TikTok Is the New Radio

“Drivers License,” the latest song to top the charts alongside a viral challenge, tells us something about the kind of music the app rewards.

- By Craig Jenkins

The No. 1 song in the U.S. right now—Disney Channel star Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” an archetypal 21stcentury sad piano ballad—has achieved an unusual feat: It’s a debut single that reached the top of Billboard’s “Hot 100” chart after its first week out. The last time this occurred with any regularity was in the early aughts, when the first postshow singles by American Idol winners Fantasia Barrino, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Hicks arrived to nationwide attention after weeks of exposure to the prime-time audiences of one of the most-watched shows on television. It takes a big media apparatus to propel a new artist to the forefront of the American streaming charts. What gave Rodrigo the juice? Are people simply that enthralled with her work as Nini from Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series?