Doja performed “Say So” all year long and did her best to keep it fresh with different renditions of the song showing her range. In the music video she even did the dance and included the TikToker who created the dance challenge. As a result of the unexpected success of the song on TikTok, she released it as a single. The single “Say So” initially wasn’t released as a single, but took off on TikTok with the help of a viral dance. The remix of “Juicy’’ with Tyga charted on the Billboard Hot 100, which was Doja’s first charting song, and Amala charted on the Hot 200.ĭoja’s sophomore album Hot Pink was her true breakthrough album with the help of TikTok. All three songs were put on the Deluxe edition of Amala. It was a perfect combo for virality.Īfter the success of “Mooo!”, Doja collaborated with other stars like Tyga on “Juicy” and Rico Nasty on “Tia Tamera”, which helped introduce her to their audiences. Plus, the song is both ironically and unironically good. The goofy lyrics, lofi greenscreen background, cute costumes, and Doja’s sense of humour were all so funny and charming. From there the music video didn’t just take off with fans, but went viral. She was inspired by her cow costume she had gotten for her tour, and the song and music video were an inside joke with her fans. She made “Mooo!” and its music video in one day, apparently starting the song at around 2:30 PM and finishing the music video around 3 AM. Her first album Amala, which is her legal name, got a bit of attention, but didn’t take off until she released her song “Mooo!” and its corresponding music video.
Doja Catĭoja Cat on the other hand actually got a major label deal when she was 17 years old (about eight years ago). He always goes hard on promotion and milking his success especially with the help of stan Twitter. And so he was put on the remix, which is now probably the most famous version of “Old Town Road”.įrom there, Lil Nas X kept making remixes of “Old Town Road”, engaged with fans on Twitter and TikTok, and milked it. Billy Ray Cyrus also defended the track as a country song and from there Twitter campaigned for him to be on the track. Billboard removed “Old Town Road” from the country charts for not being country enough, which resulted in a lot of backlash accusing Billboard of racism. He marketed the song as more country than hip hop because the song had a better shot up against modern country songs on the charts than the hip hop charts. The hip hop/country combination of the song caused controversy around “Old Town Road” that eventually worked in Lil Nas X’s favour. This trend took off because it was easy for everyone to do their own version of it and the song’s quirky and unexpected because of its hip hop/country fusion. He agreed and started the #yeehaw challenge in which people start the video in their regular civilian clothes and then switch into cowboy clothes. Popular TikToker found the song on SoundCloud and asked Lil Nas X if he could use it on TikTok. Of course we know “Old Town Road” was really catapulted into success through TikTok. He even posted a video of a man standing on a horse with “Old Town Road” playing on YouTube and when the video became popular as a meme he edited the title to include the lyrics of the song. He also posted on Reddit threads like r/HipHopHeads and r/NameThatSong plugging some of the lyrics, asking what song it was, then on a separate account answering it that way if someone looked up the song they would be able to find it in a Google search. After releasing it, he posted a hundred memes a month to promote it on his Twitter account. Lil Nas X knew he needed something short, catchy, and funny to catch on with his followers. He posted tons of meme content to build his following so that he could promote his music to his followers. I mean, what’s the point of releasing lots of music if it’s difficult for people to discover? He made a Twitter account called where he posted memes and also was a Nicki Minaj stan account. Lil Nax X knew that the importance of promotion was the same as or more important than putting out the music.