When Leah Kate released ’10 Things I Hate About You’ in 2022, there was much skepticism about her sudden rise to fame. She had started to garner a lot of views on her TikTok, and her music video for the song had even raked in 1.8 million views. They dubbed her to be an industry plant for the amount of popularity she was gaining.
However, much of the attention she had gained was more because of the people who were hate watching or listening to her content. If you take a look at the music video for “Twinkle Twinkle,” it is riddled with unnecessary hate comments. One comment tells her to delete it while another asks her to keep her talent hidden.
Admittedly, the song is not that great. It copies much of Olivia Rodrigo’s sound with a similar teenage angst she portrays in some of her songs. And because Leah Kate is 31, this angsty attitude doesn’t ring genuine. Furthermore, the sudden shift from her earlier works, making summer house music to then making early 2000’s pop rock felt jarring.
The TikTok Sound
Much like Kate, GAYLE is another artist to have received the same backlash when she released her song “abcdefu” since they pull from the same influences and have also seen a sudden shift from their previous works. People have then come to call their sound as being the TikTok sound.
The TikTok sound they speak of can be classified as songs that sound tame and too cookie-cutter from the sound they are trying to borrow from, paired with simplistic and sometimes corny lyrics. There is a reason as to why the aforementioned songs are cookie-cutter, it is to appease as many listeners as possible.
They would take inspiration from contemporary pop music, and put their spin to it. This is a way for them to gain new listeners from the artists they take inspiration from. By creating songs that have similar sounds, they aren’t straying away from the already familiar.
It’s a way for listeners to satisfy themselves if they are looking for a specific sound the artists they frequently listen to, only create in some of their songs. For example, Olivia Rodrigo only has a few songs that take inspiration from the 2000’s pop-rock genre like “good 4 u” or “brutal.” If her listeners are looking for songs like that, artists like Leah Kate will have something similar to offer.
However, this poses the question if they are commodifying music; seeing it as a product that is supposed to appease as many people as possible, sold and used by the masses.
The Commodification of Music
The commodification of music has always been a thing and not unique to TikTok at all. Different artists have voiced the dissonance of their creative direction between them, the artist, and the company.
For instance, when Charli XCX wanted to change her sound to hyperpop, her company incessantly wanted her to go in a different direction. They wanted to capitalize on the radio hit songs she was writing for and the popularity she was gaining from songs like “Boom Clap” and “Fancy.”
Artists like Charli XCX, who have record labels trying to push them in a different direction, then become bereft of any artistic individuality, pushing for marketability to make as much profit as possible. It forces these artists to sacrifice their sound to stay signed in their record label who, more or less, help them.
By producing a product that their record labels want, their songs will get more promoted. Staying will also allow them to have more connections with different people in the industry.
How TikTok Commodifies Music
If it happened to Charli XCX, it probably could be happening to these TikTok artists. They will also be pushed in a different direction or be forced to make a song that the artists themselves don’t even like. However, the way they advertise and promote their music is more overt, and somewhat offensive.
They’ll be handed a song their label wants them to do, then they’ll ask them to promote it all over their TikTok account. The song will, most of the time, sound stale and similar to other artists thus creating the TikTok sound all over again.
Despite being indistinguishable from other songs that have already become popular, these people will promote their song by sitting in the driver seat of their car, or in their room, while boldly claiming that their song will be the song of the summer (or any season the song is being released at).
Moreover, despite these songs sounding stale, they also have been manufactured for people on TikTok to use. The chorus will usually have a part that can either be loud or contain relatable lyrics, enough time for people to use as a sound for their videos.
And because TikTok gives revenue to artists whose songs get used for each video, the need to make music that appeases TikTok users becomes a demand. The demand is usually just to make their videos cinematic.
Artists Who Have Found Fame Through TikTok
Although TikTok is a part of the reason why music is being commodified, it also rewards different artists they deem interesting. For instance, Hemlocke Springs and PinkPantheress, artists who blew up on TikTok from their songs “girlfriend” and “just for me” respectively.
Hemlocke Springs gave her own twist to bedroom pop by infusing it ’80s synth pop, with a voice that sounds similar to Santigold’s. Meanwhile, PinkPantheress is able to create songs that incorporates 2-step and jungle with pop, something that was not that popular at the time in contemporary pop.
Both artists had a different perspective and offered something different for people to listen to, which some artists on TikTok and record labels fail to remember. By copying a sound or aesthetic that already exists, they are forgetting what made the artists they are taking inspiration from popular in the first place. They offered something different or had a different perspective on the genre they are doing.
Creativity Creates Longevity
Creating songs that sound familiar to other songs won’t give longevity. Like the snippet that people use on their videos from their songs, it will only be brief.
They must have something different to offer since their songs will just be buried by hundreds of other ones that also sound similar.
Record labels should become more supportive of the direction their artists want to take and to encourage them to innovate. They should not be forcing their artists artistic integrity by making them create something for the general public.
By doing so, it will make music become a product rather than a medium for artists to express themselves.
