WATCH: TikTok is perfect for local music creators
JOL TYD: Rjay and LK’s Wikkel Wikkel went viral
South Africa is starting to make a big impact on the rest of the world, especially with its music and since TikTok came onto the scene.
Just last year we saw the world all jolling to Master KG’s Jerusalema and our local boys Rjay and LK went to number one on most radio stations with their hit song, Wikkel Wikkel.
It’s good to know that it’s possible to make a song and reach not only the local but the international market because this is going to motivate local artists to produce more content.
There is so much opportunity to make it big now and it’s all at their fingertips.
Social media can be a powerful tool if you use it correctly.
In the past, radio stations used to block certain types of music because it was not “radio friendly” but the internet, and particularly TikTok, is changing all this.
Now more voices are coming through and this is one of the blessings of the new technological age.
It’s also not necessary to have a full song because all you need is a good 15 to 30 seconds of content to get people jolling and voila, you go viral.
Look at Wikkel Wikkel. It was basically just the chorus that turned the song into a monster hit, and the same with Jerusalema.
And when it comes to to producing songs, even the expenses are becoming much less.
Your song can become a hit even if it’s not the best or have a pricey production team behind it; basically, a demo is good enough if the hook is catchy.
The hook is usually the chorus and it either sticks in people’s minds and gets them jolling, or it does not.
Posting your content on social media also goes much quicker because previously you would have to go and visit all the radio stations in person and drop your demo in order to get your song heard.
But now you post today, and by tomorrow the whole world could have seen it.
The redo option on TikTok also gives one even more reach because the original post could have 10 000 views, but each redo – and there can be 1000 – can push up the total views to well over 100 000.
And once the dancers get a hold of it, then your song can well go super-viral.
The latest South African music masterpiece to do this is the amapiano remix of the hit song Ameno by Goya Menor (Neptunes), or as it has become known, “You want to Bamba”.
The song has gone viral internationally through TikTok.
If you listen to the entire song it doesn’t klap that hard, but the part that goes “you want to bamba, you wanna chill with the big boys” caught on very quickly.
I think this song will still be around come the 2022 end of the year festive season.
I saw a video of Shaquille O’Neal, the US basketball and movie star, dancing to the trend, which means that the Americans have already caught on.
This is one of the advantages of the new world that we are living in.
Let this be the year that we start pushing our local talent and support them simply by sharing their music online, because the signs are there that the world is ready for our unique sound.
This is a heads up to all our creators in Cape Town; this might be the year that ghoema music can become the biggest sound in the world.
With that being said, it’s good to know that after the darkest period in the entertainment industry, with many artists struggling throughout this pandemic, there is finally a massive light shining at the end of the tunnel.
Well done to Goya and amapiano music on what I predict to be the biggest South African music trend of 2022.