tiktok and Hip Hop

Over the last maybe two year music has undergone an evolutionary change. The last time we saw a real change in sound was maybe 2010-2013, when the rappers we call veterans now were merely rookies. Before that was in the early 2000’s with help from artist like Kanye and Pharrell.  In 2021, we have seen a plethora of new artist emerge and with them a sound that is reminiscent of something familiar. — The social media app Tik Tok has revolutionized the way music is made and consumed. Over the last couple of years we have seen a rise within the dance craze section of hip hop. With its popularity in the late 2000’s with songs like Crank That Soulja Boy and Walk it Out to its re-resurfacing in 2015 with dances like Whip and Nae Nae, the dance craze section of hip hop has seen its next step in the evolutionary chain. Tik Tok has made it so that every song with a catchy beat and a sing along hook can go viral with just the right dance moves. Tik Tok is producing some of the biggest viral social media stars at the moment and they have the power to fuel the popularity of just about any song. Anybody who claims to be a fan of hip hop has to question the validity of the quality of music that is being popularized by the app. I am aware that some of the music being used on Tik Tok was not intended for that purpose. But you have to currently being living under a rock to not notice how rappers are making music specifically for the social media app. It use to be that if a song was deemed popular it had the ability to stand on its own. Let’s just imagine a world where an artist’s label isn’t putting millions of dollars into the marketing budget to make the song popular. But even so, it is the artist own label, using their resources to get the song on the radio or on a playlist. Very rarely did we get a song that was backed by a social media star and a dance which resulted in a social media viral sensation, shout out to Shiggy and Drake.  — There was no need for a 30 second dance clip, or some little white kid who doesn’t understand the subject matter of the song to create some freakish dance for everyone to copy. Not to mention that with popularity and viral-ness(?) comes promise of a booming music career all thanks to fans who are more interested in what the star is going to do next rather than the quality of music being made. Considering the popularity of Tik Tok and what it is doing to the rap game can we agree that the quality of music has suffered greatly?