RiRi Returns, Superstar Pride Shines, and TikTok Trends That Promote Positivity 

Source: Audible Treats/TikTok

Each week, the TikTok Treats newsletter gives a snapshot of the state of music on TikTok, touching on trending hits, emerging artists, superstar moves, ascendant memes, and much more. Check out this week’s trends below:

• Returning to the stage for her first performance in six years with her Super Bowl halftime show, Rihanna reminded the world that her reign has yet to let up. In the wake of her halftime performance, songs from Rihanna’s catalog have received a massive boost on TikTok. Several songs from RiRi’s illustrious catalog are trending on the platform: the soulful ballad “Lift Me Up” (505.5K+ creations) finds creators appreciating intimate moments with their partner; “Needed Me” (14.6K+ creations) soundtracks creators’ makeup routines; and Rihanna’s backup dancers shared behind-the-scenes footage of their rehearsal of “Pour It Up” (55.7K+ creations). Rihanna’s backup dancers had a field day on TikTok in the week following the game, revealing that they were able to keep their costumes after the show. Enjoying their favorite Rihanna songs in their own creative ways, the TikTok community helped propel Rihanna back to the Billboard charts, while also earning her one of her biggest streaming weeks ever.
   
• The rise of Mississippi rapper Superstar Pride is a perfect example of how the TikTok community embraces rising artists and propels them to the charts. Pride shared a clip from a live performance of his 2022 song “Painting Pictures” in early February, inspiring TikTok creators to show off their best reenactments of his performance with comedic flair. Garnering over 38.1K creations, the bubbling trend finds creators using random objects to remake Pride’s haircut. Creators use their favorite snacks, garbage bags, and house plants to channel their inner Superstar Pride. In other videos, TikTok users show off their shag haircuts and reveal that the rapper inspired their recent hair decisions. Backed by the support of the TikTok community, Superstar Pride topped Spotify’s US and Global Viral 50 charts, reached the Top 15 of Spotify’s U.S. Top 50 streaming chart, and earned his first-ever Billboard Hot 100 entry.
   
• Nobody’s perfect, and British singer-songwriter Rag’n’Bone Man has been preaching that notion since long before his 2016 breakout hit “Human” became TikTok’s tongue-in-cheek anthem for unhinged behavior. Racking up over 297.9k total creations across multiple sounds, including sped-up and extra sped-up versions, the track has inspired multiple recent trends as creators find new ways to acknowledge their flawed behavior. Using a scene from the track’s music video and TikTok’s CapCut video edit feature, one trend emerged with creators trying to justify things like why their posts haven’t performed well, how a founding father processed his own mistakes, or commit a classic restaurant faux pas. Another trend, using the sped-up version of the sound, saw creators revealing their daily schedules to share good excuses for always being tired and bad excuses for not doing their homework.
• Since rising on TikTok in 2020 with romantic R&B jams like “Love Cycle” and “Love Is…,” Syracuse native rapper-singer Toosii just notched his biggest TikTok hit to date with the Valentine’s Day-appropriate “Favorite Song.” Racking up over 69.7k creations, Toosii first teased the track in early January before returning earlier this month to discover it was quickly gaining traction as some creators get in their feelings about the track’s message of maintaining high expectations, while others live up to that high mark by showing affection for their loved ones. Since its official release last Friday, “Favorite Song” has racked up over 1.3 million streams on Spotify alone.
   
• It often seems like TikTok runs on nostalgia, with creators pining for the fashion and music from their youth, or even earlier. A new trend, however, bucks that nostalgic mindset, giving those who know they were born at the exact right time a chance to shine. Using Glen Campbell’s classic 1976 version of Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights,” creators muse on whether they were born in the era that best fits their personality. Some creators appreciate the modern era for its unprecedented coziness, while others are thankful for social media or being alive at the same time as Taylor Swift. On the flip side of the coin, other creators pine for days when songs like “Southern Nights” routinely topped the charts. With over 11k video creations to date on the song, many of which from the past week, it is very possible that “Southern Nights” can usher in a new renaissance for “dad music” of all stripes.
   
• The passage of time and the advancement of technology have combined to create a modern world that would be entirely unrecognizable to someone living even a few decades in the past. Using a sped up remix of pop singer Ryn Weaver’s “Pierre” (52k+ creations), creators on TikTok draw unexpected connections between historical eras, or ponder how their ancestors would react to certain aspects of their lives that they take for granted. In the first trend, called #historyrepeatsitself (69.3 million views), creators explore how some modern beauty secrets actually come from Ancient Egypt, how the LGBTQ activists of the past paved the way for current members of the community to live in the open, and how midwives helped set medical sanitation standards we still use today. In the second, more humorous trend, creators focus on the differences between eras, imagining how their ancestors would react to the domestication of dogs, modern pop music, sugary soft drinks, and much more.  

Check TikTok’s newsroom for more noteworthy stories: newsroom.tiktok.com