How legacy artists are re-entering the social landscape

Remember the photo of Kim Kardashian that broke the internet? A singular piece of content had such high shock value that it took the internet by storm - popularizing the term and bringing it to the forefront of modern vocabulary. The phrase gets thrown around quite flippantly nowadays, but we can confidently say it happened again when Avril Lavigne and Tony Hawk collaborated on a TikTok post. If you haven't heard about this news, you may be living under a rock, but that’s not a problem because we’re here to tell you how it all went down.

At Creed, one of our mottos is “we break artists”, but after this post we may have to rethink that… perhaps something like “we re-break early 2000’s artists on TikTok” is more fitting. If you’re wondering why, it's because this viral sensation came to fruition through our social media management and content production collaboration with Nox Media (which launched earlier this year).

This one post garnered over 23M views, 122K comments, 4.9M likes, and a gain of 1.6M followers for Avril Lavigne’s account in less than two days. Yup, you heard that right - and to top it off this was all done with her first post on the platform.

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So what made it all go viral? Avril Lavigne turned back the clock with her infamous loose tie as she lip synched her 2002 hit “Sk8er Boi”. While this was exciting enough, she was joined by legendary skater Tony Hawk, sporting the same loose tie and shredding down a halfpipe. This was done in honor of the “Go Skateboarding Day”, celebrated yearly by The Skateboard Project; a non-profit organization run by Hawk with the mission to make skateboarding more accessible. So was it the nostalgia from the good ole’ days mixed with the legendary resurfacing of “Sk8er Boi”? We have some ideas, but let us know what you think.

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TikTok is giving us the nostalgia injections we didn’t know we needed

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While this is currently a major happening in the world of digital, it is not the first time a legacy act resurfaced thanks to TikTok. If you’re not familiar, let us take you through some instances of how “oldies but goldies” took the internet by storm through the platform.

1. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” made a massive comeback with the help of a viral video made by TikTok creator @doggface208 as he skateboards down the road, drinking cranberry juice, and singing along to the track. The video translated into a resurgence of popularity for Fleetwood Mac, with “Dreams” receiving a 374% jump in sales and a 89% jump in streams, putting the classic hit back on Billboard's top charts. Not only that, but this video managed to transform the cranberry juice company (Ocean Spray) overnight.
2. Robbie Tronco’s “Walk4Me” is an electronic classic, and without daily TikTokers knowing its origins, they still used the sound to show off looks, joke about hiding personality traits, and in one instance revealed a crazy pregnancy announcement.
3. Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," received a second life. What once was an early 2000s cultural cornerstone has been remixed and is the baseline for a dance challenge with over 615K creations (including TV-chef Gordon Ramsays and his daughter, Lizzo, and Natasha Begindfield herself).
4. This one may not come as a surprise, but Britney Spears has two viral songs in rotation on the platform that find new life every day. Her 2003 hit “Toxic” and 2007 banger “Gimme More” have resurfaced through many different challenges, allowing users to express themselves and revive the legendary phrase, “it’s Britney Bitch”.  
5. Now this last example may seem a bit strange. The Backyardians was an animated children's show released in 2004 that found a new home and fan base on TikTok. While the show hasn’t aired new episodes in years, both songs have since gone viral and climbed the Spotify charts. The songs “Into The Thick Of It” and “Castaways” have become sort of a phenomenon on the app, as they are being used by users to shake their hips and display funny POV scenarios.

Similar to retro fashion trends coming back in style, TikTok is giving classic songs a new life through a younger generation; not only making a full circle, but a lasting impact. The resurfacing of these older tracks is just another proof point that TikTok is a powerhouse for the virality of songs.


Hit us up if you’d like to learn more about what we do at Creed, since as you now know, we re-break early 2000’s artists on TikTok, and much more.