The Songs You’re Hearing All Over TikTok In 2020

TikTok is proof that it only takes 15 seconds for a song to get stuck in your head, and now that the app has gone from a Gen-Z secret to something pretty much everyone scrolls before bed, our brains are like a cursed jukebox. Not only do the songs provide a soundtrack, but often the lyrical backdrop for a joke or trend that ultimately sweeps the app, and therefor there's no place more powerful for music in 2020.

The best part for music snobs? You rarely hear anything from the Top 40. Instead, TikTok is a world in which lesser-known artists are no longer subject to the whims of radio and streaming. If a teen dancing in their bedroom in Minnesota likes it, then one day we may all be singing it.

TikTok is also a good place for older songs to get repurposed. Some of the most common songs appearing on the app right now were actually made last century, and there's also a crop of early 2010 singles popping up to the delight of my millennial eyes.

The buildable, amorphous nature of the TikTok's culture mean some of these songs have already lived a number of lives on the app, but as far as 2020 is concerned, these are the songs that keep popping up on the For You page.