TikTok trend alert: Speeding up songs - is this changing our music experience?

Clarence Ford speaks to Barbara Friedman about trending online topics.

[Skip to 3:05 on the audio player for this story]

TikTok has became a hub for creativity among users.

The video app is a content hub for all kinds of genres in the form of super-short catchy, vibey, informative and inspirational multimedia clips with trends coming and going.

TikTokers' (people who create on the app) latest creative pursuit is to speed up songs to match their videos. 

For example, a song of three to four minutes will be sped-up to a few seconds showcasing the song's catchiest lyrics.

The BBC reports TikTok users and other social media apps speed up the tempo of popular songs by 25% to 30% to accompany short viral videos. 

For instance, people are becoming more accustomed to remixing their favorite songs, making music a more 'active' experience by dancing or doing some action accompanied to the faster version of the song rather than listening passively.

Artists have also started making shorter versions of their songs for platforms like TikTok.

Record labels have re-released shortened versions of Grammy-winning songs and Spotify created playlists with shorter versions of songs too. 

Analysts say sped-up songs may seem like a small tweak but it has a significant impact on how people interact with music and might say something about how short our attention spans are when it comes to consuming content.

Friedman asks if this is one way artists are remaining relevant on the platform and questions whether this is a bigger conversation around time and people just not having it or the capacity to sit and consume longer pieces of content... even if it's just as passive as listening to music.

"Is the original speed of the song not part of the art form? But if the artists are agreeing to it... is it because they want to or because they can't say no. If you want to be relevant on TikTok and get new audiences on TikTok, you're going to have to come to the party... but are all artists willing to do this?"

- Barbara Friedman, Barb's Wire

"Everyone's speeding things up, I listen to voicenotes on WhatsApp on 1.5 speed and Spotify also allows you to speed up podcasts - no one's got time or capacity anymore - that's what it is and it's a bit disturbing, for me."

- Barbara Friedman, Barb's Wire

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