“When creating a content, users use other content as references and their go-to platform is now TikTok,” the words of Jason Park, Chief Director of SOON Entertainment, which represents a number of stars who have enjoyed viral success on TikTok, such as Dancer Aiki, Creator DanceKang and WonJeong, simply explain where TikTok stands right now. The genesis of all viral content. Whether it be a meme, dance routine or a song, anything that takes off on TikTok often goes on to gain broader popularity beyond the platform. The American music industry has already been heavily impacted by TikTok: it was TikTok where up-and-coming musicians like Gayle and Tai Verdes were discovered, and where Lil Nas X and Olivia Rodrigo were propelled to stardom. “Recent studies suggest that 75% of American TikTok users discover new artists through TikTok,” said Juyoung Park, Music Content Manager at TikTok Korea. The destination for new artists has seemingly evolved from Myspace, SoundCloud, and Youtube to TikTok.

Charlie Puth, who recently collaborated with Jung Kook of BTS, is well known for making use of TikTok for publicity. His single “Left and Right (feat. Jung Kook of BTS)” hit the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for five consecutive weeks since its release on June 24. What’s notable here is that Puth unveiled an iconic part of the song, where the sound pans from left to right, on TikTok four months prior to the official release. One week before the release, the global artist also posted a video of him and Jung Kook being on a call and recording the chorus together. The two videos garnered approximately 37 million and 35 million views as of September 2022. The same goes for “Light Switch,” which remained on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for 15 weeks after its release in January 2022: Puth revealed through TikTok how the song was ideated, what kinds of challenges he faced over the course of writing the song and how he tackled them—from five months before the official release. Only a few years ago, unveiling a new song several months before the official release date meant spoiling the fun. However, now that TikTok has become the mainstream, songs are combined with different elements such as dance, as in various forms of “dance challenges” to make it go endlessly viral. “No one said this before but now, we can find people saying things like, ‘I have heard this song on TikTok,’ or ‘this song is TikTok music,’” suggesting the massive power that TikTok enjoys today. What’s viral on TikTok ends up doing well on other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, which means TikTok can reach and influence a broader audience beyond its own. It has already been two years since Zico’s AnySong created a hot craze on TikTok with the “AnySong challenge.” In fact, ‘dance challenges,’ which are frequently initiated by idol groups and K-pop artists to promote their new songs, have become an integral component of K-pop promotion. Park Jung-eun, head of Marketing at BELIFT LAB which represents ENHYPEN, noted that “we consider short-form content at the stage of drawing up communication strategies.” There’s even an implicit rule for successful dance challenges on TikTok, says Park. “The moves have to be trendy, cool and not embarrassing, but simple enough to learn in just half an hour or so.” Lately, Music Bank—a K-pop ranking show on Korean Broadcasting System—added YouTube and TikTok viewership to its charting criteria. 

Juyoung Park remarked “Videos that use parts of the song other than the highlight used for the promotion sometimes unexpectedly go viral.” According to Jason Park, K-pop is usually promoted on TikTok not only by artists but also by TikTok users, and some creators enjoy up to a 10-20% participation rate. As such, the massively popular platform has an unusually high engagement rate when compared with other platforms. Maybe that’s why Choi Yun Hyuk, VP of BELIFT LAB defined the social app as “a channel that blurs the line between creators and consumers.” TOMORROW X TOGETHER uploaded short videos of its members reacting to dance challenge participants, using the platform’s “Duet” function, and video clips using fan-made remixes. When ENHYPEN’s “Polaroid Love” challenge caught on, the band’s members posted a video of themselves dancing to the choreography created by their fans, while group TREASURE created a video of themselves performing the “Darari” dance challenge, also created by their fans. In the K-pop scene, it has become a common promotional strategy for record labels to make compilations of TikTok challenge videos made by fans into music videos. Thus, it’s not an overstatement to say that while K-pop is a genre and industry that’s initially created by artists and labels, it is also widely recreated & adopted by its fans. While it is uncommon for artists to directly show reactions to their fans or users on other platforms, it is considered only natural for artists, fans and users to mingle and have fun using the artist’s content on TikTok.

 

“If videos associated with them go viral, artists can benefit from the publicity and the trend can even resonate further on TikTok, backed by the artists’ influence.” As noted by Juyoung Park, artists can promote content or trends about themselves to a wider audience as they jump on a TikTok trend. Moreover, “creators of the trending videos show positive reactions saying ‘my artist did my challenge’ and ‘I feel like I’m dreaming’ or ‘I cannot believe this is happening,’” according to In Jung-jin, manager of Big Hit Music’s Marketing Team. As such, TikTok also serves as an avenue where fans can check out how their favorite artists react to their content. Representatives of Big Hit Music and BELIFT LAB agreed that “TikTok is the channel of communication between artists and their fans.” TikTok can blur the line between artists and fans, which ironically allows all TikTokers to mix and mingle and join the latest trends on the platform. The “Woo Young Woo Challenge” posted by ENHYPEN recorded roughly 8 million views in just 15 hours. Also, “Jiggle Jiggle” videos of multiple K-pop artists, which trended globally, captured a staggering 26 million views to date.  

In the final analysis, whether it be a K-pop artist, a fan or TikTok challenge enthusiasts, all are identified as TikTokers as long as they are on TikTok. As a result, songs by artists that have a distinct fandom—such as K-pop songs—can become the trending “TikTok song” among not only loyal fans but also ordinary TikTok users. On TikTok, a song can be significantly reinterpreted or reinvented—regardless of the initial intention or context of the songwriter—and anyone can come across the song easily and find a new aspect of it, even if they know nothing about the song. Against this backdrop, K-pop artists can transcend geographical borders and go beyond existing K-pop enthusiasts to promote their songs. TikTok is where global memes are created, where dance, music and information spread, and where people communicate their feelings or interact with others. In the plethora of videos out there, no one can predict which will net the most engagement, and what kind of change this platform will bring. “A feel-good song with catchy dance movements can build huge followings on TikTok across regions, generations or user segments that you’d never expect, be it a K-pop song or whatever,” said Juyoung Park, because TikTok offers the “opportunity to be discovered,” which average users, TikTok creators dreaming of becoming a star as well as K-pop artists cannot afford to miss.