Original, new and classic music rise on the platform
TikTok has become a dominate force in the music industry as it has shown tremendous growth over the past year. Approximately 430 songs surpassed one billion video views as TikTok sounds in 2021 — a threefold increase over 2020. The most popular of these songs approach, and even exceed, 20 billion views on videos they soundtrack. The staggering view counts on TikTok do not exist in a vacuum, but directly translate to commercial success for trending songs and artists. Over 175 songs that trended on TikTok in 2021 charted on the Billboard Hot 100, twice as many as last year.
“TikTok opens the door to new artists, new sounds, underground and DIY scenes as well as the classic hits, connecting them with a global audience and passionate music community like never before. 2021 has been a huge year for music and for TikTok and we’ve been humbled how the industry and so many artists have partnered with us to make this magic happen across so many different countries,” says Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music. “From the Beatles to Sea Shanties, J Balvin to Abba and of course who can forget Taylor Swift’s entry – the last 12 months have provided so many music moments, inspired our community of one billion and shown the world that music starts and lives on TikTok.”
According to a recent MRC Data study, 75% of TikTok users in the US say that they use TikTok to discover new artists, and 63% say that they hear music that they’ve never heard before for the first time on the platform.
After racking up the most catalog video views of any artist in 2020, Megan Thee Stallion reigns once again in 2021. The Houston-born rapper excels at crafting quotable songs with a danceable bounce, and always provides a smile with her amiable presence on TikTok. Songs like “Cognac Queen,” “Thot Shit,” and “Cry Baby” kept her in the No. 1 spot for the second straight year.
After scoring multiple TikTok trending hits from her 2019 album Hot Pink, Doja repeated the feat with her 2021 project Planet Her, home to songs like “Kiss Me More” (TikTok’s No. 4 most-viewed song in the US), “Get Into It (Yuh),” and “Woman.” Like Megan, Doja is active on TikTok, showing off her offbeat sense of humor and interacting with fans. She placed second on the list in 2020 and 2021.
The list of Top Artists by Catalog is home to plenty of artists who broke out in a big way in 2021, notably Olivia Rodrigo, whose TikTok-trending single “drivers license” garnered the biggest Spotify debut week in history. Throughout the list, emerging artists rub shoulders with superstars, with established stars like Drake and Kevin Gates rubbing shoulders with upstarts like Coi Leray, whose “TWINNEM” and “No More Parties” made major waves.
On TikTok, vintage hits stand shoulder to shoulder with songs by rising acts and current superstars–plenty of songs from past eras of music have found new life on the platform, and some even returned to the charts. Among the most notable examples was “Rasputin,” a 1978 disco hit by German pop act Boney M, which cracked TikTok’s list of Top 20 Global Songs in 2021, and with some help from a remix by UK producer Majestic, returned to the Top 20 of the UK Singles Charts and the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. The rest of the list is peppered with evergreen classics that include Billy Joel, Salt N Pepa, Bee Gees, Run DMC and others.
TikTok is an engine of music discovery, capable of helping a new artist reach the biggest audience possible, but it’s also a great platform for celebrating the legacy of some of music’s biggest legends. In 2021, some of the most iconic acts in rock and pop history joined the platform, bringing songs from their legendary catalogs with them. In October, TikTok came together to welcome The Beatles, who officially joined the platform in conjunction with the release of Let It Be (Super Deluxe), inspiring a dramatic re-arrangement of “Eleanor Rigby” by TikTok creator Cody Fry that eventually earned a GRAMMY nomination. TikTok’s epic #RockTober celebration continued with the arrival of Led Zeppelin (celebrating the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin IV) and U2, who arrived along with their new song “Your Song Saved My Life.” Also notable was the arrival of ABBA, the giants of Swedish pop, who landed on the app ahead of Voyage, their first new album in 40 years, and have become staples on For You Pages with piano versions of their hits, celebrations of their career accomplishments, encouragement of the #chiquitachallenge, and Ian McKellen-assisted holiday greetings.
TikTok (Taylor’s Version)
With over 4.6 billion video views , the #swifttok hashtag is one of the internet’s premier destinations for Taylor Swift-related discourse. Using the tag, Swift fans on TikTok post performance and interview clips of the artist, create their own Taylor-inspired montages and videos, and for much of 2021, they used the tag to implore their fave to join the platform. This past August, Swift answered her fans’ prayers, joining the platform to help fans get excited for Red (Taylor’s Version). As fall dawned and the album approached, fans on TikTok grew more and more excited about the impending release — Swift fanned the flames with a special Red-themed TIkTok filter and tantalizing glimpses of the 10-minute “Taylor’s Version” of “All Too Well.” When the extended “All Too Well” dropped, it caused a TikTok tizzy, with over 81k video creations in the first week, helping the song become the longest single to ever top the Billboard Hot 100. Taylor was the first to thank her fans on TikTok for helping her reach her latest milestone, posting a video using an adorable trending sound to express her gratitude and disbelief.
After starting a TikTok in late 2020, Billie Eilish fully embraced it this year in the run up to her second album Happier Than Ever. She dramatically revealed her new blonde hairstyle in April, and became much more active, posting videos of her dog, giving behind the scenes looks at her “Lost Cause” music video, and clapped back at her haters. Billie was the U.S. artist who gained the most followers in 2021, with over 30 million new followers gained in the calendar year.
Music on TikTok is as diverse as its community of users, who bring their own tastes and talents to the table. In general, the distribution of genres on TikTok reflects the tastes of the public at large — rap and pop lead the way, followed by passionate subcultures who can’t get enough EDM, R&B, or indie. The biggest growth genre of the year was Latin music, which hopped from 10th on the list in 2020 to sixth this year.
The list of top songs in the United States is dominated by hip hop of all shapes and sizes — songs that sparked some of the year’s biggest dances and funniest trends. Beyond the beats and rhymes lie songs by some of TikTok’s biggest breakout stars — Olivia Rodrigo brought anthemic heartbreak, Tai Verdes offered laidback vibes, and PinkPantheress transfixed with her wistful vocals and reinterpretations of UK garage.
The top hip hop songs on TikTok are a testament to the strength of the genre and the wide-ranging tastes of the TikTok community. Every type of rap music is represented here, from turnt-up Texas trap (Megan Thee Stallion, Erica Banks, TisaKorean), to superstar showcases (Drake, Playboi Carti, Cardi B), to drawling bangers from the deep south (Kevin Gates, LPB Poody), to tongue-twisting sounds of the underground ($ILKMONEY). Though there are plenty of hits from big names, the U.S. hip-hop list is a showcase for emerging stars from all over the rap map, like the ubiquitous Coi Leray, UK drill dons Tion Wayne & Russ Williams, and Philly’s own Popp Hunna.
Lil Nas X In 2019, Lil Nas X released the biggest hit in TikTok (and Billboard) history, and 2021 still might have been his biggest year yet. He spent much of the year teasing his “baby,” his debut album Montero, encouraging fans’ creations for hits like “Industry Baby” and “That’s What I Want,” honing his peerless wit, and overall just having a good time.
Pop fans on TikTok are passionate about their faves, breathlessly anticipating their next moves. The most successful pop stars on TikTok embrace their fans’ love, feeding them tidbits of new music along with generous heapings of personality. The pop stars who made the US’s top pop songs of 2021 all stay active on the platform while crafting songs that stick in listeners minds. The mutual embrace between pop stars and pop stans creates a sense of community and collective goodwill: they celebrate the success of stars like Lil Nas X or Olivia Rodrigo or Bella Poarch — stars that made their name on the platform — as if it were their own.
Country fans and the music they love are a major part of what makes TikTok tick. The community helped propel Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” to the top reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 and a Best Country Song GRAMMY nomination, making it the biggest C\country crossover hit of the year. Other songs on the list have major TikTok stories — Luke Combs debuted a snippet of “Forever After All” in 2020 that helped the song make a No. 2 debut on the Hot 100, and the legendary Shania Twain announced her arrival on TikTok with an empowering video set to her own “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” Reba McEntire’s 2001 hit “I’m A Survivor” was revived with a younger audience, even prompting the redheaded singer to film a response with her donkeys. Ranging from classics by NGDB, to songs from emerging artists like RaeLynn, to hits by superstars like Gabby Barrett and Dan + Shay, 2021 made clear that country music starts on TikTok.
Rock music holds a special place in the hearts of the TikTok community, and the genre had a major year in 2021. The songs on TikTok’s list of Top Alternative/Rock Tracks of 2021 come from unlikelier sources. The TikTok community helped make Måneskin one of the biggest bands in the world (in addition to the megahit “Beggin,” songs like “MAMMAMIA” and “I Wanna Be Your Slave” trended on the platform), wholly embraced Willow’s new pop-punk-flavored creative direction, and transformed their appearances to the tune Kim Dracula’s cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.” Indie rock made major inroads, this year, as the community vibed to Beach Bunny’s sugar-coated emo bliss, the shambolic, bite-sized lo-fi banger of Lonely God’s “Marlboro Nights,” and Mitski’s disco-flavored “Nobody,” which helped some TikTok creators indulge the urge to run away from negativity.
Latin music was the fastest-growing genre on TikTok in 2021, expanding far beyond the Spanish language sphere and becoming a global behemoth. Though the latest reggaeton hits are well represented by the likes of Bad Bunny, Jhay Cortez, and Jowell & Randy, TikTok’s list of top Latin tracks in the U.S. in 2021 demonstrates the wide variety of Latin music that trends on the platform, from Colombian Alt-Pop (Monsieur Perine) to EDM crossover (Farruko) to Dominican dembow (El Alfa). Kali Uchis’s dreamy, bilingual pop smash “telepatía” became one of the year’s crossover hits after trending on TikTok. Ivan Cornejo’s “Está Dañada” became one of the first regional Mexican hits to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100. A notable entry into the top 5: Gipsy Kings’ rollicking “Bamboleo,” which first garnered attention upon its release in 1988 before becoming one of TikTok’s biggest Latin hits this year.
TikTok has a devoted community of R&B lovers on the platform, who appreciate the genre in all its forms. The top two tracks encompass two flavors of rap-influences, with Mooski’s soaring street melodics and Luke Nasty’s smooth flow on his 2015 hit “Might Be.” Along with Mooski, TIkTok’s biggest R&B songs of 2021 announced the arrival of new stars, like Giveon, whose tear-inducing, deep, and velvety vocals elevated hits like Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” and his own “Heartbreak Anniversary,” Kaash Paige, who set the vibe when an intimate 2019 bonus track resurfaced as a TikTok hit, and RealestK, who makes sonorous hymns for late nights. Classic styles are also represented here, including Silk Sonic’s immaculate retromania and Ciara’s string-laden, oh-so ’00s “Like A Boy” (2006).
TikTok remained one of the internet’s top destinations for livestreamed music in 2021, delivering unforgettable performances directly to phones throughout the world. Ranging from filmed concerts, to elaborate set pieces, to mold-breaking interviews, TikTok Live had fans buzzing all year long.
