Are sped-up and shortened songs the future of the music industry? On Tiktok, the trend of fast-paced songs has been clear for several years.
So the trend began:
Sped-up songs have long been a widespread trend on Tiktok, but the phenomenon is not new. The genre is called nightcore, after a Norwegian duo that remixed eurodance songs as early as 2002.
The trend also has strong roots in hip-hop. During the 2000s, the genre "chipmunk soul" spread, which consisted of sped-up remixes and samples of well-known R'n'B hits, making the singers' voices high and squeaky, reports The Guardian.
Gets through
This is the trend:
Today, it doesn't take long from the time artists release new music to sped-up versions of the songs spreading through private users on Tiktok. Many times, the sped-up versions get more attention in the app than the originals, reports Billboard.
It's not uncommon for old songs to get new life through remixed versions. An example is Billy Joel's "Vienna" from 1977, which has spread to a younger audience thanks to a sped-up version on Tiktok.
Spotify takes up the fight
So the trend spreads outside of Tiktok:
Several artists and record labels are now releasing their own sped-up versions of their music. An example is Sabrina Carpenter, whose latest songs "Please please please" and "Espresso" both exist as sped-up versions on Spotify.
In April, the news also came that Spotify is taking up the fight for sped-up music, by developing a tool that will enable users to remix and speed up music in the app themselves.
Andreas Hindenäs, marketing manager for Swedish artists at Universal Music, sees the phenomenon as something positive.
It increases the reach of the songs and engages a new audience that may not have been there before, especially in the younger target group.
Shorter songs
According to him, the demand is high for artists to release sped-up versions of their music on music services.
It's a trade-off you have to make. Often, we see the effect on the original songs, they grow as the trend grows on Tiktok, and then you get the effect you want.
Anders Reuter, music researcher at Lund University, believes the trend will hold.
I think there will be more songs with high-tempo and "high-pitched" voices, and that the songs will become shorter, he says and continues:
We live in a time where everything is going faster, from how we live to how we use social media. It would be strange if it didn't affect how we create and listen to music.
From finance men to brat summer – the trends on Tiktok are replacing each other in rapid succession. In our summer series, we write about some of the biggest buzzwords in the app, and untangle where they come from, what they mean, and how they spread outside of Tiktok.
