I know what you’re thinking. It’s my first article for The Differential and I chose to talk about TikTok AND expose the inordinate amount of time I spend on it instead of studying for an anatomy block I can barely survive?
I promise there’s a good reason for this. After trying to recall my last foray with the Arts, I quickly realized that I hadn’t had the chance to glance at the magnanimous architecture of a museum or step inside its neatly curated walls since ante the era of Queen Coronavirus’s reign. Yet knowing myself, I had just recently spammed a lifelong friend with prose that punched my arrector pili upright and another with an indie short film depicting the horrid cycle of on-and-off relationships in a perfect cinematic loop. And you guessed it—they were both TikToks.
Strangely enough, once you manage to manipulate the TikTok algorithm beyond inordinately beautiful teens and young adults performing dance challenges, there is a huge side of TikTok that serves artists the way SoundCloud gave us mumble rap and Chance the Rapper. The first of two artists that come to my mind is Blu DeTiger, a female bassist who’s been playing music before Tamagachis were popular. She performed in local bars in Manhattan for years until she went viral on TikTok. There’s Will Paquin, whose indie electric guitar playing sounds like an Arizona sunset and GameCube nostalgia. They start by posting snippets of songs in development on TikTok. Once the creators get some hype from people like me, avoiding responsibilities by perusing underground artists, they release official singles on major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
“But that’s not REALLY the same as going to an art museum! Where is the appreciation for the classics, for every other medium of art besides trendy music?” I hear you, o’ touter and gatekeeper of what is considered real art, and I must be forthright in assuaging your reservations! Some of the most poignant lines of poetry I have recently read have come from anonymous writers on TikTok who post their works with beautiful backdrops of music, the blinking mouse cursor saying hello on their word document, showing the real-time progress of their labor of creativity. Two of my favorite poets are @wordswillneverbeenough and @t.poetryy aka T.C. Derst (19.9k and 17.9k followers respectively). Here’s an excerpt from one of my recent favorites:
I’ve been practicing / Stillness. / It’s such a stranger to me. / I’m always stirring, / Swaying, shaking, / Speaking. There must be / Movement in my marrow, / Some humming in the / Center of the / Sticky /sweet bone. / If I’m water, I’m a river. / Couldn’t dream of / Lakehood. / But God, / What I would give /To freeze over, / For just one quiet winter / Below the ice.
-T.C. Derst
TikTok also has an abundance of people passionate about art and educating the average art amateur like me. Marina Abramovic is one of the most prolific performance artists of our time, but her 2010 piece, “A Minute in Silence,” with ex-lover Ulay drove GenZ crazy once it went viral on TikTok. What was once a name only those in the art world would know in a heartbeat was now on the tips of tongues of angsty teens in public school. There are accounts like @violet111dy who post classical art pieces by zooming into segments a casual observer may have missed, adding music to amplify the emotional experience, and allow for greater appreciation than I have ever had while staring confusedly at a painting without context in the all-white backdrop that commonly plagues the traditional museum.
TikTok might be the Marxist revolution the art world is in dire need of. It provides a free platform for artists to grow and engage with a new potential audience, but also allows absolutely anyone with a smartphone to gain exposure into art they would have never approached normally. It breaks down many barriers for people who want to enjoy multiple art forms without the difficulties associated with the traditional museum. It reclaims art for the masses. There is no entrance fee or background knowledge of the arts required. All you need to enjoy art on TikTok is a one-minute attention span and an anatomy exam worth procrastinating for.
Natalie Nabaty is a medical student from the class of 2025 at UACOMP with so many passions she struggles to juggle them all. Between playing guitar, dancing traditional Assyrian line dances, and studying global health, writing is a skill she is happy to refine while in medical school. She graduated from ASU with a Bachelors in Biology and a minor in Psychology. Her special interests include migrant health, global neurology, and medical humanism.