick Season” tackles themes like the seasonal depression, recalling the small towns of New England. Perhaps thanks to TikTok, Kahan has made waves across the country, now going on tour and appearing in festivals such as Boston Calling.
Another artist that is taking over social media right now is Role Model, along with his girlfriend Emma Chamberlain. The two have been dating for a while, but they have largely hidden their relationship from the public view, which leaves fans speculating about the details of their relationship, and more importantly, which of Role Model’s songs are about his beloved girlfriend.
Role Model grew up in the Portland, Maine area (just a quick 2-hour drive from the University of Maine’s campus) where he lived with his parents along the coastline of New England. He and Emma have come back and visited often, as shown on their Instagrams. Besides being Emma’s boyfriend, Role Model is a singer-songwriter in the Pop/Hip-hop/Lo-fi area of music with many hit songs that have been seen on Tik Tok, Instagram, and other platforms. He is still a growing artist playing on tour and at small festivals but still, he is one of the New Englanders in the spotlight.
Rounding out this list is the Queen of Tik Tok songs herself, Meghan Trainor, a Cape Cod native growing up in Nantucket and Nauset Massachusetts. She rose to fame with her song, All About that Base in 2014, hit the top 100 on the charts, and won a Grammy which made her a household name in the mid-2010s. After she released that album and some other songs that just did not land as well as precious works she disappeared from the public eye to start her family. Now with the popularity of Tik Tok, her marketing team set her up with the Tik Tok personality @chris to make her come back. She has been all over the “for you page”, especially with her new music with the songs: Mother and Made You Look starting trends which is spreading her music. Even her just making videos with her songs or vlogs is again making her a household name, especially within her home region of New England. TikTok as a global platform has been able to connect these local artists like the ones from New England to the rest of the world, setting off their careers and changing lives.