BWW Blog: Utilizing TikTok as a Creative Tool

Hey Broadway World!

I started classes this week, so I've been trying to find a balance between completing my schoolwork and working on my artistic projects. This semester, I've decided to start writing a new musical. More specifically, I've been writing a queer, meta adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that focuses on every character besides Romeo and Juliet. After some encouragement from a friend, I decided to post a bit of the opening number on TikTok. To my surprise, people have been really enjoying it! Five days, and 25,000 views later, I've finished the initial song, begun a few more, and created a TikTok musical, apparently.

To be completely honest, I was a bit zoned out for the whole Ratatouille TikTok musical, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I'm almost 20 years old, so I've grown up around technology, and more specifically social media. I've realized this week that I don't necessarily know how best to utilize social media as an artistic marketing tool. So, I decided to improvise. I posted a few individual TikToks featuring clips of the opening number, and I intercut those uploads with some info and updates about the project. Moving forward, I'm planning to split up the songs with comedy content that is relevant to the show (that is to say, similar to Romeo and Juliet). I also created a video to promote my YouTube channel, where the song exists in full, which will hopefully help me build traction across multiple platforms. On top of all of that, I utilized TikTok's live feature to stream a video of myself and my process for completing the song. I've found these to be very helpful steps in navigating social media platforms as a creation took.

Additionally, I've learned a really valuable lesson about pacing myself. Over the past week, I've been creating a decent chunk of content. I'm a perfectionist, so writing music, creating tracks, and editing videos takes me a while. I get overwhelmed easily, and the rate at which I've been putting out videos has been a bit stressful. As an artist, it's very easy to fall into a slump and think that no one cares. Personally, I worry about that regularly. I've realized when that feeling pops up, I tend to stop creating. It's a rough cycle to fall into.

However, I may have found a way to keep myself going. I don't want to play into the cartoonish idea of people my age being social media obsessed, however, getting positive feedback (likes, views, comments, etc.) from followers has become a really valuable part of the process for me. Interacting with a small (but passionate) audience has helped motivate me to put out music more regularly. Building an audience (of any size) truly encourages you to keep creating regularly. I'm really grateful to have a small community of people who seem to enjoy my music. I hope that people reading this can find something similar, even if it's just a few friends.

Finding a project that you can take joy in working on, especially in our current climate. If you're interested in following along with my musical, please feel free to follow my TikTok (@retroelm). Classes are back in full swing for me, so I'm happy to have a creative outlet like this, and such a wonderful platform here on BroadwayWorld. I hope everyone is doing well.

Sincerely,

Me

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