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While every generation forges a unique relationship between music and listener, Gen-Z experience one that is endlessly more collaborative than that of their predecessors. TikTok’s user-led nature hands listeners total control as to how they consume and interpret a track, allowing creativity to thrive with ease. 

Once frowned upon to skip to your favourite part of the song, maintaining the idea that you must endure it in its entirety to ‘earn’ the line or adlib you love, TikTok has established a culture that disregards that notion. Perhaps blasphemous to music purists, now the attitude is to highlight the good bit and abandon the rest. Much of the app’s content revolves around zooming in on a few crucial seconds, whether it’s a specific lyric that encompasses the mood or a set of chords that evoke a certain feeling, and forging entire subcultures and inside jokes within that fragment.

This guilt-free approach to music consumption translates into the concept of ‘guilty pleasure songs’, that simply don’t exist anymore, with the FYP boasting a playlist too eclectic to fit into any club night. That’s evident in this week’s assortment of leaked unreleased music, edited lyrics, and dance routines that allow a freestyle from upcoming artists to enjoy the same level of success as a track from 2015’s biggest selling album.

Alex G - Treehouse

@dontm1ndmexo

 

♬ treehouse alex g - imsoexhaust3d

With his signature, lo-fi, coming-of-age-movie soundscape, Alex G is primed for TikTok fame. Entrenched in the teen angst, fuzzy reverb, and the false nostalgia that thrives on the platform, ‘Treehouse’ follows ‘Sarah’s success as the go-to soundtrack for wintery videos. Resonating with users in part because of the simple yet heartfelt lyricism, sung by fellow Philadelphia native Emily Yacina, the track has established a cult fanbase.

However, this is entirely accidental. ‘Treehouse’ is one of a handful of songs leaked to the internet without Alex G’s approval, now inviting floods of ignored comments to his Instagram, requesting the song’s official release to streaming services. Though Alex G is keen to separate himself from his earliest, unreleased work, the way the track is truly adored and celebrated by listeners seems to uphold his initial DIY approach to songwriting. 

Adele - Water Under The Bridge

@ecreip1 Pick me. Choose me. Love me. 😋dc: @JaQuel Knight #fyp #viral #foryoupage #adele #adele30 #megantheestallion #body #pickme #DealGuesser ♬ Water Under the Bridge - Adele

When Adele adamantly announced that she doesn’t make songs for TikTok during her press tour for 30, users responded by twerking to ‘Water Under The Bridge’. The newfound appreciation for the seven-year-old song dispels the idea that there is such thing as music specifically for the app, which in reality favours anything that sounds or feels good in the moment.

Though Adele is insisting she’s making music for their mum’s and not them, users have taken no notice and have instead taken to posting videos miming her lyrics and dropping confessions of teen romance in the caption. This exists alongside unofficial auditions to be her backup dancer, and most notably this iconic remix that imagines a universe where Megan Thee Stallion has a verse on an Adele track. You’re welcome.

Taylor Swift -The Very First Night (Taylor’s Version) 

@tkalovell

i want a gf immediately

♬ original sound - Alex Faulhaber

Reminiscent of her Tumblr takeover pre-1989, Taylor Swift has cracked TikTok’s algorithm, boasting a multitude of trending tracks in an era when entire marketing departments are assigning budgets for just one. But this is not evidence of Swift’s control, but rather the power of internet fandoms, with the user-led takeover of ‘The Very First Night (Taylor’s Version)’ allowing the track to shine.

A debate on rhyming patterns following the song’s release earlier in the month spurred TikTok’s lesbian community to claim this one as their own, editing the lyrics from “they don’t know how much I miss you” to “they don’t know how much I miss her”. Once again proving the app is fuelled by the interpretive ethos of users who have no reservations when it comes to improving or reimagining certain elements of songs, as they see fit.

FelixThe1st - Own Brand Freestyle ft. Dreya Mac & Finch Fetti

@keziah.samuelu Send us the addy 😏 Dc: @dreyamac ♬ Own Brand Freestyle - FelixThe1st & Dreya Mac

Dreya Mac’s verse on FelixThe1st’s ‘Own Brand Freestyle’ is truly the moment—you’ll struggle to scroll for ten minutes without encountering the line “I ain't never been with a baddie” at least once, accompanied by some of the smoothest yet simplest choreography seen on the app so far. Spurred by the artist filming herself dancing to the song in celebration of its release, copycat videos soon snowballed into a global challenge with 1.4million (and counting) videos. Translating into real-world success, ‘Own Brand Freestyle’ has now reached over 7.5 million streams in less than a month - a once-unthinkable feat now an attainable reality for upcoming artists.

SZA - I Hate You

@jasmineguevaraa pain #fyp #men #ihateyou ♬ original sound - Bob Ross

Proving that social media will never evolve past moody lyric posts, TikTok’s posey lip-synch videos modernise the art of putting (8) in your MSN status alongside pointed lines from the latest Paramore album. The newest, eternally relatable sentiment doing the rounds is SZA’s: “and if you wonder if I hate you, I do”.

Released in August to an anonymous Soundcloud account, the song has only just reached viral status on TikTok, with SZA acknowledging its popularity in a tweet last week. The line is attached to every thinkable situation, from “people that walk slow" to “the Sagittarius that made my life hell for two years”, allowing not-so-subtle targeted digs. A true rite-of-passage in the internet age.

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