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Like many other musicians, Ryan Guldemond from the Canadian indie band Mother Mother experienced a very uneventful 2020. However, towards the end of the year, the lead singer noticed a sudden increase in streams for songs from the band’s 2008 album O My Heart. This trend continued day after day, and it was clear that something unusual was happening. After some investigation, they discovered that the spike in streams was due to TikTok, a platform they were not familiar with. Guldemond expressed his surprise, saying, “It was like discovering a whole other world of people who were enjoying our older Mother Mother songs.”
According to Guldemond, in 2008, Mother Mother faced challenges in getting their music played on the radio and gaining a large international fanbase. This is often referred to as the “Canadian curse” where Canadian artists struggle to break out globally. As a result, they were accustomed to operating at a modest level. However, with the help of TikTok, they now have 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify, almost twice as many as popular Canadian band Arcade Fire. One of their songs, Hayloft, which tells a peculiar story of rural violence, has accumulated over 400 million streams – more than any song by REM (except for Losing My Religion). In February, after five years since performing for 350 people at London’s 100 Club, Mother Mother will headline Wembley Arena, which has a capacity of 12,500.
TikTok is like a different country with its own unique ways. The popularity of this social media platform, where users can make and share videos up to three minutes long, has caused Miguel’s 2011 song “Sure Thing” to reach the UK Top 10 even though it was released 12 years ago. It has also made Edison Lighthouse’s 1970 hit “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” a popular choice among Generation Z, and has given the once niche Californian band Duster more monthly listeners than the combined numbers of Sonic Youth and Pavement. The reason for this sudden success remains a mystery.
Although TikTok is a crucial aspect of a record label’s marketing strategy, genuine viral success cannot be artificially created. This has challenged traditional industry beliefs about what makes a song successful. For more mature artists who may not be the target demographic for TikTok, having their song go viral can feel like a pleasant but unexpected surprise. When TikTok unexpectedly shines a spotlight on you, how does it feel and how can you capitalize on that fortunate stroke of luck to revive your career?
In the summer of 2022, Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer of I Monster noticed a sudden surge in popularity for their 2004 EP track “Who Is She?”. This track was now surpassing their only Top 40 hit, “Daydream in Blue”. After some investigation, they discovered that it had gained traction on TikTok, with popular influencers like Charli D’Amelio and Kim Kardashian using it in their videos. Despite never having heard of D’Amelio and only being vaguely familiar with Kardashian, the duo were surprised to see their music being used in this way. The dark and eerie track, featuring a sample from a Hammer horror film, was well-suited for transformation videos and edits of scenes from the popular Netflix show “Wednesday”. This sudden resurgence has brought I Monster more monthly listeners on Spotify than well-known artists such as Wolf Alice, Björk, and the Stone Roses. Gosling shares that “Who Is She?” was never released as a single because there was no interest in it at the time, but it has now gained popularity with a whole new generation after 20 years.
Daniel Hunt, a member of the electro-pop group Ladytron, shares a similar experience of witnessing their 2002 hit “Seventeen” surpass their long-standing streaming champion “Destroy Everything You Touch”. Hunt, who currently resides in Brazil, explains that “Seventeen” had not been performed live by the band for quite some time until it unexpectedly made its way into the Top 10 of the viral charts. He describes the feeling as eerie, seeing the old record cover alongside newer artists like Little Simz, completely out of its original time period. Due to the song’s synth-pop style becoming more popular through artists like the Weeknd, many listeners mistakenly believed it was a recent release. According to Hunt, this newer audience has no concept of time and everything seems to happen in an instant, making them a part of this constant state of “instant everything”.
Keane’s Tim Rice-Oxley embodies the role of a traditional Victorian father in regards to internet culture, to the point where he was unaware of the impact of the band’s 2004 debut single, “Somewhere Only We Know,” until they performed at festivals last summer. Despite not being considered “totally old,” the band has been together for over 20 years and has noticed their audience aging with them. However, at recent performances, they have noticed a significant increase in younger audience members, leading Rice-Oxley to inquire about the reason for this. He was then introduced to the popular social media platform, TikTok, which has played a role in bringing younger fans to their music.
It could be argued that Somewhere Only We Know did not require extra support. It was already popular at the time and a consistent standout during live performances. In 2013, Lily Allen covered the song for the John Lewis Christmas advert. However, it wasn’t until recently that the song joined the exclusive group of songs on Spotify with over 1 billion streams. Rice-Oxley is amazed by its quick and massive rise in popularity. A few years ago, the band had a few songs that were equally well-known as crowd favorites, but Somewhere Only We Know has surpassed them all. It has become a universally known song.
Upon exploring TikTok for the first time, Rice-Oxley found pleasure in the abundance of bedroom cover versions, but was perplexed by the trend of accelerating the original recording. He confesses, “It’s puzzling. I’m not sure if it adds more energy to the song or if people simply want to get through it faster.” His tone suggests shock, “Perhaps they believe it’s an improvement.”
TikTok’s music preferences are functional: songs tend to gain popularity when they are associated with a specific format or message. As a result, some songs take on entirely new meanings through the collective thinking of the community. For instance, Mother Mother’s Hayloft has become an anthem for coming out among trans and non-binary users, while Tom Odell’s 2013 hit Another Love is now seen as a protest song, used to accompany acts of resistance in countries like Ukraine and Iran. Hunt discovered that Seventeen’s satirical take on the fashion world (“They only want you when you’re 17 / When you’re 21, you’re no fun”) struck a chord among young women on TikTok. “Most of the responses were like, ‘I’m 21 now!’ But within that, there were also some darker, more unsettling videos about their struggles and experiences at this age. It became overwhelming for us to see so much of that. We realized that this content was not intended for us, but for them.”
TikTok pays out to rights holders based on the number of videos that use a song rather than the popularity of individual videos, so the more creativity you inspire, the more money you stand to make. I Monster’s Honer, whose song features in around 56,000 videos, says of his TikTok earnings: “It’s not a life-changing amount of money but it’s a decent wedge.”
Significant financial gains are obtained in the long run, as popularity on TikTok leads to increased activity on other platforms and more prestigious performance opportunities. While the majority of TikTok users may not delve further into an artist’s catalog beyond their viral hit, even a small percentage of the millions of new listeners can have a major impact. After nearly two decades since their last live performance, I Monster has been approached by booking agents. They have also re-released their album “Who Is She?” with alternate versions and have been inspired to create a new album. “The upcoming single is titled ‘Who Is He?’,” jokes Honer.
Finding ways to capitalize on TikTok’s popularity is not always straightforward. Despite Tom Odell’s song “Another Love” receiving over 2 billion streams on Spotify, it was only recently that he returned to the Top 40 with his single “Black Friday”. On the other hand, Miguel has not been able to replicate the success of his viral hit “Sure Thing” with his subsequent singles.
Ladytron’s Hunt recounts that the label requested us to share videos expressing gratitude, but we questioned the necessity of interfering with the organic and unique nature of the situation. Despite offers from major labels to use the track, we chose not to actively promote a two-decade-old record as our focus was on promoting our new record instead.
However, Mother Mother explicitly acknowledged the resurrection of Hayloft by creating a sequel, Hayloft II, which has since inspired 56,000 videos. “It was my mistake,” jokes Guldemond. “It may seem like something a corporate executive came up with, but I saw it as a fantastic creative experiment. The song is a story and it demanded to be continued.” More importantly, the revival of O My Heart has reignited the band’s artistic confidence. “That album was where we felt most authentic, free from the pressures of the music industry,” he explains. “The fact that people connected with our music encouraged us to return to our strengths.”
If you were to inquire with an artist about the specifics of how their song became widely popular, you would likely receive a response akin to William Goldman’s famous quote about Hollywood: no one truly knows. I Monster cannot comprehend how D’Amelio came across “Who Is She?”, just as Rice-Oxley cannot explain why “Somewhere Only We Know” suddenly gained massive popularity in Indonesia. Although he wishes to believe that the song’s quality resonated with listeners, Rice-Oxley humbly admits that he cannot fathom the extent to which it went viral. He suspects that there may be someone attempting to uncover the mystery.
Fifteen to 20 years ago, these artists relied on the approval of radio stations and MTV in order to conform to established beliefs about which songs would be successful. However, on TikTok, a hit can come in any form. Guldemond acknowledges this as a potentially positive change, but also acknowledges that without any gatekeepers or set formula, it can create chaos. As a band who has benefitted from TikTok’s unexpected success, we can see it as a freeing opportunity. However, for new artists releasing their work into the vastness of the internet, it can be intimidating.
In 2019, if he had predicted that Hayloft would gain popularity on TikTok, would anyone have believed him? “I don’t think so,” he replies. “But now, it seems like anything is possible on TikTok.”
Source: theguardian.com
