Main character energy: Why is TikTok obsessed with movie soundtracks?

6 October 2023

Popstar Dua Lipa is posing on the pink carpet at the Barbie movie premiere. She's wearing a strappy multi-coloured sparkly dress and has her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She is standing in front of Barbie backdrop of the skyline of London. — Image caption,
Dua Lipa is one of the many artists who were part of the Barbie soundtrack, alongside Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Billie Eilish

By Megan Lawton

Newsbeat reporter

Get ready with us to read an article about epic soundtracks and how they're taking over the most downloaded app in the world.

You can't talk about TikTok without talking about music.

It started out back in 2016 as a karaoke app and miming and dancing have always been part of its DNA.

Now it's a place where new artists are made and trends are born.

And one thing TikTok can't seem to get enough of is movie music.

According to the app's own data, the "soundtrack" hashtag has grown 84% in 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.

Or, to put it another way, videos with the tag have had over 2.3 billion views.

There are several theories about why this is the case. And the first one involves some songs you've almost certainly heard before.

The Barbie effect

It was the biggest film of the year, turned the summer pink and the soundtrack was a bit of a banger.

And there was no escaping the Barbie movie's songs on TikTok.

With 1.9m creations, Barbie World by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice became one of the app's most used songs this summer.

Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For - used as part of the #girlhood trend - was close behind with 1.4m videos.

Thanks to TikTok's algorithm, popular tracks like this can quickly start to feel overplayed.

But in the case of Barbie, our love for the plastic princess went beyond TikTok and influenced the charts too - with a record-breaking six tracks from the album hitting the UK top 40.

Radio 1 movie critic Ali Plumb believes that Barbie is a one-off, and the effect is down to the close link between the film's soundtrack and its clever marketing campaign.

"In years to come, we'll look back and a big part of it will be the music and its incredible success," he says.

While we may all be living in Barbie's world, there are plenty of people who think she's not alone in driving TikTok's love of soundtracks.

Which leads us on to our second theory.

The escapism effect

Creator and composer Joel Sunny tells Newsbeat his aim is to "make songs that take people out of the real world and into a fantasy realm".

The violinist's gained more than 1.8m followers and more than 40m likes thanks to his dramatic string versions, external of well-known pop and movie tracks.

"I did this before I even had social media, but I thought no-one would care about this kind of music," says the 22-year-old.

As we've seen from Joel's follower count, he got that one wrong.

Joel Sunny

Joel started learning violin when he was 11 years old

He's even turned his hand to creating his own soundtracks - including one for the book series A Court of Thorns and Roses.

So, why are his videos proving so popular? It's something Joel has given a lot of thought to.

"The younger generation really like to escape, especially after recent years with the pandemic," he says.

"Soundtracks give people a vehicle to do that."

Perhaps the greatest form of escape is nostalgia, and that's something Dora Dane, who posts weekly soundtrack quizzes on TikTok, credits with her channel's success.

Her followers will have heard tracks from Twilight, Mean Girls and other noughties hits.

But the 23-year-old from London says her biggest video was based on a real childhood classic.

Dora stands in front of the Alien movie poster with her arms folded. Her blonde hair is wavy. She's smiling and wearing a black hoodie.

Dora Dane

Dora Dane's favourite music composer is Ludwig Göransson, behind Oppenheimer and Black Panther

"My most successful video was Finding Nemo," she says.

"And I think that's a film so many people have watched over and over.

"I think listening to a certain motif can bring back that incredible feeling of nostalgia.

"I know listening to the Finding Nemo score hit me like I'd been winded, I was like, 'oh my god, this is my childhood'."

And if there's one thing children love, it's being the centre of attention.

Which leads nicely into our final theory.

You are the main character

"Main character energy" and "main character syndrome" are sometimes thrown around as insults on TikTok.

But let's be honest. Who hasn't soundtracked their lives in some way?

Singing in the mirror, strutting down the street listening to your favourite movie track, a spot of karaoke in your car - most of us have done it.

And violinist Joel thinks we've all got a bit of it in us.

"People like feeling like the main character," he says.

"There's so much of that on social media and nothing does that better than soundtrack music."

Film critic Ali says that film soundtracks are a natural choice for those main character moments because they're so recognisable.

And, because of that, they "do half the work for you" if you're a content creator, he says.

Ali points to the Wes Anderson TikTok trend, external, where people captured their daily lives in the style of The Grand Budapest Hotel's director.

"People use a little bit of harpsichord and suddenly bam, it's Wes Anderson," he says.

"On a platform which is about catching people's attention, using a well-known, emotionally manipulative - in a good way! - piece of moving music grabs you straight away.

"People want to keep watching because they recognise it and remember fond times of watching that film."