A post-TikTok music industry won’t necessarily be a better one

thefader.com:

On January 3, the TikTok user @nawn.sense posted a video of her furiously strumming a guitar in her lap. She was covering Glorb’s “The Bottom 2,” a parody rage rap song composed using AI voice models trained on characters from Spongebob Squarepants.

The original was immensely popular if clearly disposable, but her version commanded attention the moment she released a gnarled and nearly horse-like bellow of “Gary hit ‘em with the Awwwwwwwww.” It immediately reminded me of Exuma, a Bahamian folk singer from the 70s who passed away without his due recognition.

Nawn.sense’s music had already reached more than Exuma’s ever did on its own — 9 days and 18 million views later, she posted a video of herself recording in a studio, with the words “Thank You” imposed at the top..