courtesy TikTok
- Last week, the first six albums by De La Soul made their long-awaited debut on streaming services. Along with that landmark digital release, the legendary rap trio’s catalog is now available for creators to use in their TikTok videos. Fans can use classic songs like “Say No Go” (sampling Hall & Oates, who sang the group’s praises on their own TikTok), “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey),” and “Stakes Is High” to pay tribute to the band or create their own interpretation of the groundbreaking rap songs. Introduced to a new generation after its use in a Spider-Man film, “The Magic Number” is the most successful so far, with people using the sound to show their love for the web-slinging hero or pay tribute to De La’s Dave Jolicoeur aka Trugoy The Dove, who tragically passed away last month. Posdnous, Maseo, and the rest of De La nation have been active on the group’s own TikTok account, sharing fan’s Looney Tunes-themed visualizations of their songs, revealing Chris Rock’s favorite De La album (it’s Buhloone Mindstate), and paying tribute to Dave.
- Creators in the TikTok community often start trends by pairing a catchy song with one of the platform’s many creative filters. Justin Bieber’s 2022 song “I Feel Funny” inspired a new filter-based trend, as creators attempt to remake his showy vocal ad-libs. Boasting over 132.7K+ total creations to date, the trend encourages creators to use TikTok’s mirrored delay filter to recite Justin’s emphatic lines, “Bills on bills (bills on bills)/I want to make them (I want to make them)/All these hearts (hearts, hearts)/I used to break them (I usеd to break ’em).” While some creators show surprise at the filter’s timing and accuracy, others reenact creators’ reactions and explain that enunciation is key to making the filter work.
- Sped-up songs continue to grow in popularity on TikTok, persuading artists to officially release sped-up versions of their music. Indie band Rainbow Kitten Surprise are the latest group to receive a sped up makeover of a song: in this case, their 2018 song “It’s Called: Freefall.” Released to streaming early in March, the sped-up version of “It’s Called: Freefall” reached over 931.6K+ total creations on the platform, propelled by a trend of creators sharing the inspiration behind their loved ones’ names. Creators reveal that they’ve named their dogs after movie characters, named babies after trees, and given their children their grandparents’ flower-inspired names. Drew Barrymore also joined in on the trend, revealing that her dog is named after her character in the 2004 romantic comedy, 50 First Dates. Rainbow Kitten Surprise did their part to keep the sound trending, participating in both trends by revealing the inspiration behind their band name and thanking fans for interacting with the sound.
- Twenty two years after nearly topping the Billboard Hot 100, Eve and Gwen Stefani’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” is seeing a resurgence on TikTok. The TikTok community is fully embracing the rap track, which has amassed over 600K+ total creations. Some creators use the song to express happiness at the sight of their grandma approving of their partner, display their colorful, Hello Kitty-inspired makeup tutorials, and show gratitude for the Keith Lee effect making their family’s restaurant success dreams come true. Other creations include videos of adorable kittens and cute dogs who want a taste of their human’s food.
- Following the success of viral hits like “lowkey” and “Indigo,” alt-pop singer-songwriter NIKI is back trending with her 2021 track “Every Summertime” (829K+ creations), which is putting TikTok creators’ relationships to the test. The smooth song is soundtracking an astrological #moonphase trend (377.7M views), in which creators visually compare the moon phases of the days they were born to those of their significant others to see if they are soulmates or if their relationship is doomed to fail. Creators are all in on this trend as they joke about their confidence in their relationship being tested, revel in their compatible moon phases, and admit that they didn’t believe in the trend until they got the “soulmates” result.
- New Orleans R&B group Tank And The Bangas first earned attention with their engaging live performance, which won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2017. Tank’s powerhouse live show has once again paid dividends, as her new piece “DM Pretty,” originally an impromptu poem performed in a showcase for Offbeat Magazine, has become one of the top trending sounds on TikTok. With over 60k total creations to date, the sound has fomented an inspiring trend, where creators use the sound to flex their body positivity, with interpretations that range from gospel-inspired exhortations, to demonstrations of undying marital devotion, to glamorous struts. Tank has been enthusiastically engaging with the trend on her account, duetting her favorite examples–including renditions by Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade and Real Housewives of Potomac cast member Ashley Darby–and posing with Doja Cat at the Grammys. Inspired by the trend, Tank And The Bangas officially released “DM Pretty” as a single on Spotify.
Recently, reggaeton superstar Karol G earned a spot in the TikTok Treats newsletter with her trending song “TQG,” featuring fellow Colombian star Shakira. With more than 1.1 million creations to date, “TQG” is the centerpiece of Karol’s recently released new album Mañana Será Bonito. On March 1, Karol hosted a TikTok LIVE to kick off TikTok’s celebration of Women’s History Month, where she interacted with fans and celebrated the rapturous support her new album received on TikTok and beyond. Mañana Será Bonito made history this week, when it became the first-ever all-Spanish language album released by a woman to reach #1 on the Billboard 200.
