By Posha Aloyo
Social media has been a great way to market your songs. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, you name it. I mean, it’s the only way you can communicate to your millions of fans who you otherwise would never be able to see individually. This applies whether you are a creator, an artist or any other form of entertainer.
When TikTok started out, Ugandans were quick to jump onto it. It was lockdown and for many people social media was the only way to keep entertained and also connect to what is happening around the world. TikTok was such a fun platform and also a great way for artists to share their content. Up and coming artists like Victor Ruz, Vyroota thrived on the app. A lot more continue to rise and make a name off the app, but what more?!?
Then came a wave of what is trending on TikTok and what wasn’t. It created such a competition to keep producing as much content and putting it on the app and ensuring that your hashtag trended. The considerations now for what is trending became based for a lot of artists on what is trending on TikTok. But something trending doesn’t make it good.
For a long time, our music industry suffered from ‘bubble gum music’ and I am afraid that the pressure that comes with TikTok is not adding any flavour to the bubble gum. How will we create music that competes internationally when we are in a rush?!? It is almost hard to listen to ‘trending songs’ back to back because guess what, they all sound almost the same. The onus is on us to what more of our content and our industry.
Do not get me wrong, TikTok is great. It is good for any content creator but we need to slow down. We need to go back to the basics, back to the drawing board and create music that will stand the waves of pressure or any new app. Our music has become so rushed, the sound is the same and seems to be created for just one market. We need to dig deep and create more!