Musicians on how their Tik Tok songs went viral (without them)

If you’ve spent time on TikTok during lockdown, it’s likely that you’ve noticed the same songs on a loop. Suddenly, you find yourself singing 'Wipe It Down' while you're in the kitchen or humming 'Stupid' when someone offends you.

Whether it’s POV videos or dances, under-the-radar musicians suddenly found their songs catapulted them into the spotlight, with cool teens and influencers everywhere making videos to their songs millions of times over. Though you might not know the musician behind you're favorite TikTok hit, you still can't get it out of your head.

We spoke to musicians about what it’s like having your song go viral - without you in the video.

Saweetie’s songs are inescapable on TikTok. Scroll for 60 seconds (the max amount for a TikTok video) and you’ll likely listen to 'My Type' or 'Tap In,’ which have been used for everything from dance challenges to what Saweetie calls “more of a humorous challenge.”

Saweetie, 26, says her favorite ‘Tap In’ video (the song has more than four million) is from the trend’s creator, 16-year-old @yodamnmomma, who now has 377,000 followers. After she created the dance, huge influencers tried it, including Addison Rae, who has 54.9 million followers (by the time you read this, she'll almost certainly have hit 55 million at least.

Saweetie said she “can't wait for the super creative ones to take off,” adding, “I love when folks just have it as background music- that's how you know they really like the song.” She has since hit one million TikTok followers but jokes that she still needs “that milli in the bank!”

The Banners song ‘Someone To You’ has made the English artist rethink the song after more than 450,000 people used it on the app. He said, “I used to hate playing this song live because it's hard to sing. It's really fast and there's no space to breathe. Then I started to appreciate how happy it made people when we played it and now I love it."

He joked that he’d love to see Queen Elizabeth use his song next but unfortunately, she has yet to join TikTok (none of the Royal Family members have joined thus far although we'd love to see them try the 'Tap In' dance). He said, “I don't want to be unpatriotic but maybe we could have a different national anthem for a bit and I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. She's probably got an Instagram for her Corgis.”

He explained that TikTok has allowed him to connect with fans in a different way, especially during the pandemic. He said, “Making music, like everything else (except maybe owning Amazon.com) is so strange at the moment. Like all art, it's so dependent on human interaction but with there being no live shows the only sense of interaction you have are numbers on a computer screen."

After ‘Someone to You’ went Gold in America and Canada last week, he wasn't able to celebrate with fans in real life but "you can see people’s faces whilst they're interacting with your music and that makes a huge difference. I didn't realize I needed it until I experienced it. It helps to make it all human again.”

Ashnikko’s song ‘Stupid’ went mega-viral and has been used for everything from dramatic makeup music videos to dances, with one featuring Miley Cyrus - and she spawned a TikTok campaign with Beats, the #BeatsDaisyChallenge, which now has over 6.3 billion views. She incorporated some of the TikToks into her latest music video.

She said that while she doesn’t remember the exact video she first saw used with her song, she thinks “it was some little e-boy biting his lip in an attempted thirst trap,” causing her to throw her phone across the room and yell, “This song is not for you!”

She’s been recognized once from the app. She said, “One time I was on my period, crying in a grocery store buying loads of snacks and some girl came up to me to ask for a picture” and joked that “once she saw my tearstained face she just gave me a hug and walked away.”

And while she’s “not really in-the-know about TikTok creators” because she tries “not to be on social media too much because it gives me brain damage,' she says, the song “really opened my eyes to how sick the platform can be.”

PUBLIC’s song ‘Make You Mine’ went viral with couples sharing romantic videos with the song as the soundtrack - even though the bridge does refer to a break-up. The band wasn’t quite sure what TikTok was before they joined but they quickly amassed more than 250,000 followers. It certainly helped that Charli D’Amelio, Avani, Jennifer Lopez and Joe Jonas all posted the song.

John from PUBLIC said, “I just remember thinking it was funny that a lot of the videos had nothing to do with the premise of the song. I was fascinated, confused, and I guess - entertained.” He says he hasn’t been recognized from TikTok yet, explaining that “the world is much more familiar with the song ‘Make You Mine’ than they are with the individual members.”

Ben from Public said his favorite video is one where a college football player proposes to his girlfriend on the field. He said, “After that went viral, we actually got to surprise the couple at their homecoming game a few weeks later, and perform ‘Make You Mine’ live at halftime.”

Rapper Lil Keed, 22, had two songs go viral on TikTok in 2019 and they’re still going strong. ‘HBS’ and ‘Snake’ both spawned their own dance crazes.

He said he knew ‘HBS' had “reached another level” when he saw Shaquille O'neal and Lebron James' son Bronny doing the dance. He’s hoping Beyonce is up next (don’t we all want Queen B on TikTok?) and vows it would “would break the Internet.”

TikTok has given him a new way to engage with his audience. He said, “There are a lot of kids and people on TikTok and they're on it every day - all types of kids from around the world. People I might never meet in real life, people that probably saw me or heard me for the first time on there. I watch all the videos, sometimes repost them, to show people I appreciate it and am tuned in.”

MASN, 19, is a singer/songwriter whose song ‘Psycho’ first went viral in the Fortnite community. He said, “The song had like 1,000 videos of people talking about things that ‘drove them psycho’ and it was cool to see them all interacting with my lyrics,” calling the experience “surreal.” He’s been recognized in his home state of Utah from the song’s popularity.

His next single, ‘Hate Me,’ already has thousands of loops and a Charli D’Amelio co-sign.

BMW Kenny’s song ‘Wipe It Down’ is inescapable on the app. Users wipe down their mirrors and transform into someone else (either with an outfit change or makeup update) as they wipe it down.

After BMW Kenny saw the challenge started by Liane V he was “overjoyed” because “it was so creative, I knew it was going to take off.”

The song then hit 200 million streams, with celebrities including Will Smith and Jason Derulo taking part in the trend.

While he hasn’t been recognized from the song’s popularity yet he promises that after his new comes out “they might know me after that for sure.”