Behind the rise of viral earworms on TikTok, whose musical DNA and culture of repetition often leads to the same songs being reused again and again in videos (Asha Saluja/Slate)

Asha Saluja / Slate:
Behind the rise of viral earworms on TikTok, whose musical DNA and culture of repetition often leads to the same songs being reused again and again in videos  —  Gen Z's favorite video app is a blessing in a pandemic.  But why does so much of it sound the same?  —  I downloaded TikTok in April, a month into COVID isolation.