Once seen as a joke, the app TikTok has now taken over as one of the most popular apps among young people. It can be argued that this is our generation’s version of Vine, and TikTok has many creative opportunities for a new age of creators and influencers. This app has become a way for underground artists to hype up their music and for attractive teens to make it big just by dancing.
Let’s be honest. Who heard of Roddy Rich or Surfaces before they heard their songs as sounds on TikTok? Other well known artists such as Morgan Wallen have recently created sounds for the apps featuring one of his new songs before it came out.
This helped the song get exposure before its release and got fans hyped about hearing more than the short clip used in the background of people’s videos. This is just one of the many ways artists have used TikTok to promote new music.
It’s almost inevitable that you turn on a today’s hits radio station without hearing a plethora of songs that you would hear scrolling through your For You Page on TikTok. This app is responsible for helping some of today’s most major pop artists get their start with their song’s blowing up as sounds on TikTok.
TikTok is also responsible for making a ton of attractive and arguably untalented teens famous for no reason at all. If you know how to pick up simple dance moves and have a pretty face, odds are you could be tomorrow’s next TikTok star.
Most famously, Addison Rae Easterling dropped out of LSU a few months into her first semester of her freshman year because she was discovered on the app. Once a mass communication major from Lafayette, Easterling is now the highest paid TikTok star and can even be seen lounging poolside with the likes of the Kardashians.
Easterling is like many other young teens who have made it big on the app for dancing along to dances that they didn’t even come up with themselves. Now, these teens are living in large mansions together and are creating a new generation of influencers with content that’s not entirely entertaining. These so-called TikTok stars are receiving brand deals and millions of followers across all social media apps.
Much like the old app Vine, it’s easy to go viral on TikTok, but you only have a limited time for your contact. The length of videos varies, and TikTok offers way more time than six-second vines. Most of the viral TikToks are often involve cooking, comedy or a trend that goes along with a sound widely used on the app.
All in all, TikTok is the new “it” app of the young generation. Originally started under the name Musical.ly, TikTok has come far from its early days as an app where old Vine stars and celebrities would lip sync. This app is now one of the main ways pop music becomes, well, popular.
It’s a way for underground artists to make it big with a hit song, and a way for well-known artists to appeal to thousands of active users on the app. In contrast, the app is also responsible for making good-looking teenagers famous for just dancing in 15-second video.
TikTok is a platform that allows ordinary young people to get famous for dancing to songs, which in return allows for artists to gain more exposure for their music.
Since TikTok had some controversy concerning privacy issues, users still log into the app. There’s a genuine concern about privacy during this digital age, but it seems like entertainment will always be the victor in situations where people’s careers depend on TikTok.
Where will the boys of Sway House be without TikTok? Would “The Charli” drink at Dunkin’ Donuts ever exist without TikTok?
TikTok is also adored by many. “I love this app,” said Molly Vidler, mass communication senior. “Whenever I can’t find anything to watch on Netflix or Hulu, I can count on TikTok to keep me entertained by scrolling through my For You Page.”
Others don’t use the app, but they still see the impact it has made. It seems like it would be hard to avoid TikTok because they have an easy sharing feature where someone’s TikTok can reach multiple platforms.
“It’s the most auditory social media app that we have at the moment. Everything on the phone seems to be words and visuals. TikTok provides a different aspect, and the repetitiveness seems to hook people,” explained Gideon Fortune, mass communication junior.
It’s interesting seeing the growth of TikTok. There was still an audience in 2018, but we didn’t imagine TikTok to be this influential. Social media is growing into different shapes and forms at fast rates. It’s even hard to keep up with the trends on TikTok. Social media keeps us on our toes, and we will never predict what will be the next popular app of our generation.
But, we can also never predict its downfall. On Sept. 18, President Donald Trump announced that TikTok will be banned at 11:59 on Sept. 20. The app would no longer be in the App Store.
This situation is similar to Flappy Bird where the users can still have the app on their phone if they don’t delete it, but there will be no software updates.
However, on Saturday Sept. 19, Trump agreed to a deal where Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. would partner with TikTok, making the app a U.S. based company. The ban originally scheduled to take place Sept. 20 at midnight has now been moved back to Sept. 27, pending negotiations about the deal.
With the future of TikTok still so uncertain, interested users may still want to consider downloading the app before it’s too late.
