In just two months, TikTok managed to turn Nathan Evans, an unknown singer-songwriter, into a viral star with a record deal and a list of UK tour dates.
“It happened quickly. It’s surreal – I’m still waiting to wake up,” says 26-year-old Evans, who started the TikTok sea shanty trend of early 2021. “Someone left a comment under one of my TikToks back in July, of a different sea shanty, asking me to do ‘Wellerman’. It was about four days after I posted it that it passed 1 million views. I never expected it to take off.”
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Discussion Questions:
- What is publicity?
- How does social media help to generate publicity?
- How does TikTok help emerging artists generate publicity?
- How might publicity help an emerging artist to get noticed?
- How many views do you think it takes before a record label might take notice of an emerging artist?
- How might social media help the career of those artists even after they sign a record deal?