Is TikTok Ruining the Quality of Modern Music?
By Kat Willson ‘26, Editor-in-Chief; Edited by Isabella Perco ‘26, Staff Editor
If you’re into music like me, I’m sure you’ve heard the argument about whether TikTok is ruining music. Whether you agree with this argument or not, you can definitely agree that TikTok appears to have changed the music industry.
The number of times I have come across TikToks by small artists expressing their need for a snippet of their song to become popular, so their record label will release the song in full, is enormous. While artists and labels have always chased the next big song, this feels different; I’m sure most of us can listen to an album by an artist and notice which songs are designed for the radio. However, these songs had already been released, with the artist and label hoping they would become popular. Now, it is complicated for artists to release music without interest from the public, which I think is detrimental to the music scene. Specifically, using TikTok to garner interest in a song leads to many artists creating the same type of music - I am SICK of the screaming into the mic pretending to have a vocal range. This is directed at Benson Boone.
My favourite part of listening to music is discovering artists I like, regardless of genre; I’m sure I could recommend an artist for almost any genre (test me if you see me). I’m a bit worried that the potential popularity of a song is making it harder to release music, which will ultimately simplify what's out there. While this is highly unlikely to happen, I’m anxious, and the thought has crossed my mind more than once.
Editor's Notes: From what I can tell, this is primarily a uniquely North American issue (specifically the utilization of TikTok in the release process of a song).
The most widely discussed issue regarding modern music and TikTok is the disparity in quality between the snippet released on TikTok and the actual song. What I mean is that the part of the song an artist will release before the song’s official release tends to be the bridge or chorus. It’s catchy and good, and then you'll go listen to the whole song on Spotify, and the song will seem…lacking compared to the snippet. While the bridge and chorus are meant to be the catchiest part of the song, there is a noticeable drop-off in the rest.
Let’s compare the song What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction (released in 2011) to the TikTok popular song Beautiful Things by Benson Boone (which came out to torture me in 2024). What Makes You Beautiful is a vastly popular song, and launched One Direction’s short (as a band) but widely successful music career. It's catchy and easy to sing along to, a perfect radio song. The most significant difference between these two songs is that "What Makes You Beautiful" is a cohesive song that remains true to itself throughout, which cannot be said for Beautiful Things. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but when a song’s identity changes for the chorus, and conveniently it’s the part of the song advertised on TikTok, this screams as fake. The verses are a lot slower; while still very poppy, it is a chill song. Then the pre-chorus hits, and an electric guitar, bass (I’m almost positive; I’m an annoying music listener, not a musician), and drums are added. Next, he starts screaming into the mic, which is his version of high notes, I gather. The reason I say that the song’s identity changes when these don’t sound like out-of-the-ordinary changes is that, to me, the song isn’t cohesive. Next, none of the elements in the chorus are used in the verses. This critique probably stems from the fact that most of the artists I listen to are bands. Now, to bring this back to One Direction and 'What Makes You Beautiful,' that song is relatively simple production-wise (or at least to my untrained ear). Still, I love the song because it’s not pretending to be something it isn’t - a catchy radio hit.
Rounding back to the argument this article is meant to be about (not my dislike of Benson Boone’s music): Is TikTok ruining the quality of modern music? While I am inclined to say yes, that feels like an unfair statement. While I personally am not a fan of many artists that are big on TikTok, I’m sure they are good artists in their own right. Alex Warren seems fine if that’s the music you’re into. Putting aside TikTok, many artists are releasing great music, whether they are new to the scene or have been around for a while.
Editor's Note: I have many artist recommendations. Some of my favourites at the moment are Blossoms, Inhaler, The Kooks, and Sam Fender.
My argument is born out of frustration with the type of music that is widely popular at the moment (a vast generalization, I know). There are so many fantastic artists releasing music right now who haven’t been “TikTok-ified.” While this article focuses on modern music, if all else fails and you're tired of everything currently being released, you can always turn to older music. But if you insist you hate everything being currently released and you’re not a boomer, I think you just want to be different - sorry, not sorry, Twitter.
