Year on TikTok: Music 2020 – Celebrating Culture With Music
Image Credit: TikTok
TikTok’s ‘Music 2020’ report details the short-video platform’s biggest, trending and emerging songs, artists and genres.
The already sawing social media platform only grew faster as stay-at-home orders came into effect in March last year.
Music is such an important aspect of the short-video sharing app. In 2020, “over 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok sounds.” In December, TikTok published their Top 100. With it, they announced the platform’s top 10 most significant songs in 2020. Together, these ten songs reached over 50 billion across the 125 million videos they were featured in, five of which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Nearly 90 songs that trended on TikTok last year featured on the Top 100 charts in the US, fifteen of these reached number one. TikTok has helped drive so many indie artists into the mainstream. In 2020, over 70 artists that have broken on the platform have received major label deals including Claire Rosinkranz, Dixie D’Amelio, Powfu, Priscilla Block and Tai Verdes, with dozens more charting on Rolling Stone’s Breakthrough 25.
Music shaped the year on TikTok and TikTok shaped the year in music. Unlike radio stations or streaming platform’s playlists, trending music on TikTok is not dictated by the platform but rather the community itself. To celebrate these big moments, TikTok recently published their first-ever U.S. music report, with music that mattered on TikTok last year as well as the communities favourite genres, biggest stars, emerging artists, classics songs that found new audiences and meme-worthy songs.
We at TikTok share our community’s passion for music and we’re dedicated to providing a platform where artists and fans can interact and thrive. It has been inspiring to watch our community bring new talent to the forefront, help send songs up the charts, and use music to create an oasis of joy during a trying time. We will continue to work hard to make TikTok a platform that supports artists and encourages musical engagement and discovery.
Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music, TikTok
Find your personalised Year on TikTok here.
Celebrating Culture With Music
With a huge audience around the world, TikTok is home to a diverse community. TikTok actively took steps to help the causes below, be it partnering with charities, highlights Black artists’ music, dedicating programming to the LGBTQ+ community or hosting live music video premieres.
#MusicMatters: TikTok partnered with MusiCares and The Actors Fund to salute its community of entertainment professionals hit hard by the pandemic, offering LIVE streams from Camila Cabello and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, and starting the #MusicMatters hashtag (4.1 billion video views).
#BlackMusicMonth: Throughout the month of June, TikTok celebrated #BlackMusicMonth by special programming to celebrate and highlight Black artists’ contribution to music on the platform. #BlackMusicMonth initiatives included Chole x Halle’s #KeepingItCute challenge and the on-boarding of Prince and his catalog to TikTok.
#MyPride: TikTok dedicated programming to its LGBTQ+ community, honoring Trailblazers like mxmtoon and hosting LIVE streams with artists like Kim Petras and Hayley Kiyoko.
Latinx Heritage Month: TikTok paid tribute to its #FamiliaLatina with special Sound-Offs from artists like Luis Fonsi, naming beatboxer @spencerx as a Latinx Trail Blazer, and hosting a special LIVE music video premiere starring Jennifer Lopez and Maluma.