Recently, Canadian rapper Drake's new song "Toosie Slide" became popular. On the well-known short video platform TikTok, people danced with this song as the background music. At present, the #Toosie Slide has received 3.4 billion views, and the song itself has topped the Billboard singles chart.
The dance was created by Drake with Internet celebrity dancer Toosie. Toosie quickly became popular after posting the dance video on TikTok, and people rushed to imitate it and upload a video of themselves dancing the dance by participating in the "Dance Challenge". Soon, Drake released the song MV and danced the dance himself. In the video, Drake strictly follows the home directive, wearing a mask and gloves like most people do. "Right foot lift, left foot slip/left foot lift, right foot slip..." He sang in the foyer and demonstrated the movement.
The dance may seem magical, but it's a brilliant social media marketing strategy for Mandy Lavin of Burstimo, a digital music marketing agency. These easy-to-learn dance steps are perfect for a new wave of video social platforms, especially TikTok.
As a globally popular app, TikTok allows users to create 15-second or one-minute video clips, usually with background music. Last year, it was second only to WhatsApp in terms of global downloads. TikTok has more than a billion users, and it has gradually become the cradle of the popularity of anonymous artists. Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," Doya Kate's Say So, and Arizona Zelwas's Roxanne all became popular from here, just as before the Internet era, artists could become famous by making commercials.
Sammy Andrews, CEO of Civic Digital, an entertainment consultancy, said: "TikTok offers a whole new way of interacting. Not only can people interact with their fans, but they can also interact with creative creators who love to dance. ”
"Don't you want to dance with me?"
Drake's dances are often popular. In 2015, he released a dance video of the song "Hotline Bling," in which clumsy steps created countless internet pop memes. As for "Toosie Slide" this time, Lavin believes that the design is very subtle, it not only continues Drake's dance pop culture, but also directly touches the hearts of young fans with new music.
Dance is a core element of TikTok's successful operation. In 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, acquired the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, while also absorbing its vast music database. Since then, dance music such as "Get Down", "Renegade" and "Cannibal" has become popular.
Andrews said: "This is a new field of discovery and interaction with music. In other apps, people struggle to find music that appeals to them, and TikTok offers a completely different model from other platforms. ”
Lavin said Toosie Slide is a "perfect example" written specifically for the platform. "Even if it is not explicitly stated, its simple lyrics are enough to guide people to dance a dance." This strategy seems to be very effective. Two weeks after the video's release, the video under the popular hashtag #Toosie Slide has seen more than 240,000 views (including Justin Bieber's three challenges) and is now 3.4 billion. By any measure, this number is impressive.
"There's no doubt that record labels around the world are actively looking for ways to include TikTok as part of their song sales campaigns." Andrews said.
Tik, Tok, Detonation?
Last month, The Weeknd's single "Blinding Lights" began to take the TikTok all the way, and now the song has topped the music charts as one of the singer's most popular tracks. Lavin said these brought The Weeknd 64 million Spotify listeners, something he simply hadn't seen in his career.
One of the most famous examples of this imperceptible snowball effect is rapper Nasrell. X's Old Town Road. Before the single with Billy Ray Cyrus went viral, Nass Lee The original version of X has already detonated TikTok. The creators accompanied the song in their videos transforming into cowboy boys and cowboy girls.
"Old Town Road" continues to become popular, nas · X is no longer a college dropout who can only work on the floor at his sister's house. He set off a bidding war between mainstream labels, and he was eventually signed off by Columbia Records.
In an interview with Time magazine last year, Nas said: "Maybe I should give TikTok some reward, they won the song." ”
"Rappers can't ignore the rise of TikTok, and I believe That Toosie Slide was created to break into this market, and has nothing to do with pandemic isolation." It's a coincidence. Freelance composer Thomas Hobbes said, "Like his idol Jay-Z, Drake knows how to spot trends in young artists and keep up with the times." ”
But like artists in the 1960s who launched dance music like "The Twist," "Mashed Potato" and "TheLoco-Motion" to capture the dance trends of the time, Hobbes reminded Drake and other stars that they should "add some energy to those trends, not just go with the flow."
Source: Northland Network