In August 2023, a “challenge” from the song “Smoke” was choreographed by dancers in the program, Street Woman Fighter2. With the hashtag #smokechallenge, it exceeded 260 million views on “TikTok,” and the original song ranked second place on Korean domestic music charts. TikTok and “Spotify,” the platforms representing new media, have created an entirely new boom. In particular, today’s challenges allow people to create and share short videos, which makes not only videos but also music prime targets for viral marketing.
Challenges: Leading Trends, Promoting Songs, Interacting, and Much More
So, what exactly is a challenge? When referring to so-called challenges, which are short social media videos encouraged to be imitated, they have a wider meaning than the original term “challenge.” The intent of challenges is to create a whole new trend from your hands and to make them go viral. Recently, new media platforms have started to focus on short-form content, typically lasting between 20 to 30 seconds. Examples of these platforms include “YouTube Shorts” and “Instagram Reels.” Among the features that attracts many young people, is the catch that anyone can start a massive trend.
Myung Soo min, a student participating in the Hanyang University (HYU) street dance club “More Lib,” states that the interaction between people who participate in the challenge is both its characteristic and advantage. “When challenges happen, they do not just end after it has been uploaded on Instagram or YouTube, but they also appear in Reels or Shorts recommendations. In the process of sharing each other’s videos, you can meet people with similar interests, or learn to dance from the content created by others.”
ZICO’s “Any Song” is the first song that sparked the dance challenge craze in Korea. The dance challenge video taken with singers like Hwasa and Chungha went viral. After that, celebrities as well as many ordinary people started to participate in the dance challenge altogether.
Lee Jae heun, the team leader of the Trend Department in the 20’s Lab of “Daehaknaeil” highlights the reason why short-form media such as challenges catch the attention of the younger generation. “The charm of challenges is that it contains vivid and natural content, and its popularity comes in the sense that it can be shared as a fun video that occurred in the process of filming. Also, another factor that makes challenges popular among young people is that people can easily participate in the play that many others also enjoy.”
Unplanned Collaboration and Imitation Become the Milestones of Media Success
Starting with ZICO, many artists soon began to participate in the dance challenge culture as a way to promote their songs. However, it is important to note that ZICO was not the first to try dance challenge marketing, and not all dance challenges were loved. So why did some dance challenges succeed while others did not? In response, Lee explains “Imitation is the key characteristic of a challenge that decides the public’s reaction. The easier and more eye catching the challenge becomes, the greater the likelihood of it being widely shared. Also, the originality of the challenge matters, as the younger generation is greatly attracted to not only what the majority does, but also new content that has the potential for users to recreate and turn it into a trend.” With challenges, music artists are newly equipped with an effective way to present themselves to the public. Without relying on large agencies, artists can promote their music in a friendly way that consumers can also enjoy. Nowadays music is not just limited to people who listen to it, but open to sharing simply through short platform contents. Listeners can easily access it as a challenge even if they do not try to search for music that suits their taste.
“In particular, for Generation Z that has a strong inclination towards engaging in and sharing their interests, challenges are attractive in the sense that they can easily interact by simply using a hashtag,” says Lee. “Cupid,” a song by K-Pop girl group Fifty Fifty, reached eighth place in the Billboard Chart’s Top 100 Songs and kept the spot for over seven weeks. Their success skyrocketed when the English version of the song was sped up and posted with the caption “The Best Pre-Chorus in 2023” on TikTok. This unplanned video soon turned itself into an advertisement for the song. Despite being a new group, they caught the public’s interest in a very short period of time.
Myung explains, “I could see that in the case of successful challenges, choreography tends to be simple for anyone to follow. These days, idol choreography is also adjusting the level of difficulty in consideration of creating a challenge. An example of this would be the artist Hwasa’s ʻChili’ choreography production process shown in Street Woman Fighter2.”
Losing Originality and Lives by Just Trying to Stay in the Picture
One of the biggest characteristics of a challenge is that it changes itself into a trend, enticing people to follow.
Park Yeon-su, a student participating in Seoul National University’s street dance club “H.I.S.,” explains how she approaches participating in a challenge. “Challenges give me something to talk about when I upload them on Instagram. Also, the experience of others viewing my challenge and the praise that I receive makes me feel proud of my dance choreography. Challenges have the power to form a consensus among people who know that challenge. Especially for dance challenges, they allow me to feel satisfaction beyond my own achievement by earning recognition from others.”
Although it is true that positive aspects of challenges exist such as the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” it is also necessary for consumers and participants to be careful and aware of challenges that can be dangerous. According to data compiled by Bloomberg Businessweek, a leading economic weekly magazine published by the media group “Bloomberg,” at least 20 teenagers lost their lives while participating in a TikTok challenge in 2022. The reason goes to harmful challenges, such as those that encourage people to induce hallucinations by holding their breath or overdosing on cold or allergy drugs. The desire of younger people who crave to belong to a larger social group and connect with others motivates them to participate in these deadly challenges. The feeling of not wanting to be alienated and being called a coward drives many to seek out these challenges.
As with everything, challenges can be a double-edged sword when introduced in the music industry. Marketing methods through short form media are shown in various forms such as repeatedly exposing songs on Instagram Reels and using influencer dance challenges. These strategies aim to expose music by increasing its visibility and eventually encouraging viewers to actively search for the content themselves. Park mentions the positive effects that challenges can bring. “A lot of people, including myself, see challenges as a sort of a hobby. It is very easy to follow and you can participate in it with your friends as something to play. For the younger generation, challenges even act as a significant means of communication.”
However, Park agrees that excessive exposure can cause antipathy, and viewers may become tired of hearing the same song repeatedly due to overlapping advertisements. In the case of Instagram Reels, it is difficult for uploaders to avoid being exposed to random people. In addition, due to the nature of the challenge, which needs to be primarily eye-catching, the songs and concepts of music artists and idol groups are increasingly changing to only elicit stimulating and strong reactions.
Challenges Reflect Modern Society’s Dilemma
Through challenges, our society creates new cultures and trends by cooperating with other people with similar interests regardless of physical distance, race, gender, and age. In addition, there is a clear advantage of challenges being able to spread positive messages widely in a short period of time. However, side effects definitely exist when a challenge goes too viral. If dangerous challenges become popular, there will be instances where teenagers and content users with a strong inclination to imitate will follow suit. In addition, certain music or dance challenges are criticized for only enhancing quality of the section that can be used as a challenge instead of improving the overall quality of the music. A real awareness of the impact that challenges bring, whether positive or negative, is necessary to foster a culture in which individuals can actively consume and communicate with challenge contents safely.