The TikTokification of modern pop: Could our dying attention spans be affecting the songwriting process?

Shooting into a realm of mind-blowing popularity in the 2020 pandemic, the short-form video app TikTok has had a phenomenal impact on the music industry from the ground up.

Popularising bite-sized content, trending audios of around 15-20 seconds have become an inseparable companion to visual media.

Creating a need for speed with its promise of fresh content just one swipe below, these songs must grab the attention of avid scrollers in approximately two seconds, or risk being swiped away into oblivion.

Music News Blitz writer Katie Slater explores...

Structure and form 

Used to these quick and easy hits of dopamine, users of TikTok tend not to enjoy the delayed gratification model of traditional pop, craving instant catchiness over slower-building climaxes. 

Songs popular on the platform, therefore, tend to be front-loaded, bringing in the main hook or chorus as early as possible to minimise anticipation boredom. 

Long intros, slow-fading outros, and contrasting bridges have quickly fallen out of fashion, favouring a style of song which is more like a highlight reel than an unfolding structure. 

Take a look at last year’s top-charting single “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, which brings in its chorus just after the 30-second mark and avoids lengthy intros or contrasting bridges - a prototype of TikTok-era buzz.

While artists such as Kahan have adjusted their already developed songwriting styles to match ongoing trends, some artists are built upon this concept entirely.

After gaining dizzying success from posting her self-written songs to TikTok in 2020, you are guaranteed to be familiar with the excerpts of music by pop star PinkPantheress, which have dominated viral trends.

Even by today’s standards, her songs are short and snappy, with most hanging around the two-minute mark or below. 

Describing herself as a melody writer above all, the star sees little merit in following traditional song structures, when one catchy 30-second snippet can be enough for viral fame.

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Music as a trend 

Alongside the tendency towards dopamine writing, artists wanting to target the TikTok audience must also think about its functionality as a trending material. 

Seeking the double media hit, most viral songs require a key lyric which users can turn into their own content. 

This could be an iconic routine, such as last summer’s ‘Apple Dance,’ or a more personal application of the lyrics, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” 

Throwing her into a major breakout moment, “Espresso” was Sabrina’s first major TikTok hit, with users using the line “I’m working late, ‘cause I’m a singer” to insert their own questionable reasons for staying awake longer than they should. 

This surge in attention for both songs has caused smaller artists to try to use this same model, often taking to the platform before a song is even released to try to create an engaging new trend for their own lyrics.

Desire for media engagement can start as early as the songwriting process itself, where melodies have become more compartmentalised and snappier, needing to function as standalone lines that hold appeal out of the wider context of the song itself. 

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Beyond TikTok - Is this a trend here to stay?

If attention-deficit songwriting has become such a recognisable format, the next natural question to be asked is how prevalent its influence may be.

Is this TikTokification of our pop music something now completely inseparable from the genre, or, like the fibres of the app itself, is this just another trend?

While it may feel as though we’re more addicted to short-form media than ever, with a steady fall of average song lengths of 18% between 1998 and 2019, 2025 has actually shown that single track lengths are back on the increase. 

Pulling out some of the biggest names in pop music at the moment, such as Chappelle Roan, Sam Fender and Lola Young, we see artists who have returned to longer and more developmental styles of songwriting. 

After several years of TikTok-dominant music, there appears to be a creeping counter-interest in artists who have a little more to say than their one viral line. 

Perhaps exhausted by the depersonalisation of the trend vacuum, fans are once again seeking a backstory over a catchy hook, drawn to the likes of Lola and Chapelle as people who have personal stories to connect with.

Conclusion

With TikTok showing no signs of releasing its societal chokehold anytime soon, both its champions and critics will grow in volume. 

Through rising tension between bite-sized hooks and slow-burn storytelling, maybe it is this battling contrast which will shape our songwriters more than one trend alone. 

Perhaps there’s room to find joy in both- the tightly crafted, media-savvy miniatures of PinkPantheress, and the expansive, story-driven works of artists like Sam Fender.

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