Scrolling TikTok now feels like walking into the cafeteria on the last day of high school. At one table, influencers offer their handles on other platforms, telling people how to keep in touch. At another, users share best-hits montages of TikTok over the years like they're flicking through yearbooks: the TikTok Rizz Party to Charli D'Amelio to the hyper-energized kid wonder Topher. Others remain in denial, blithely posting memes like they're not about to say goodbye.
Enriching or eroding brains, empowering 'digital creatives,' or spewing forth slop and sludge: Whether you despise or delight in TikTok, its banning will hit music culture hard. Over the last seven years, the app has rewired the industry: squishing tracks into frantic blips of hooky intensity, convincing labels to sign one-off viral stars, spawning a cottage industry of sped-up remixes. It's drastically changed the way artists gain traction and promote themselves.
'People are massively panicking. I don't know anybody who's like, 'This will be fine,' says Olivia Shalhoup, the CEO of Amethyst Collab, a digital marketing agency that's worked with stars like Trippie Redd and Aminé. 'Most of the panic comes from the uncertainty-there's no clear path forward.'
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