TIKTOK - ATEEZ, KISS OF LIFE, TXT
Since its creation in 2016, TIKTOK has established itself as an essential tool in the music industry especially in K-pop, leading to a new way of producing and consuming entertaining content. But how did the Chinese platform establish itself in our daily lives and why did K-pop artists seize it?
A new trendy format: the short and vertical format.
Launched in 2016, TIKTOK has established itself as THE SNS to use thanks to its vertical format of less than a minute. Long considered amateur, the vertical format has become a standard in video creation. This shift to the vertical format is explained by the fact that content is now consumed mainly on mobile: videos, webtoons, mobile games, etc.
The platform’s success began with dance challenges where users would repeat iconic moves to the latest popular song. A boon for the South Korean music industry, which relies heavily on its choreography. Thanks to this new way of showcasing their choreography, K-pop artists can promote their latest tracks and achieve greater success. For example, ZICO and his song “Any song” reached the first position on various music charts in 2019 thanks to his short and funny dance videos on TIKTOK. A success that has led to a significant movement of K-pop artists on the SNS.
@kozico0914 #AnysongChallenge#ZICO #지코 #화사 #아무노래 #Anysong#아무노래나틀어주세요#KOZ
A communication strategies shake-up.
Indeed, according to Jamie Han, a TikTok Korea marketing team member, “K-pop artists have to plan a TikTok challenge before they release a new song”. For example, when studying ATEEZ’s TikTok, we notice that every new album since 2021 has had its dance challenge on the platform. This new strategy is explained by the fact that South Korean music shows like KBS’s Music Bank have added the audience of both collaborative video platforms, TIKTOK and YOUTUBE, to their ranking criteria.
But TV shows aren’t the only ones adding TIKTOK to their rankings. South Korean music streaming platforms like Melon and official South Korean charts like Gaon Chart also count TIKTOK streams in their official charts and playlists. For example, we can mention the “Gaon Social Chart 2.0” which counts the popularity of groups across several platforms (YOUTUBE, TIKTOK, MUBEAT, MYCELEBS) or the “TikTok Weekly Chart 30” by Melon which is a playlist grouping the most popular tracks on the video platform.
Finally, this choice of format to promote different content is also explained, as Jamie Han confirms, by the fact that “TikTok’s short video format allows videos to go viral quite easily among a global audience“. This is the case of ENHYPEN who participated in the challenge of “@itz._.coco” by revealing a piece of the future choreography of “Future perfect (Pass the MIC)“, but also of KAI, an EXO member, who shared a TIKTOK with two members of ATEEZ to promote his song “Rover”. Thus, companies are now turning entirely to TIKTOK through several short and trendy formats to grab the attention of fans so that they massively take up the promoted title.
@enhypen
A participatory culture at the heart of the process.
Indeed, TIKTOK claims to offer on its platform “a consistent flow of interaction and engagement that allows fans to participate in these conversations and cultural moments“. A perfect argument for K-pop which is strongly marked by the creation of content by fans. Indeed, some challenges created by fans have become extremely popular that the artist in question has participated to the challenge. We can take as an example the challenge of “Polaroid love” by ENHYPEN or of “Darari” by TREASURE which benefited of a music video with the choreography following this success, allowing it at the same time to land a place in the “Billboard Global Excl” ranking.
In addition, a TIKTOK manager said that “more and more K-pop fans, especially international fans, will create their own K-pop-related content and contribute to the success of different songs in the coming days” because “nowadays, many K-pop singers join the challenge late after it becomes popular“. This partly explains this surge in users on the platform. Indeed, according to TIKTOK, the number of videos concerning K-pop exceeded 97 million videos in September 2022 and more than 92% of these videos are created outside of South Korea. We can see a strong participation of international fans and that it is essential for the music promoted on the platform to cross borders not only geographically, but also K-pop fans.
For this reason, we also find on the platform a large number of video montages that aim to highlight a particular artist or group. These videos, called “Edit”, are very successful on the platform. Indeed, on the hashtag “#kpopedits ” there are more than 4 billion views and videos averaging between 800 thousand and 2 million likes. We can see fans play the role of promoters to support their groups. These videos will then be shared outside the platform and in particular on INSTAGRAM and YOUTUBE to expand the latter’s reach and show the talents of the artists promoted on different platforms.
To conclude, TIKTOK has managed to establish itself as an essential and daily tool in K-pop not only by its unique format but also by the ease of reproducing the videos. The latter take up a trendy piece on a choreography or a challenge achievable by all allowing fans to participate in the spotlight of their artists. These challenges, some of which are taken up by the artists, thus allow a global diffusion of K-pop creating more international fan communities but also daily participatory.
Journalist: Laura
Translator: Laura
Sources:
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