I am going to use Central Cee’s song ‘Doja Cat’ as a media example which went globally viral on TikTok, where users created their own videos where they would dance to the chorus of the song. Many users were only introduced to the song via the TikTok platform and not YouTube.

It could be argued that TikTok has become one of the most influential music markets in today’s 21st-century society. “Vernalise argues that contemporary music videos respond to a ‘second aesthetic’ closely connected to the new broadcasting platforms on the internet, some kind of the second era of music videos that differs from ‘MTV style which was associated with television and 1980s mainstream pop”. Central Cee’s video to “Doja Cat” not only portrays this second aesthetic but also shows how artists use digital media apps to their advantaged and as a free advertising tool.

Arnold, G. (no date) Music/video: histories, aesthetics, media. Unruly Media.

YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema. By Carol Vernallis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 354 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-97669

By Tia Brown