Beyond Virality: TikTok's Impact on Sampling and Remix Culture
Join us as we delve into the nuanced world of remixes, experimentation, and musical mash-ups.
Collage property of The Culture Crypt.
Look around, Tinashe's "Nasty" is everywhere. Its remarkable chart success is no coincidence; its surge in popularity can largely be attributed to TikTok. The platform's influence on the music industry has been extensively studied, particularly since its explosive growth in 2020. Originally known as Musical.ly, it was inevitable that TikTok would play a pivotal role in launching the careers of artists like PinkPantheress, Tate McRae, Ice Spice, and many more.
Whilst most articles have focused on the viral TikTok sound-to-signed-recording-artist pipeline, we feel as if a glaringly obvious trend is being overlooked: TikTok's role in popularising unique remixes and mash-ups of songs. In a world where sampling is supposedly dead, we think that's worth investigating.
One of the many wonders of TikTok is that you can randomly go viral. Artists can release a short snippet of their music, and once it's out there, it begins to take on a life of its own, setting the scene for vlogs, creative video transitions, and more. TikTok is like listening to music in the car and staring out the window pretending you're in a music video.
Among the various aesthetics, 'cores,' and manufactured trends on TikTok, I never expected to encounter the "Skeptacore" trend (along with its song trifecta) from a few months ago.
Enter Ryder's "#skeptacore pt.3", arguably the most famous offering from the trend. Spawned from the 2016 classic "Text Me Back", this assertive, punchy grime tune explores Skepta's tunnel vision and ambition. Taken from his Konnichiwa LP, the song has held a special place in my heart, as well as many others, purely for the line that 19-year-old producer Ryder layers over a sped-up version of Flawed Mangoes Killswitch's "Lullaby". This transformation turns the song into a contemplative, gloomy track; the two vastly different songs somehow work great together.
“Sometimes I don’t text you back, but I never mean to disrespect you.”
Since amassing millions of plays on TikTok, Skepta and Ryder have released a short EP titled 48 Hours. The EP features three more remixes and two new cuts. With the release of "Gas Me Up (Diligent)", Skepta has also brought back the trend of releasing the acapella to songs so that producers can morph the track into their own personalised concoction.
Whilst 'cores' on TikTok usually refer to fashion aesthetics and curated ways of being (think ballet-core or cottage core for reference), Skeptacore, the musical trend, is derived from nightcore, a sound created by Norwegian DJ duo Thomas. S. Nielsen and Steffen Soderholm. Nightcore features speed and pitch increases in music, and over time, it has become heavily associated with anime, gaming, and online spaces, too.
Sped-up songs have become a relatively easy way for labels to repopularise old songs or capitalise on trending songs, but in many cases, they can feel lazy and overdone. In October, Omarion announced the re-release of the 2014 hit Post To Be to a less-than-warm welcome despite the song gaining traction on TikTok.
In another case of unlikely remixes, Sexyy Red's breakout single "Pound Town" received a 'but it's goth' remix by TikTok producer and creator Boyband. Sexyy Red's lazy drawl over trap beats is swapped out for Machiavellian guitar chords and vibrant adlibs.
Unlike the "Skeptacore" trilogy, the remix doesn't change the song's overall energy; in fact, it even complements it. Female rap gets a lot of criticism for its hypersexual nature, and Sexyy Red herself has drawn criticism for her ghetto aesthetic and romanticisation of toxic masculinity in her lyrics. "Pound Town" and its remix really lean into her as an anti-hero, and her outrageous adlibs ramp up the energy.
Then, there's Pink Pantheress. She could be seen as the very embodiment of TikTok's power in unearthing new music. The singer has crafted her unique sound through a diverse range of samples and angsty lyricism. In late 2021, she dropped "Break it Off", the first of a series of viral hits.
Sampling Adam F's "Circles", "Break It Off" adopts a drum and bass beat while expressing the pain of unrequited love. While the sample isn't groundbreaking, the song stands out because of its unexpected nature. The contrast between the song's melancholy lyrics and its euphoric beat is thrilling, like being at a party and feeling ignored.
The singer's third release and the opening to her debut mixtape, "Pain", proved another fan favourite. Sampling British classic "Flowers" by Sweet Female Attitude, the track strips its sample down and flips the original lyrics. While Pink Pantheress sweetly la la la's her way through the refrain, the verses paint a more wistful story.
This type of sampling has become a hallmark of Pink Pantheress' early work, with her debut mixtape To Hell With It featuring a range of samples, including the iconic "Gypsy Woman" by Crystal Waters, Bossanova bop "Outro Lugar" by Toco and Linkin Park's "Forgotten".
Pink Pantheress' music is heavily influenced by drum and bass and jungle music. This genre draws influences from Jamaican dub and reggae but also feels relatively niche in the UK. By mixing the old with the new, artists can tap into Gen Z's fascination with nostalgia while still feeding into TikTok's short trend cycle.
It would feel illegal to talk about TikTok without mentioning Doja Cat. If there's any artist who knows what it means to go viral, it's her. Although she's been about for a minute, her track record—whether that's debut single "So High", "MOOO!", "Tia Tamera", "Say So" or "Streets"—shows she's uniquely attuned to all that is random and ridiculous on the internet.
Released at the beginning of 2020, "Say So" exploded about the same time TikTok did during the first lockdown, boosted mainly by Haley Sharpe's dance challenge. Speaking of the song, however, Doja has said the lockdown ruined her love for it as everything was virtual.
As lockdown lifted and the song remained viral, she began to find new ways to perform it, in some cases changing the genre completely. At the EMAs, she performed a rock version (which I loved) and a Broadway rendition at the BBMAs.
Artists increasingly identify as genreless, yet only a few have made a complete shift, embracing unexpected genres with generally positive reception.
Take Beyoncé's Renaissance, for example. As an artist who always keeps a secret ear to the streets, Renaissance implies a rebirth or, culturally, a shift towards modernity. Beyoncé's seventh album is a house/disco album characterised by the themes of hedonism and escapism and pays homage to the 70s queer ballroom scene.
The example I'm about to make is a catch-22, but let me land! "Cuff It" was a hit in its own right but quickly had a second wind when it took TikTok by storm with—you guessed it—another dance challenge. The song also won Best R&B Song at the 2023 Grammys, even though it's definitely not R&B. In an even funnier story, an R&B remix of Cuff It was released two days prior.
Let's rewind. While "Cuff It" was going viral on TikTok simultaneously, there was a viral remix dubbed "Cuff It (Wetter Remix)". DJ Essentrick concocted a collision of "Cuff It" and Twista's "Wetter", slowing the track down and returning Beyoncé to her R&B roots. Much like Skepta and Ryder, Beyoncé released the remix as an official song and added another verse.
DJs and producers have always played an essential role in discovering and creating music. TikTok plays a perfect role in helping people accidentally discover music they might not have been exposed to before. It's hard to say if the innovation of creators and DJs on TikTok can be replicated or influenced by labels.
Would Jorja Smith's team have released a "Little Things x Gypsy Woman" mash-up without the influence of the Clock app? Beyond catapulting emerging artists into stardom, the platform reshapes the sonic experience through innovative remixes and challenging genre boundaries.
With Universal Music Group pulling their music from the platform and then swiftly reinstating it months later, one can only wonder: what's next for TikTok's future in the music industry?