On TikTok, Pop Music Speeds Up

Popcast

The New York Times

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Music

3.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A 12-year-old Miguel song has re-entered the Billboard charts, demonstrating how the app reshapes listening habits. Guest: Billboard's Elias Leight.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the New York Times Popgast, your extended boiler house remix of music, news,
0:10.8	and criticism.
0:12.0	Can I kick it?
0:13.0	Yes, you can.
0:14.0	I'm your host, John Caramagico.
0:25.6	You're talking this week about fast music.
0:29.2	If you were listening to what we were just playing, and you were like, damn, that sounds
0:33.0	quick.
0:34.7	That was the Arizona Tears plug and B remix of Watch This by Lil Luzzy Furt, which was
0:40.1	a kind of a blippy billboard hit a couple months ago.
0:44.9	And I think that was one of the moments where I think that's been happening a lot on TikTok
0:50.7	cracked through to a broader awareness, which is songs are not songs anymore.
0:57.4	Songs are entry points, songs are tools, songs are raw material that can be manipulated.
1:06.7	And I think what we have seen in recent weeks and months is that sometimes the manipulation
1:12.8	is more popular than the song itself.
1:15.6	So this Uzi song, which was not a song, became something of a viral hit and became billboard
1:22.9	successful, not in its original form.
1:26.6	That is a reflection of a lot of things that have been happening with the music industry
1:31.2	lately.
1:32.6	And Universal Warner music, et cetera, have now been doubling down and saying, Hey, you crazy
1:39.0	kids on TikTok, you want fast music, we will give you fast music.
1:42.3	And it been putting up their own playlists, if I'm not mistaken, not marked as label
	...

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