For almost a decade, social media naysayers’ go-to (and perhaps most convincing) claim is that the silly little apps on our phones are slowly deteriorating our attention spans. And whether it’s intentional or not, the music industry has largely followed suit—the average song length has been steadily decreasing over the years. On TikTok, brevity is key, as content creators only have a handful of seconds to get a user’s attention before their video gets swiped up into the ether forever.
But for a handful of artists who have successfully broken the code and harnessed the power of the app, the results can be life-changing. A few seconds can lead to major label record deals, number one singles, and millions of videos from converted fans. To prevent scrolling through the infinite content hole, we’ve rounded up the best songs from TikTok. Whether it be PinkPantheress’ U.K. drum and bass revival, a Megan Thee Stallion sleeper track, or an Azealia Banks classic, here are the best songs from TikTok that are worth a listen, all the way through.
“Get Into It (Yuh)” by Doja Cat
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Simply put, some artists are better at TikTok than others. Doja Cat’s personal account is a myriad of insane Jim Carrey-style voices, graphic eyeliner, and impeccably timed impromptu riffs, both half-serious and half-real. Doja proved her internet prowess early on when she made her mainstream entrance into music via the viral sensation “Moo,” the incredibly campy and fascinating pop song that broke the Internet’s brain in 2018. Three years later, Doja still knows how to make art out of spectacle; her 2021 album, Planet Her, is an airtight compilation of pop gems that have seemed to pick up more and more steam on TikTok with each single’s release. The track “Get Into It (Yuh)” has the same playfulness that dominated her earlier days, now with smooth and even production and a huge following.
“Whole Lotta Money” by BIA feat. Nicki Minaj
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Getting a Nicki Minaj verse is no small feat. It’s a privilege experienced by the few and far between, as the queen is a bit notorious for being hyper selective with how she spends her time and energy. That’s why it’s hard not to get a little excited for breakthrough rapper BIA when Nicki spits, “Ayo BIA, I just bent the block all these bitches wanna be ya.”
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“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo
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It wouldn’t be a TikTok list without Miss Teen Dream Olivia Rodrigo. Rodrigo exploded off of the app, capitalizing on the general angst of its late teen user demographic with a song about puppy love, heartbreak, and, well, passing her driver’s test. But there’s also something so devastatingly earnest about “Drivers License,” a feat in songwriting that proves the track was likely not a ploy for streaming numbers, but a true exercise in basking in the woes of teenage love.
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Everywhereigo by Babyxsosa
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“Everywhereigo” isn’t designated to one corner of TikTok. It floats through the fashion girlies and the makeup gurus’ posts, and has soundtracked the piles of trendy filter-of-the-week videos. There is something distinctly pleasingly and universal about the song: Babyxsosa’s airy sing-along hook has the appeal of a well-calculated pop chorus with its ear-catching hypnotism, but it’s coated in a jangly, left-of-center rap beat made by Virginia producer GAWD, whose distinct style laces unexpected synth and altered octaves.
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“Banana Klip” by Bali Baby
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Like so many Atlanta artists before her, Bali Baby follows in a long tradition of cutting edge rappers contributing to the ground level of a sonic trend that’s about blow. While the TikTok audience might only be familiarizing themselves with Bali Baby now, the rapper was a huge part of the development of the current rap-meets-emo trend, often half-yelling and half-taunting in her tracks with mischievous glee. “Banana Klip” is a testament to Bali Baby’s undeniable energy, as she puts on a show of voice acting, suspending her cadence somewhere between valley girl and grade A rapper.
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“Knock Knock” by SoFayGo
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In 2019, Queens rapper Lil Tecca dropped “Ransom,” an earworm of a track that saw the newcomer rapper reveling in his (not yet) success with the most effective use of autotune in recent memory. A few years later, TikTok has become inundated with “Knock Knock,” a similarly catchy track propelled by the same combo of piano keys and insanely high octave melodies. And while the mirrored blueprint narrative for song success is usually suspect, Tecca produced “Knock Knock” artist SoFayGo’s Angelic 7 mixtape, giving it his signature sound stamp only for SoFayGo to knock it into the heavens with a smoothness.
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“Girl Blunt” by Leikeli 47
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“Girl Blunt” might not have made it to your TikTok yet. As of now, it sits in a beautiful space occupied by femme women and men, who quite literally lace their blunts with things like rose petals, lavender, and chamomile. The sound has been tacked onto clips of ladies bragging about lipgloss-soaked joints, as Leikeli 47 raps effortlessly over New York’s iconic get lite-style beat.
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“Sexy” by JoeVille
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TikTok is an inherently shallow place. In its original version, clips couldn’t surpass 15 seconds, and the algorithm still seems to favor only the most palatable pretty faces. So it makes sense that at one point the app was overtaken by the song “Sexy,” a banger that stands on one simple theory: “You can do anything you want when you sexy.” The track is an explosive debut from teen sensation JoeVille, who eventually garnered a remix with fellow 2021 self-assured rap heavyweight Flo Milli.
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“So Good” by Destiny’s Child
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When Destiny’s Child originally wrote “So Good” sometime around 1999, there was no way they could have expected it would be interpreted so cynically by a generation who was in the midst of recovering from an international pandemic. But TikTok, of course, found a way, ushering the song back into the public consciousness with a painfully symbolic video of a clown assuring it was doing “so so so good.”
The song itself is worth a listen in full, a relic of the early 2000s and late ‘90s, where producers seemed to be fascinated by making their beats as unheard of as possible. The track seems to be struggling to keep up with itself, as the beat cuts in and out, punctuated by the sound of popping bubbles and guitar strums that are all about a second off from the metronome.
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“Lottery (Renegade)” by K CAMP
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The first 25 seconds of K CAMP’s “Lottery” have been imprinted into the brains of nearly every Gen Z teen in a way that very few pop cultural items can say they have. Led by the sound of a blown out subwoofer, “Lottery” hits in the chest with a deep reverb that makes it perfect for the many dance iterations that TikTok has become so known for. The track also opened up a conversation about the very real cultural question of who gets credit on the internet, where content (in this case, choreography) enters into a lawless ether of appropriation, copy and pasting, and creative liberties exercised way out of frame. Forteen-year-old dancer Jalaiah Harmon was the original creator of the “Renegade” dance that went viral on the app, which was slowly made famous (and sanitized) by white creators with larger followings like Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio—a story that gained a New York Times story and nationwide attention.
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“Break It Off” by PinkPantheress
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TikTok has an obsession with city life. Perhaps it’s a byproduct of its young user base, but the app is fluttered with videos of various small town teens moving to any and every big city, where they romanticize each aspect of it in a way that is both beautiful and naive, nauseating and aspirational. “Break It Off” is a track that carries on the tradition of British nightlife wonderfully, and it is likely not a stretch to say that its club sound has something to do with the app’s obsession with growing up and moving out. “Break It Off” is an updated version of the best drum and bass that dominated the UK garage scene in the late nineties and early 2000s. PinkPantheress’s soft voice delicately floats atop the chaos in a way that’s nothing short of groups like Sweet Female Attitude and acts like Tina Moore.
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“Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish
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Billie Eilish’s devastatingly serene and distinct whisper-singing is a huge part of her ongoing legacy. But “Happier Than Ever” shatters that notion at the song’s halfway mark, as Billie bulldozes through the acoustic guitar of the first verse, singing fully and loudly, morphing the track into a vengeful pop rock anthem that sounds unlike any of her previously dreamy singles. The novelty seemed to stick, as fans began posting videos of the song’s breakdown with messages of excitement, notes of similarly shameful exes, and general love for the ever-evolving pop star.
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“Slumber Party” by Ashnikko feat. Princess Nokia
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“Me and your girlfriend playing dress up at my house / I gave your girlfriend cunnilingus on my couch,” AshNikko purs on “Slumber Party.” The track is somewhat of a feat in lesbian and queer circles, as pop fans are finally getting more fluid representation in a genre that remained incredibly heteronormative for the greater part of the last 20 years. Ashnikko has since churned out a handful of hyper-sexual and intensely colorful anthems, making a big name for herself in the ever-growing pop-rap-emo abyss.
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“BeatBox” by SpotemGottem
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SpotemGottem is the latest Florida rapper to break through, flaunting an accent as thick as syrup, nearly yelling each bar and still remaining practically unintelligible. Yet the undeniable charm of Florida rap prevails. “BeatBox” was basically destined to be a hit, with a beat straightforward enough for fellow rappers to hop on (cue Pooh Shiesty and DaBaby remixes), and for internet dancers to work with. The song caught on via a dance from viral user JuneBug and has since taken on a life of its own, landing SpotemGottem an Interscope deal and a lifetime of internet content to go with it.
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“Don’t Trust No N%$*$z” by Khia and DSD
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Way before there was Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B, there was Khia. The Philly rapper—who loves sex as much as she distrusts men—was the silky smooth voice behind street anthems like “My Neck, My Back,” and thanks to rapheads and internet sleuths, the star is getting a second round of appreciation. “Don’t Trust No N%$*$z” is an objectively hilarious track that finds the rapper appalled at the idea of any woman trusting any man, which is a sentiment that way too many people can relate to.
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“Essence” by Wizkid feat. Tems
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“Essence” has taken on a life of its own on TikTok, as users attempt, in vain, to understand the lyrics. While the misinterpretations are an unfortunately hilarious form of dad humor, the song itself is a fantastic dancehall and R&B fusion with each Nigerian artist bouncing off of eachother for a summertime jam.
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“Believe Me” by Navos
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“Believe Me” is a fairly straightforward dance song, a track that builds to a drop punctuated by upper octave vocals, a thumping drumline, and heavy bass. And in the summer of 2021, that’s perhaps exactly what the world needed, as bars and clubs have begun to open back up and the world leans into the chaos of its newfound freedom, a song like “Believe Me” seems to be the sonic embodiment of its exact cultural moment.
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“Luxury” by Azealia Banks
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The chaos surrounding Azealia Banks has never stopped her fans from loving her. Her 2014 record Broke With Expensive Taste has always quietly been regarded as an iconic album by those brave enough to say it, and well, I am one of those people. Banks beautifully combines two of New York’s greatest cultural identities: ballroom and rap music, mashing the worlds into a high paced, unapologetic swirl of unhinged pleasure. The head-spinning standout “Luxury” has begun to make its rounds on TikTok, giving a nod to the loyal followers and fans.
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Cognac Queen by Megan Thee Stallion
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For all of the tracks that Megan Thee Stallion has pumped out over the last few years, TikTok users decided it wasn’t enough, reaching back into her catalogue for 2018’s “Cognac Queen,” a brown liquor anthem from Miss Hot Girl herself. Unlike so much of the master level choreography that gets casually thrown around on the app, “Cognac Queen” has been placed with a simple and hilarious three-move dance, a novel approachability that has amassed millions of smiley partakers.
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“Let’s Groove Tonight” by Earth, Wind, and Fire
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There aren’t too many soul music legends who can say they’ve crossed over into TikTok’s endless void, but leave it to hitmakers and legends Earth, Wind, and Fire to be the first. The track has forever been a mainstay at barbecues and family parties, and now the track’s magic has finally trickled down to the teens and the twenty-somethings who are retroactively discovering the absolute joy that is “Let’s Groove Tonight.”
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