Bell KS When it comes to making songs go viral, TikTok holds unparalleled power. It has previously propelled singers such as Dixie D’Amelio and Lyn Lapid to stardom and driven celebrities like Lewis Capaldi on the brink of madness when his label asked him to make his new song ‘Pointless’ go viral (he is a national treasure, his TikToks are unhinged in the best way).
Recently, a new song has blown up on TikTok – Big Boy(s) by SZA with Keke Palmer. The only issue being, it is not actually a released song. The track was created as part of an SNL skit, however the catchy beat and iconic lyrics have made it prime TikTok material.
Videos of girls showing off their ‘big boys’ are going viral all over the place and 90.3K videos have already been created to this exact song on TikTok. Personally, I totally get the hype – that one short verse has been playing on loop in my head ever since I heard it.
It’s funny, because I feel like history is repeating itself already. The last song I saw go that viral was ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith, where again, it was only really one verse that went viral and the song wasn’t out yet when it went viral. Which I think was the biggest mistake the label could have made at the time.
The song in fact was not released for another few weeks and by the time it was, people had been so oversaturated by that verse that the song itself only disappointed. I think had the label released the song ASAP after it went viral, the reaction would have been much more positive and it could have been one of the biggest sellers of the year.
As it is, ‘Unholy’ still did well in the charts and definitely holds a place on the TikTok song wall of fame.
If I were SZA, I would try and record ‘Big Boy’ immediately, maybe with a feature from a female rap artist, and get it out really within the next few days. That way, the TikTok hype won’t have died down yet and the song will pull massive numbers on Spotify.
Realistically though, I don’t think this is going to happen – the recording industry is quite a complex one (from the little I understand about it) and it’s difficult to just push out a song one day to the next.
Though I do still kind of hope she does, so I can listen on repeat on Spotify.
I must have missed this particular SNL skit but I will have to check it out now as I am curious about it. I don’t have/use TikTok but I do occasionally see them on other social media platforms and I have yet to come across this one. I think you’re right about artists utilizing the viral popularity by actually making or releasing the song it originally came from sooner than they maybe have done in the past.
Thats crazy that a song that is technically not an actual song is going viral. But SNL is a great show so no surprise there!
Allie of
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