On Dec. 3, 2018, 19-year-old Atlanta pop artist Lil Nas X opened up TikTok and uploaded his new song, “Old Town Road.” The artist was used to making viral content on the internet, and that savvy was put to good use when his country trap tune quickly started taking over the social media app. Over the next few months, hundreds of thousands of TikTok users turned the song’s chorus into a meme, posting videos of themselves drinking “yee yee” juice and wearing cowboy getups.
“When I became a trending topic on there, it was a crazy moment for me,” he told Time magazine. “A lot of people will try to downplay it, but I saw it as something bigger.”
How could he not? By March 2019, Lil Nas X had signed a record deal with Columbia Records. A month later, the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It subsequently became the subject of controversy when Billboard pulled it from its country charts. That April, Nas X collaborated with Billy Ray Cyrus on a remix, which debuted atop the charts. The remix stayed at #1 for 19 straight weeks. Thanks to TikTok, “Old Town Road” became one of the biggest phenomenons in the music industry.
Since then, many artists have followed Lil Nas X’s blueprint for success, turning TikTok into a hit-making hub. The app has produced viral new sensations (Doja Cat’s “Say So,” Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” GAYLE’s “abcdefu”) and even revived older songs (Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”), giving them unlikely second acts. No longer just a vehicle for dance videos, it has revolutionized how we discover, share, and interact with music, amplifying streaming totals, elevating talent from obscurity, and aiding awards recognition.
To chronicle its impact, Collabstr used data from Billboard to explore how TikTok is influencing popular music and the music industry at large. Data comes from the top 50 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and the TikTok Billboard Top 50, which ranks songs based on creations, video views, and engagement.
