The DNA of Lizzo’s Rise Up The Charts
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Evolution of an Artist is a series that analyzes artists that have recently exploded to the top of the charts. By reverse engineering their rise in popularity, the goal is to identify patterns and key elements that help an artist build a successful music career.
How does a song that has been out for 2+ years rise to the top of the charts?
Let’s dive into.
Although Lizzo’s hit record, “Truth Hurts,” was released in September 2017, it has taken off over the past several months due to three main reasons: the vitality of her presence on social media, specifically Instagram and TikTok, the Netflix sync of the track, and DSP playlisting, each element helping to spur the next one.
Instagram: Creating Virality
On October 20, 2018, Lizzo posted a video on Instagram of her playing the flute and then performing the “shoot dance” (which previously was viral among teenagers) at a show.
The video blew up on social media, and to date has garnered 632,259 views. As one can see below, Lizzo’s interaction rate on Instagram for that post was way higher, compared to other posts.
This video helped spike her Instagram following, especially when the Instagram account, the Shaderoom re-posted the video to their 15.9m followers. The video on their page has 859,808 views to date.
This viral moment on Instagram enabled her to grow her following among a very specific demographic, acting as a catalyst for another viral moment.
TikTok
With a substantial and growing Instagram following, mostly comprised of females under age 25, Lizzo created the ideal audience to go viral on TikTok.
In February of 2019, the hashtag #DNATest started to take steam on TikTok, utilizing the first line of Lizzo’s song “Truth Hurts:” “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch.”
The hashtag has 162.7m views to date. While the virality of the song on TikTok may not have substantially increased streams, it did increase awareness among a key demographic for a rom com movie — young females.
SYNChronization
Sync
With Lizzo having a young and engaged following, especially her track “Truth Hurts” through TikTok and Instagram virality, Netflix decided to use the song in their original movie, Someone Great. This was the real turning point for the song.
Shown below, with the release of the movie, Shazam’s and Genius views spiked in April with the release of the movie. This integrated well with Lizzo’s demographic, as close to a quarter of Netflix subscribers are between 18–24 (they don’t have statistics on under 18 year olds), and 57% of viewers are women. The show is a rom-com so presumably would attract young females to watch it — perfectly aligning with Lizzo’s demographic.
The Netflix sync helped the track finally reach the charts. The movie came out on April 19 and, as per Chartmetric, the song was No. 1 on the Spotify Global Viral 50 chart by April 22. By April 25, the song was playlisted on Today’s Top Hits, which, has an enormous impact on a song’s trajectory and success. On April 27, “Truth Hurts” appeared on the Spotify US Top 50 chart (at No. 17), and the Global Top 50 chart on May (at No. 46). It also entered the Top 10 on the iTunes chart (at No. 10) on April 25. Finally, the song debuted at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 18, and reached the Top 10 (No. 6) in July. Shown to the left are Spotify editorial playlist adds for “Truth Hurts,” sorted by date — most notable are all the viral charts across the world that she appeared on after the movie came out. Additionally important to note is how few playlist adds there were before Someone Great was released, compared to after.
Synchronization
As mentioned, the Netflix movie came out on April 19 2019. And you know what came out April 20th? Lizzo’s album.
Lizzo’s team synchronized her release magically. Netflix release on April 19th, along with a Jimmy Kimmel live TV appearance, followed by Lizzo’s album.
Combine all those elements and in just the 24 hours after the movie release, Jimmy Kimmel performance, and album release, her social following increased by:
∙ 25,316 followers on Instagram (+3.4%)
∙ 6,695 followers on Twitter (+3.4%)
∙ 922 likes on Facebook (+1%)
∙ 3,457 subscribers on YouTube (+1.7%)
∙ 6,747 followers on Spotify(+3%)
additionally, her Wikipedia page received a staggering 22,407 views on April 20th.
These elements, combined, helped spark Lizzo’s explosive past few months. Not only did she have a viral video, but it seemed to have reached the demographic that would then later help spark the TikTok hashtag. Having a fun song, along with a highly engaged young and female-leaning fanbase, helped garner the Netflix sync, which, in turn, sparked playlisting and charting. It should also be noted that Lizzo had some significant performances, which would have helped expand the reach of the track; as well, the authentic brand that Lizzo built (and continues to build) through socials and live performances is another key element to her success and appeal.
The story of Lizzo and specifically’ “Truth Hurts” shows that the world does not seem to care how old a song is — as long as it has a narrative and provides value for the listeners (or, perhaps, “user” would be a more accurate word in TikTok’s case), a song can gain traction. There’s a reason why contextual playlists on Spotify (e.g., Beast Mode, commuter playlists, etc.) are so popular — it’s about the user and the value that the playlists provide to the listener — creating a soundtrack to their day. Spotify, TikTok, Triller, and now Instagram Stories (through sharing Spotify or Soundcloud songs) all provide the industry with a great opportunity to think more about the narrative and context of a song rather than be release-oriented. The weapon in this case was a TikTok meme and Netflix sync, but there are other’s out there to bring life to a song, whether it’s catalog or a new release. Songs are the ammo; the narrative is the weapon. I wrote an article about how Spotify creates value through their contextual playlists that you can find here.
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