Pinpointed: Tiktok Sounds
By: Bailey Tolentino
In light of the recent buzz around TikTok and its getting banned (then getting brought back), I’ll be writing about nine songs whose 15-second snippets blew up on the app for today’s edition of Pinpointed. For each song, I’ll note whether the song was understood or misunderstood — meaning, whether their snippet did it justice. I’ll get into why I think these songs were successful on the app and the trends that were associated with them.
Say So - Doja Cat
Understood
This is the first song that comes to my head when I think of TikTok. A simple dance set to the chorus took the world by storm right at the beginning of the 2020 lockdown, as it was a fun thing for people to teach themselves while bored in their rooms. I can’t imagine its success without the app, for dancing is exactly what this song was made for. The whole song is surprisingly equally as catchy, but the snippet is indeed the best part of it. Several other Doja Cat songs (like ‘Juicy’) also had 15-second success and went on to revolutionise a new specific disco/rap/pop sound that many other artists tried and failed to mimic thereafter.
Play Date - Melanie Martinez
Misunderstood
The meaning of ‘Play Date’ is so heavily reliant on the concept of the Crybaby album that a seconds-long snippet of its instrumental does it injustice. The slowed and reverbed snippet went viral as the background music to an edit of Timothée Chalamet dancing in Call Me By Your Name, which is completely irrelevant to the theme of the song. That said, that specific video changed the trajectory of fan-made edits forever, so I don’t wish to take that away from the fan who posted it.
Heather - Conan Gray
Misunderstood
This song became a perpetrator of the culture of girls comparing themselves to other girls as the trend was to make a slideshow of images of what or who you wish you could be and pair it to the climax of the song, which goes, ‘I wish I were Heather!’
It is unfortunate that it became connoted with the toxicity of comparing one’s life to what we see on social media, because that wasn’t the point of the song; it is actually about Conan, a gay man, being in love with a straight man. It is an incredible song and I recommend listening to the whole thing. In fact, the entire Kid Krow album is fantastic. Some standout tracks include ‘Wish You Were Sober’ and ‘Fight or Flight’. Produced by Dan Nigro, that album kind of did what Olivia Rodrigo did with SOUR, before SOUR came out… and I feel it deserved a lot more attention than it got when it was released.
driver’s license - Olivia Rodrigo
Understood
…Speaking of which, how could I forget the song that boosted a female popstar into fame unfathomable since that of Taylor Swift in the 2010s? This song took the world by storm; I imagine every teenage girl (including myself) remembers where they were when this was dropped. Though I feel TikTok did “understand” the song because the trends that went along with the viral snippet (the bridge) do match its meaning, 15 seconds — not even 30 — cannot capture how incredible this song is. The verses are the best part, in my opinion, and SOUR deserves every ounce of success it got. I think it would have been popular without TikTok, but the app helped, without a doubt.
Let The Light In - Lana Del Rey (ft. Father John Misty)
Understood
It’s still worth listening to this whole song, but the bridge (the part that went viral) is certainly the part you’ll find yourself waiting for. The way she flips the meaning of each line as they progress simply using repetition (‘I love to, love to, love to, love you’ or ‘I wanna, wanna, wanna, want you’), absolutely blew my mind when I first heard it. I was made aware of this song’s existence when I saw it on Instagram reels (my personal alternative to TikTok), and that video was of a fan losing his mind over the beauty of the lyricism and longing in this bridge, so I believe the snippet did the whole song justice. It is the best song on its album (Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd), and it took me by surprise; it is of the same caliber as songs on Norman F******g Rockwell!, which I honestly don’t think Lana will ever top. So, I’m just glad to have gotten even one beautiful song out of this album.
About You - The 1975
Understood
Matty Healy would probably hate that his song went viral on TikTok and might assume that kids on social media don’t understand his art, but ironically (and luckily for him), the part that went viral was the one part of the song where he is not singing. Yet that 15-second snippet, which is an imaginary response from the love interest to which the song is addressed, captures the whole message of the song. Furthermore, I believe it is by far the best part of this otherwise monotone song, and brought attention to The 1975 well after their peak. It helps that Jack Antonoff produced this album; plenty of TikToks using this sound were praising his influence on the sound. His name has become practically unavoidable in the past few years, as he’s worked with many stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Clairo, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, and many more. So, even though The 1975 seems too alternative for TikTok, I’m not sure this song would have gotten nearly as much traction without all these other factors — which were made known by TikTok — attached to it.
Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift
Understood
This snippet once again proves the power of the bridge! This one is a classic Taylor Swift move, where she begins to essentially rant in the middle of the song. Ancestral sisters with similar bridge formulas include ‘Getaway Car’ and ‘Out of the Woods’, which now almost just feel like attempts to get to the perfection that is the ‘Cruel Summer’ bridge. This snippet is undoubtedly the highlight of the song, and it got many Taylor Swift haters to give her another chance. She also only released this as a single after its TikTok fame, so despite Swift being much more than just a ‘TikTok artist’, she owes the app some thanks for making this masterpiece known to a larger audience.
Ex-Factor - Lauryn Hill
Misunderstood
Three different parts of this song have individually gone viral:
‘See, no one loves you more than me, and no one ever will…’
‘How can I explain myself ?’
’Care for me, care for me, I know you care for me; There for me, there for me, said you’d be there for me; Cry for me, cry for me…’
…and that kind of annoys me. It is very clear that most people who use these snippets just use the lyrics as a one-liner joke about trying to explain themselves or ranting about an ex, but they don’t know that all three snippets are from the same song. Furthermore, they don’t know that ‘Ex-Factor’ is just one of many iconic songs from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which I believe to be one of the greatest albums of all time. The snippets do not pay proper tribute to the whole song nor the album whatsoever, and since it was released in 1998, it would have obviously been just fine without the help of TikTok fame.
I Bet On Losing Dogs - Mitski
Misunderstood
This song is so severely misused on TikTok as the background music for cutesy “look at my boyfriend” videos, and it’s a misuse that goes beyond just not knowing where the snippet comes from. It’s quite literally the opposite of what Mitski is singing about. Her music is tortured, her lyrics read like poetry, and that can definitely not be understood within 10 to 15 seconds; no snippet of any of her songs can capture the way she flips romance on its head. TikTok is no place for music like this, and I’m not just saying that to gatekeep.
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While TikTok has brought us some fun trends and encouraged us to dance in our rooms like no one is watching, it pains me that some artists are making songs just for a section of it to be known. Artists should not be performing concerts just for a thousand people to dance to 15 seconds of one song and stand there silent for the rest of the show. It’s also a shame for people to keep taking songs out of context, for the art of constructing an album already began to depreciate with labels emphasising the importance of topping charts. I think the integrity of the music industry would be better off without the app, but it also has an undeniable hold over its users that means it’s not going to leave us any time soon.