I had just come home for Thanksgiving break—as per usual, my sixteen-year-old sister gave me her high school life debriefing.  Her style changed—black winged eyeliner, an ear cuff, doc martens.  All the hallmarks of the teenage “edgy phase.”  She said, “you should listen to these songs—I found them on TikTok!” And the rest was history.

TikTok, a popular video-sharing app, took over the world, with over 150 countries participating worldwide.  As someone from the earlier years of Generation Z, my friends and I refer to it as “the next generation’s vine.”  Like Vine, TikTok promotes short and often funny videos on a social networking platform.  One thing that TikTok has that Vine didn’t is music—and it’s usually not mainstream.  Almost all of my sister’s song recommendations definitely fall into the indie genre of music, with some leaning into pop or rock.  Her Spotify playlist includes songs by Girl in Red, Clairo, Cuco, Beach Bunny, Wallows, Cage the Elephant, Dayglow, Mac DeMarco, and more.  But “indie” music is a phenomenon often concentrated within a specific community—often young, alternative, artsy college-kid crowds.  So why is it now so mainstream that young high schoolers and even middle schoolers are now listening to it?

“This genre is a very self-expressive style of music and TikTok filled with the self-expressive, so the people who make TikToks would probably listen to indie/alternative, and then use the music in their videos, allowing their audience to discover the song,” said sophomore TikTok user Jackson Gordon.  “There is a desire for individuality and being a trendsetter so people try to find independent artists that not many people listen to and put their audience on to them.”  In an era of sameness crafted in part by social media, TikTok challenges the notion of fitting in.

This newfound popularity of the genre is tied to the songs’ lyric and sonic compositions.  The indie-pop sub-genre appeals to teens as it's often upbeat; perfect sing-along lyrics that are moody and youthful at the same time.  All this layered over electric guitar riffs and a beat, and you’ve created the perfect, modern music concoction.  A scene that was primarily niche now has a vast audience, a lot of it thanks to TikTok.  “The style is reaching a more mainstream audience because the normal genres in the industry are becoming saturated,” said Thomas Chadwick, a sophomore Visual Media Arts student and singer/guitarist of local indie band Sunsetta.  “TikTok has a massive role in deciding which songs blow up. My friend went to a Spotify convention, and they said that if a song isn’t on TikTok, it’s most likely never going to get attention from major labels.” 

The genre is contributing to a social shift among the latter half of Gen Z.  One in which the “quirky” and offbeat are now acceptable, and even trendy.   So the next time you are scrolling down Tik Tok, pay attention to those songs that get stuck in your head—you may be supporting a new artist on the rise.