Hot on the heels of Spotify’s announcement of its biggest summer songs of 2023, TikTok has published its own charts this morning.
In this case, the metric driving the rankings is ‘video creations’ – how many TikTok videos have been made this summer featuring the tracks.
Mae Stephens takes top spot in TikTok’s global chart with ‘If We Ever Broke Up’, ahead of Doechii’s ‘What It Is – Solo Version’ and Thuy’s ‘girls like me don’t cry (sped up)’.
That’s one of two sped-up tracks in the top 10, with Fifty Fifty’s ‘Cupid – Twin Ver. – Sped Up Version’ also making the cut. Also notable is the appearance of a track from 1997 in ninth spot, although the surprise lessens when you see that it’s Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’.
Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s 2023 take on that track was the second-ranked track in TikTok’s US Songs of the Summer chart, behind only Jain’s ‘Makeba’. In the UK, Dave and Central Cee’s ‘Sprinter’ took the crown with ‘Makeba’ in second place.
The wider trend shown by these charts is the sheer scale of TikTok as a platform. ‘If We Ever Broke Up’ has been used in 14.3m videos so far, while videos using the #ifweeverbrokeup hashtag have notched up 874.8m views.
(And bear in mind that only a certain proportion of videos using the track will have also carried that hashtag.)
TikTok’s charts, like Spotify’s, also bear witness to the now-familiar trend of global hits coming from outside the traditional Anglo-American power-nexus of the music industry.
Jain hails from France, and ‘Makeba’ is a tribute to South African artist and activist Miriam Makeba. K-Pop is represented by Fifty Fifty and FLI:P, and Puerto Rico by Myke Towers elsewhere in the rankings.
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