Endless talent is sat waiting for industry recognition online. Sometimes to stand out from the mountains of TikTok artists you need to embrace your weird and your uniqueness. Here, two up-and-coming UK artists who have a unique niche shared their experiences with handling TikTok music promotion and growing a loyal fanbase.
There are some things you would expect musicians to nail, like their guitar skills, or a great lyrical verse, or hitting the right notes. Your grandfather vibing to music in your Tik Tok videos- not so much. 23-year-old Andreas Yerou, known as Juke has been shaking things up as a self-producing, alternative R&B artist based in Northwest London. After making instrumentals on FL Studio, to finally buying a microphone to record on, in 2020, he decided to lay down his own vocals on his tracks. āI used to do theatre, so it was something I knew a little bit about, then after a while I got addicted to making music,ā Juke said. Now with 182k followers and a global fanbase, his wholesome covers of traditional Greek songs and showcasing of heartfelt originals grabbed the attention of millions on Tik Tok.Ā
Posting one Lewis Capaldi cover and hitting 10,000 views led Juke to believe his viral TikTok moment was around the corner, so naturally he pushed similar content. But, It all changed one day when he visited his Grandadsās house in the UK. āI showed him my songs, and I could tell because he’s older and Greek it couldnāt fully resonate with him. Shoutout to the spotify algorithm which showed me a Greek song I liked. I showed it to him and sung it to him. It was fun and casual, I put a camera up, but it was a very authentic moment,ā says Juke. āBear in mind I had no Greek audience, I posted it because it was sweet and added English subtitles to the video, and by coincidence I think that formula really worked because it was engaging for the eyes and a global audience can appreciate what you’re saying,ā he said.
Jukeās Grandad has now featured in over 50 of his videos. His consistent posting quickly turned into a miniseries called; āSinging my Grandad his favourite Greek songsā, with the most viewed clip currently sitting at an impressive 8.7 million views, with 1.3 million likes. Jukeās collection of videos, which are grouped under a playlist on his page called āVideos with Papouā, have not only elevated his TikTok views from hundreds to millions, but they continues to boost other content, like his originals, through interaction from his global audience. Videos are flooded with viewers’ comments like āMy Papou used to sing this to meā and āMakes me miss my Papou, treasure the moments you have with himā, as they resonate with Jukeās grandad and express their own memories with their own grandparents.
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For Juke, crafting music and building a fanbase is more than just a goal, itās a philosophy. āI think if you can make something that young people and old people like, then youāve hit something kind of timeless,ā he said. Finding a genre can ever-changing at the start, and Juke is still playing around with his sound. From producing trap inspired beats, then channelling contemporary r&b to experimenting with pop sounding acoustic melodies, his new found sound has a new edge. āI guess it’s taking my favourite elements in different genres and fusing them together to make something that I think is gonna be quite unique, weirdly enough thereās gonna be subtle country folk in the new stuff as well,ā Juke said. āThe Greek thing has changed the way I started singing quite a bit. Greek singers are always so dramatic and they belt with their vocals, they give big powerful vocals in a way that a lot of r&b that I was listening to wasnāt. So that’s something thatās feeding into my new stuff big time as well,ā he said.
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The demand to be ābroad but differentā at the same time is pressured upon artists within the music industry more than ever. It feels like an almost impossible task without spontaneous moments in some cases. āItās the thing that everyone is looking for and no one really knows what the hell that means. Just try to be different but always care about what you are saying if you can,ā he shared. Juke already released his tracks long before taking TikTok promotion seriously, but āsocial media was the thing that made it real,ā he said.
Stumbling across a niche that struck a chord with a global audience worked for Juke. His casual event may seem like a stroke of luck, but it also speaks to the opportunities that emerge when artists stay open to experimentation and embrace spontaneity on TikTok.
The whole ārepetitive posts versus unexpectedly viral momentsā may seem a bit baffling. So, does having a niche musical identity help grow a loyal audience on TikTok? The answer seems to be yes. Whilst artists experiment with new content, one thing remains clear: expressing your uniqueness and staying true to yourself will grab peoples attention. It may not always mean millions of views, but Itās a good path to be on in an industry so full of clones and unoriginality.
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