Getty ImagesNasty – a slinky, innuendo-laden jam by US R&B star Tinashe – has beaten hit songs by Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish to be named the UK’s TikTok song of the summer.
The song soundtracked more than 10 million videos on the video sharing app, where the standout lyric “match my freak” became a popular catchphrase.
But in a sign that TikTok’s stranglehold on the music industry may be waning, the song only got to number 66 in the UK charts, and 61 in the US.
By contrast, last year’s song of the summer on TikTok, Dave and Central Cee’s Sprinter, sold 1.2 million copies and spent 10 weeks at number one.
Tinashe’s song became a viral sensation in April, when its sensuous groove was superimposed on a video of bespectacled British dancer Nate de Winer.
That edit has been watched more than 13 million times, with De Winer’s dance recreated by everyone from Christina Aguilera to Janet Jackson.
It was even spliced into footage of King Charles revealing his official portrait at Buckingham Palace in May.
Tinashe, whose career was held back by record label shenanigans, suddenly found herself with a hit, 10 years after her debut single.
“I was saying this to my mom the other day, 10 years later, who would have thought?” she told Variety magazine.
“I definitely think that everything that I’ve done up to now, all those grinding it out moments where I just had my head down and was just putting out the best music I could and being really consistent and making great visuals and things like that, it’s all led up to this.”
Getty ImagesOther artists who had breakout success on TikTok this summer included British singer-songwriter Blood Orange, whose vibey 2011 single Champagne Coast enjoyed an unexpected resurgence; and pop star Sabrina Carpenter, whose breakout hits Espresso and Please Please Please both made the app’s Top 10.
TikTok’s Top 10 songs of the summer (UK)
- Tinashe – Nasty
- Blood Orange – Champagne Coast
- Tommy Richman – Million Dollar Baby
- Leostaytrill & Mr Reload It – Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)
- Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please
- Billie Eilish – Birds Of A Feather
- Central Cee & Lil Baby – Band4Band
- Myles Smith – Stargazing
- Jordan Adetunji – Kehlani
- Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
‘Breakout virality has become rare’
Tinashe’s song was also TikTok’s second-biggest song of the summer globally.
The number one spot in that chart went to Chilean artists’ Cris MJ and Floyymenor for their infectious reggaeton track, Gata Only, which was used in more than 15 million videos.
TikTok’s Top 10 songs of the summer (Global)
- FloyyMenor and Cris MJ – Gata Only
- Tinashe – Nasty
- Tommy Richman – Million Dollar Baby
- Billie Eilish – Birds Of A Feather
- Sevdaliza – Alibi
- Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please
- El Alfa, Nfasis – Este
- Lay Bankz – Tell Ur Girlfriend
- Luis R Conriquez, Neton Vega – Si No Quieres No
- Karol G – Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido
TikTok’s list, based on its own data, shows how viral success doesn’t always translate to wider success.
Tinashe’s song has yet to sell the equivalent of 200,000 copies in the UK – the threshold for a silver disc.
Three other tracks featured in the UK’s “songs of the summer” have failed to crack the official Top 40.
The shift reflects TikTok’s declining emphasis on music, as it focuses more on long-form videos and directing users to its shopping platform.
Getty Images“Breakout music virality has become rare,” wrote the New York Times’ pop critic Jon Caramanica earlier this year.
“When marketers and publicists realized that TikTok was their best hope for attention, they swarmed, turning the app into a conventional promotional dust bowl.”
The app has also been harmed by a spat with Universal, one of the world’s three largest record companies.
In January, the company pulled millions of songs from TikTok after talks over royalty payments broke down.
Suddenly, users (and Universal’s own artists) found that their most popular videos had gone silent.
Although the dispute was resolved in May, the experience made some creators cautious about using commercial music in their videos.
TikTok is stil vital for artists promoting their work – and the roll-out of Charli XCX’s zeitgeist-gobbling Brat album was masterfully conducted on the app.
But, crucially, it was only one component of a bigger marketing campaign.
The days of TikTok breaking another artist like Lil Nas X, Doja Cat or PinkPantheress may not be over, but the likelihood has diminished.
