As has been impossible to miss on our feeds, Taylor Swift has today graduated from New York University with a Doctorate of Fine Arts, addressing the 2022 graduating class and performing the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ as part of the graduating ceremony. The artist has today hit another milestone – one that can be credited to the influence of TikTok on the overarching music industry. As @PopBase tweeted, “4 years after release, ‘Don’t Blame Me’ by Taylor Swift earns its biggest streaming day ever on Spotify with 739k streams.” The album ‘reputation’, which the song was featured on, was released on the 10th November, 2017.
The record breaking streaming numbers come as no surprise after a remix of the song went viral on TikTok. The 15-second remix focuses on the lyrics “oh lord save me, my drug is my baby, I’ll be using for the rest of my life” and has been commonly laid over romantic scenes from movies and TV shows, such as Season 2 of Bridgerton and animate film Tangled. The remix has seen 29.4k videos created at the time of publication, despite only having been made a month ago, the original song itself having only seen 16k videos created since the app launched. The sound, between its top five videos, have a combined 13 million views. The TikTok creator, who reported the news using the sound, has seen 1.5 million views, since posting earlier today.
@hopinitgetstoyou Tik tok’s impact is crazy to me #taylorswift #swiftie #fyp #foryoupage #foryou
♬ why are people using this omg – 🍂
While the influence of TikTok on the music industry is nothing new (as has been evident since at least the 2021 Grammy Awards), the impact of success on the app has been increasingly important for the careers of new and veteran artists alike. From Gayle and Peach PRC as new artists, to groups such as Glass Animals who, thanks to the virality of 2019 hit ‘Heat Waves’ saw a ‘Best New Artist’ nomination at the 2022 Grammy Awards, despite having formed in 2010 and having released three studio albums prior.
As for Taylor Swift, there are few records that remain unbroken by the chart-topping, award winning artist – she can now add TikTok virality to the list.