Music is people. Music changes with people, and people change with music. We can see popular genres and styles in each century and how it has developed with society and people–jazz and blues in the 1960s being one. In the most recent era, the internet is at the center of deviation. 

The internet carries a widespread influence over everything in our daily lives. From how you should wash your hair to the recent political news in Iraq, the internet is the source. 

The internet being mass consumed causes shifts in beliefs, how it goes to the extreme; news, how it goes to the people; and music, how it’s shifted and developed. 

Music has flourished over the years into new genres, tastes, and styles–currently, the world has more than ever before. Due to the diversity, people start developing specific tastes in the music they enjoy. 

The internet influences music taste. Social media especially prompts these effects. The most popular social media app currently is TikTok–a social media platform that utilizes music in its consumption. TikTok has recently come onto the scene and changed how social media works. The short 15-second clips give entertainment with short attention. The advanced algorithm provides new content with a swipe-up–similar to a slot machine. The exposure to music within that brief time. TikTok has changed people’s music. 

Online Roulette covered this topic finding that TikTok was people’s second most used platform for discovering music. The article discussed how the algorithm exposed 70% of people to new music and genres. They found that 84% of people added new songs to their playlists, and 55% agreed that TikTok influenced their music taste. 

Soobin Park, a junior, states that she puts songs she discovers on TikTok into her playlists and listens to them. “Yes, TikTok has influenced my music taste and has helped me discover some of my favorite artists, especially Luke Chiang.”

Finn Stofle, junior, agrees, “TikTok has influenced my music taste a lot, especially since I steal music from people. Certain music is popular because people think it’s good.”  

A junior, Connor Nelson, shares his slight disagreement. “It has influenced my taste slightly, but sometimes the snippets are not as good as the song–like ‘No Wind Resistance. TikTok music sucks.” 

TikTok seems to bring light to new artists and opinions on current music in the scope of the internet.

TikTok is the dominating influence on music taste and the current era of music as it expands in our everyday life. 

Music is the internet.