The algorithm has chosen. My relationship with TikTok and how it's influenced music discovery.

For those of you living under a rock, the radio is old news when it comes to music discovery. It's all about getting viral in a way that doesn't require an antibiotic. Say what you will about companies monitoring your every interest and analyzing down to the second how invested you are on a given topic, it has made a few things signficantly streamlined, shopping for things you didn't know you needed and discovering music. Or at the very least TikTok is helping artists gain traction where normal industry standards fail. Can I point you in the direction of Best New Artist Grammy Winner Wet Leg?

Wet Leg's first viral hit Chaise Longue scrolled across my For You Page when it was being performed live in what appeared to be a basement with around 5,000 views at the time I saw it. Incredibly stripped down and edgey. The vocal delivery of each line of lyrics was offputting and softly abbrasive. I knew the algorithm could give me what I didn't know I needed, but to give the music world a Grammy winner is a whole different ballgame.

Fast foward a little ways and sandwiched in between a clip of a guy putting rubber bands on a gallon of milk and a compilation of Scrubs tv clips was one minute snippet a guy and gal (at the time couldn't tell if it was a white stripes type situation or legit brother and sister) singing the increbily soulful song about disappointing your parents and living with regret. "My momma always said that I'd regret, if I ever got a tattoo". The song is titled Who's Laughing Now by a band I would call friends, Durry . Though they may not have gotten to the level of overnight fame that Wet Leg recieved, they did venture out on a headlining tour, in cities and states they had never been to, shortly after the song gained huge numbers on the clock app. When I saw them perform in July of 2022, their Spotify monthly listener count was around 60,000. Since then, roughly 8 months leter, they have grown to nearly doubling that count, with an impressive 110k monthly listeners.

I just want to rattle off a couple other artists I have been able to add into heavy rotation thanks to all powerful alorithm of TikTok. After a clip of a pianist impresses unsuspecting viewers on Omegle, I became obessed with Ethan Bortnick's track engravings.

I will admit, the hipster in me has to point out I have been on the Gravy Train since before his bop Oops!!! went viral. In fact, in 2021 I was in Yung Gravy's top .5% on Spotify.

Discovering a dark/gothic feeling genre that seems to blend rap and horror together can be traced back to hearing MY RELIGION by BLAKSWAN or RICH BOY by payton

On a lighter and happier note, live streams featuring catchy song intros or choruses allowed me to add indie groups like Sub-Radio and DOUBLECAMP

Lastly artists that are unapologetically themselves have intertwined their unqiue personality and talented vibey songs into my heart with the likes of corook, Nic D, Petey, Ausitin and the Powers, The Happy Fits, bbno$, and the puddleducks.

Even though most of the application is a complete time suck, if I can average a new band or song once a month, I consider it time well spent. I guess the only thing for me to do is hop back on the clock app and see what the algorithm has chosen as the next big name in my music library.

If you are looking for something to do after reading this, I recommend clicking into any of the hyperlinked words above or listen to my Small Time, Big Sounds playlist below.