Year on TikTok: Music 2020 – The Come Up: Emerging Artists
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.
The Come Up: Emerging Artists
Music discovery is a really important part of TikTok, with the platform being responsible for kickstarting the careers of many otherwise unknown artists by helping them translate TikTok trends into streaming revenue growth. The artists below started on TikTok and through posting engaging content with a growing community, have become major artists outside of the platform. Here just a handful of examples from TikTok.
With her infectious attitude and ready-made catchphrases, Flo Milli used TikTok to take her music to another level. The 20-year-old Alabama native’s “May I,” a hand-clapping, Snoop Dogg-referencing banger that inspired 1.3 million creations, helped propel her debut album Ho, Why Is You Here onto the Billboard 200.
The 17-year-old rap star made a major impact when he released his song “Addison Rae,” drawing the attention of a popular creator and and helping to bring TikTok culture to the mainstream.
This rising pop trio sang what we were all thinking in their era-defining anthem “F2020,” which they first revealed on TikTok in a video that racked up over 16.7 million views.
Curtis Waters’s active promotion of his song “Stunnin” ft. Herm Franklin (1.3 million video creations) on TikTok helped make the breezily confident pop-rap jam one of the songs of the summer.
The bedroom pop riser built a large audience (477k followers) by engaging with his fans and debuting snippets of new music, including his viral single “Dancing In My Room” (1.5 million creations)
After her ghostly tenor graced the hook for Sleepy Hallow’s TikTok-propelled Billboard Hot 100 hit “Deep End Freestyle” (530k creations), Fousheé took to TikTok to introduce the smoky, soulful full version of “Deep End,” which made an even bigger impact (3.7 million creations) and trended for multiple weeks.
17-year-old singer-songwriter Tate McRae worked hard to build an audience on TikTok in 2020, and she was rewarded with nearly 2 million followers, over 49 million hashtag views, and viral hits including “You Broke Me First” and “Stupid.”
The former Verizon store salesman struck gold with his breezy hit “Stuck In The Middle” (2.3 million creations), a constant presence on TikTok’s Trending Songs charts.
These Little Rock, AR dance-rap mavens are active TikTok users and viral song machines, creating trends with bangers like “SIX FO’” (1.5 million creations), “Hustle & Flow” (1.8 million creations), “Roscoes” (1.1 million creations), and more.
A rising pop star whose hit “Figure It Out” has over 480k video creations and 20 million Spotify streams, Blu DeTiger moonlights as TikTok’s favorite bassist, shredding to songs of all genres.
The internet-savvy rapper captivated audiences with his deep croak of a voice and visceral lyrics, as TikTok (including @emmalangevin) helped propel “E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE” ft. Savage Ga$p to multiple weeks in the top ten of Spotify’s Viral 50 chart.
Written in 2015, Taylor’s emotional ballad “Surrender” became one of TikTok’s most popular songs of 2020 (over 5 million video creations), offering a poignant soundtrack to emotional stories.