Here is an article about the TikTok effect on music.
The TikTok Effect: How 15 Seconds Can Resurrect a Decades-Old Song
It starts with a feeling of déja vu. You’re scrolling through your “For You” page, and a song snippet—a catchy chorus, a soulful instrumental, a powerful vocal riff—catches your ear. It sounds familiar, like something from another era, yet it’s the soundtrack to a dozen different videos in a row: a makeup tutorial, a comedy sketch, a heartfelt monologue. Before you know it, the song is inescapable. It’s climbing the Spotify charts, playing on the radio, and being hummed by a generation that wasn’t even born when it was first released.
This is the TikTok Effect, a bizarre and powerful cultural phenomenon that has turned the social media platform into the world’s most unpredictable music time machine. In the space of a 15-second clip, a song that has been dormant for 20, 30, or even 40 years can be spectacularly resurrected, finding a new life and a new audience in the digital age.
The most iconic example remains Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic, “Dreams.” In 2020, Nathan Apodaca (known online as @420doggface208) posted a video of himself longboarding down a highway, sipping from a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, and lip-syncing to the track’s mellow chorus. The vibe was pure, unbothered bliss. The video went viral, and so did the song. “Dreams” re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since the 1970s, introducing Stevie Nicks’ ethereal vocals to millions of Gen Z listeners. The band, including Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks themselves, embraced the moment by creating their own TikTok accounts and recreating the video, bridging a 40-year gap in an instant.
But this was no one-off fluke. The platform has become a digital goldmine for forgotten hits. When the fourth season of Stranger Things used Kate Bush’s 1985 art-pop anthem “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” in a pivotal scene, it was TikTok that propelled it from a memorable TV moment into a global sensation. The song became the soundtrack to countless videos, pushing it to #1 on the charts in the UK and top 5 in the US—a feat it never achieved upon its initial release. An artist known for her reclusiveness was suddenly the talk of the music world, all thanks to a new generation discovering the song’s epic, cinematic quality in bite-sized portions.
So, what is the secret formula? Why does this happen?
1. The Power of the Snippet
TikTok’s format is built around the “sound,” a short audio clip that can be endlessly repurposed. A song no longer needs a perfect three-minute structure to succeed; it just needs one killer 15-second segment. This could be the soaring chorus of Tom Odell’s “Another Love” (2013), which became an anthem for protests in Iran and solidarity with Ukraine, or the quirky, infectious synth of “L’Amour Toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino (1999). The platform isolates a song’s most potent emotional or melodic core and puts it on a loop.
2. Context is King
On TikTok, a song is rarely just a song; it’s the backdrop to a trend, a feeling, or a shared joke. The music is given a new narrative. The Cranberries’ 1992 hit “Dreams” became synonymous with wholesome, nostalgic video montages. The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 ballad “Iris” found new life as the score for moments of dramatic, often humorous, yearning. This re-contextualization gives old songs a fresh purpose, detaching them from their original era and making them relevant to today’s users.
3. The Algorithmic Echo Chamber
TikTok’s “For You” page is a masterfully tuned discovery engine. Once a sound starts gaining traction, the algorithm pushes it to more and more users who are likely to engage with it. This creates a snowball effect, where a slowly growing trend can explode into a global phenomenon in a matter of days. It’s a real-time, user-driven A&R department that operates with ruthless efficiency.
4. Nostalgia for a Past You Never Had
For younger users, these decades-old tracks offer a sense of authenticity and discovery. In an era of slick, heavily produced pop, the analog warmth of a ’70s rock song or the raw emotion of a ’90s alternative hit feels fresh and new. It’s a form of “anemoia”—a nostalgia for a time one has never known—that allows them to connect with the aesthetics and emotions of a different generation.
The ripple effect on the music industry has been profound. Artists and labels are realizing their back catalogs are no longer static archives but potential goldmines waiting to be unearthed. Suddenly, getting a song placed in a popular Netflix show isn’t just about the show itself; it’s about its potential to spark a TikTok trend. Legacy artists like Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac are seeing enormous spikes in streaming revenue and a new, fervent fanbase that will likely explore their entire discography.
The TikTok Effect is a testament to the enduring power of a great song. It proves that a track’s relevance isn’t tied to its release date, but to its ability to evoke emotion. In the great, chaotic democracy of social media, the next smash hit might not come from a state-of-the-art recording studio, but from a dusty vinyl record, just waiting for the right 15 seconds to shine again.
