- She already knows!
- ♪ Stupid boy... ♪
- Oh, they're vibing.
They're straight vibing.
♪ (punk rock intro) ♪
- (FBE) First of all,
we wanted to say welcome, Ashnikko.
- Thank you.
- (FBE) Sub Urban, we are so excited
to have you in the studio
filming with us here at FBE.
- Ooh, thank you.
I grew up watching Kids React
when it first started,
and I thought it was
the funniest [bleep] thing.
I never imagined in my life
that I would be doing
one of these.
God. This is the wall.
- (FBE) Yeah!
- The legendary wall.
- (FBE) Yeah.
- Can I touch it?
- (FBE) Yeah!
As you know, we recently
showed some of our teens
a few music artists that have gained
some notoriety from the app TikTok,
which included you.
- Mm-hmm.
- (FBE) So, we're gonna show you
what they said about your music
and see what you think about it.
- Mm-hmm. The teens! All right.
I love 'em. Let's do it.
- ♪ Wet! Wet! Wet! ♪
- (Jair) I love how this starts.
- (LeRaun) What the heck is this?
- "What the heck is this?"
- (Emily) This is the stupid boy thing.
- (chuckles)
She already knows!
Okay, so the thing about the intro,
the "Wet! Wet! Wet,"
that was just an adlib.
That was just a random thing
that I put on there.
I had no...
NO earthly idea that people
would take to that bit.
To see that that's the initial bit
that caught on is crazy.
- (Myles) Oh my god.
This is a TikTok song. (laughs)
- It's a TikTok song.
- (Anna) I've heard this song, and...
- They all know what the song is.
That's great. I love that.
That's crazy! It's interesting
that so many people know the song
but don't actually know me.
- (Myles) It's like all blood
and her clean blue hair.
- Okay, okay, okay.
"Her clean blue hair"?
That wig was expensive.
I was not about to pour blood
on my new wig.
Second of all, if I was going
to go on a murdering spree,
you bet your ass
that I'm keeping my hair clean.
- (Emily) This is like one
of the people that would walk around
at Horror Nights and just they don't
have to do anything to scare you.
They just walk past you,
and you're already nervous.
- I'm just trying
to be a creepy bitch.
- (Jayka sings along)
♪ I know you think about me
in the shower ♪
♪ Pornhub in your browser ♪
♪ Fantasize about... ♪
- She's cute.
- ♪ Fantasize about
the [bleep] power ♪
- Okay.
- Mm. I know this part, yeah.
- ♪ I'm big boss Bowser ♪
- The Bowser move.
They like become Bowser.
I love that. They're all very cute.
They're all pretty cute.
- (past FBE) So first, we're gonna
show you some of the TikToks
that helped popularize
the song "STUPID."
- Okay.
- ♪ Stupid boy think that I need him ♪
- So, this was the one--
so, I made a TikTok to my own song,
and I based it off of this TikTok.
Libby Vachon? 'Va-shon'?
Thank you for your
creative contribution.
- (laughs)
- I love these ones
when they're cut.
- Big boss Bowser.
I'm gonna incorporate that
in my stage routine.
- (Myles) She's very out there.
She's not afraid to be herself.
That's what I feel like brings this--
makes this platform very big.
It's 'cause people aren't afraid
to show who they actually are.
- What a cute baby.
I think TikTok's good.
It lets the weirdos... blossom
and lets kids
be themselves.
"Kids." I talk like
I'm a [bleep] 80-year-old grandma.
It lets people be themselves.
- (past FBE) We have a song
called "Cradles"
by the artist Sub Urban,
who is a 19-year-old music artist
and producer.
- (Jair) Have not heard.
- How have you not heard of me?
That's me.
- (Troy) Yeah. I've heard this.
- Yeah, you have.
- (Jair) I've heard this
on the speaker in my house,
and I'll be like "Hush"
just walking around.
That song goes so hard.
- Oh, thank you.
- ♪ (Jair hums along) ♪
- Yeah. Yup. Bob your head.
- (Myles) It's dark,
but it's entertaining dark.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- (Myles) I know this song.
- ♪ Hush ♪
- (Anthony) Oh.
(gasps) Ay.
- ♪ (hums along) ♪
- Oh, they're vibing.
They're straight vibing.
- (Troy) Not hearing the specific
beat drop part, I would never
think it would be that big of a...
- What is that supposed to mean?!
- (Anthony) Oh, that was so cool!
- Aw, thank you.
- (Anna) ...Billie Eilish, like...
- I took no inspiration
from Billie Eilish!
I respect her for her art.
I love it.
But I-- this is-- no.
This is me. (chuckles)
- (Anna) ...E-boy goth.
- Is E-boy a compliment these days?
I don't really know.
I mean, it doesn't help
that I'm wearing a little
black and white striped sleeve.
- (Myles) It's not even just TikTok,
'cause TikToks are on Instagram
and Twitter now. So, it' just...
- Yeah. No, see? Social media
is a butterfly effect.
It starts on TikTok, sure.
But it's not contained within TikTok.
There was a huge splurge
of YouTube content that came from
just the song blowing up from TikTok.
And a lot of the people that actually
used the song didn't know
that it blew up on TikTok.
I like to consider myself more
of just a normal artist,
not a TikTok artist, but it's cool.
- (past FBE) So, this song actually
started a huge dance trend on TikTok,
so we have some of those
to show you now.
- (Anna) You're kidding.
What about that song makes you
be like, "Ayy!"
- A few things, actually.
Have you heard the ♪ "BLOCK,
BLOCK, BLOCK" ♪ part?!
- ♪ It's hard to breathe,
but that's all right ♪
- (Anthony) Ay.
- (Anna) Wow.
- There's my boy Rohann.
There's my boy Rohann. Go off.
I reached out to Rohann
when I saw that people
were copying that dance,
and I knew he was the originator.
I reached out to him,
and I wanted to sort of
branch onto TikTok
and actually do TikToks
just to, you know,
get a little promotion in there.
He totally helped me out
with establishing, "Hey,
I made this song,"
because originally it was just
a sound and nobody knew
what the song was actually called.
Some guy named it "Oh my god!
I don't know why this blew up."
TikTok artist relations reached out
and they helped out a ton.
They grew the song definitely
by actually adding the title
and the artist.
- (past FBE) So, for you
and your friends,
how influential would you say
that TikTok is to music right now?
- (LeRaun) Oh, for music? It's huge,
because it really lets others people
take their take or have their take
on different songs, and no other apps,
I think, have been able to do that.
- It's crazy. It would be stupid
not to acknowledge the power
TikTok has over music right now.
TikTok is basically
influencing music now
in such a powerful way.
And if you can't jump on board
and understand that,
then you're gonna fall behind.
It completely changed my music career.
It's wild. It's wild!
- (Troy) ...a big part of a lot
of artists that blow up.
Like, on Genius, I see all the time
they do like top 10 TikTokkers
or whatever.
- Yeah, I was on Genius.
I don't think I was included
in the compilation.
I'm kind of okay with that.
- (Jair) Now, a lot of artists
are probably thinking like,
"Can my song be lip-sync-able?"
or "Can my song"--
'cause it's a great
marketing strategy,
because that's what
we're always watching.
- I've heard that a lot
of artists will write a song
to be TikTok-able.
I did not set out to do that.
It's an interesting way
to think about songwriting.
- (Anna) Now that I hear these songs
that I've apparently heard before
and that they got famous on TikTok,
I feel like TikTok
is way more influential
to music than I thought it would be.
- There you go. I feel like a lot
of songs that get popular
on TikTok are usually just singles.
It's hard to break out of that stigma
of being a TikTok artist.
The fact is the people choose
the songs and what gets popular.
If it's not a challenge,
it's usually just because the song
is vibey as [bleep]
and people actually like it.
- I remember looking
at the Spotify viral charts.
Of the top 10, it was like
almost half of them were from TikTok.
The world's changing, baby!
You gotta get with the times.
- (FBE) So first, when did you notice
that your song was being used
across TikTok and what did
you think about it?
- I remember I got sent
a screenshot of all the TikTok videos
when it was on like 600 videos.
And I was like, "Holy [bleep].
600 is so many!"
But now it's on like three million
or something crazy like that.
That's a lot of numbers!
That's a lot of videos!
- Going on the Artist app,
the Spotify Artist app, and I noticed
it was just trending upwards.
My whole management team
was just like,"What is going on?"
I don't know how people were like--
if they were getting another phone
and Shazam-ing their phone with TikTok
on it to find the song,
because there was no artist,
title anywhere.
If people were doing that,
that's hype.
That's crazy that they were
actually really that PASSIONATE
over the SOUND.
- (FBE) So, as you just saw
the teens' perspective
on how the app has influenced music
that they listen to,
we wanna know how TikTok
has influenced you
and how you view your career.
- I think that TikTok
has made me realize
that I have full control.
The possibilities are endless.
I can make stupid songs
about [bleep] and it's fine.
"STUPID" was not my single track
on my EP. It was not the single.
It was a song that I had
to kind of ask to be added on.
- It gives me an idea
of what makes a song go viral.
I mean, if you really wanna
analyze down to its core,
you'll have these fat bassy bangers,
you'll have the vibey ones,
then you'll have the ones
where there's a lyric
that creates a whole challenge.
There's manufactured TikTok hits.
You can tell people are trying
to do that now.
But organically,
the best a song will ever do
is when it's completely natural.
And you can manufacture them
all you want,
but real composition writing
comes from the soul.
- (FBE) There seems to be
a growing stigma when it comes
to TikTok with some often saying
that it's mostly just cringy content.
But clearly, many don't feel that way
considering the popularity
of the platform.
- Yeah.
- (FBE) So, what do you think
when you hear these things
like that about TikTok,
especially given the success
that you have found on that platform?
- Yeah, I mean,
a lot of the content on TikTok
is cringy, but so is a lot
of the human race,
so that makes sense.
Just gotta find the right creators
and the right accounts to follow.
I think it's hilarious.
I follow really funny people,
and I have a good time.
- As long as the songs were there,
I always thought there's gonna be
people lip syncing and dancing,
and it's not gonna be that cool.
It's gonna be for younger kids.
But then people started doing
more comedy stuff.
It was cool to see it take off
in a direction that nobody
was really expecting,
because everybody was craving that.
Like, nobody knew why Vine shut down.
I mean, personally, I don't know
why Vine shut down.
This is what everybody needed
and a little bit more.
People are generalizing it,
especially older teenagers.
They're looking back on it.
It's like, "Ahhh."
But there's a lot of content creators
on there that are cool.
- (FBE) So, you are going to be doing
many exciting things in your career,
so what is next for you?
- I am designing my own vibrator.
I'm working with a lot
of really cool people. (smooch)
I'm gonna be putting out
so much music next year.
You're gonna be so annoyed
with my existence,
'cause I'm putting out
just loads of music. So much music!
- I'm gonna be dropping
a little project next year
a little earlier in the year
and a few more music videos
like "Cradles" definitely.
I'm gonna be touring and doing shows
next year, but this project,
I'm excited for it.
- (FBE) So finally, to end
this episode, now that you've gotten
to see what the teens think
about some of your music
as well as some of the TikToks
and how it's affecting music,
is there anything you wanna say
to all the people that have
made these TikTok kind of videos
with your song and helped it
become what it is today?
- Yeah. Thank you, babies!
Thank you so much!
- Honored to have been on this.
Never expected any of this to happen.
- Thank you for taking my child
and making her into what she is now.
- Thank you so much
for having me, FBE.
Make sure you follow me
on Twitter, Instagram.
Thank you so much.
- Thanks to FBE for having me.
Make sure you follow me
on... the internet.
Go listen to my music!
It's been real. I've had a good time.
I'm gonna go now.
