TikTok: The Reason Behind Some of the World’s Biggest Hit Songs

 26th September 2026

Written by: Varnika Kuppannagari   Editing: Leona Lindmark  Published by: Maliha

You hear a song on TiTok one day, and the next, you hear it everywhere. On the radio, in department stores, even among your friends. Next thing you know, that same song is hitting the Billboard Hot 100. What makes a song popular? Is it the lyrics or soundtrack? Or is it the 15 second video on TikTok? In recent years, TikTok has become one of the most popular and powerful platforms for discovering music, turning unknown songs into global hits overnight. So how does TikTok do it?

Whether it’s a dance video, a comedy skit, or a challenge, music is the backbone of most TikTok videos. The fast immediate hooks of TikTok videos catch attention before the user scrolls away and the algorithmic boosts make it easier for already popular videos to go viral so when millions of users participate or interact with these videos, the streams skyrocket on platforms such as Spotify, Soundtrack or Apple Music, directly transforming chart positions. Unlike radio, where playlists are handpicked by a select few, TikTok allows anyone to make a song trend, making it that much easier for a song to go viral.

One of the biggest examples of TikTok’s influence is “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. Thanks to the “Yeehaw” challenge and various dance trends, the track went viral and within weeks it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks.  Another famous example is “Say So” by Doja Cat. A dance created on TikTok by Haley Sharpe went viral, pushing the song onto the charts.

The most groundbreaking aspect of TikTok, perhaps, may just be how it empowers independent artists. Before TikTok, artists had to have one of three things in order to push their music out there — radio play, expensive marketing campaigns or  label backing. These days, the only thing an artist needs to do is post a 15 second clip of their song, letting the music speak for itself and giving every artist a chance.