Over the years TikTok has grown into a powerful marketing tool that has cemented several K-pop songs as viral sensations across the globe. Oftentimes, all it takes is a catchy hook, or a fun choreography, and users all over the world find themselves bopping along and shooting the song to greater heights and larger streaming numbers.
Many K-pop songs have enjoyed massive success on the social media platform, and solo artists and groups are becoming more intentional about securing the next big TikTok dance challenge. Here are some of the K-pop singles you’ve probably heard, because at some point, they hit viral status and were played constantly, raking up millions and billions of views.
“Any Song” — Zico
The “Any Song” challenge is still one of TikTok’s most popular challenges and one of the first K-pop challenges to penetrate borders. The challenge proved to be such a hit that multiple celebrities participated in it. Block B’s Zico released the single “Any Song” and posted a series of videos of himself performing the choreography with many of his celebrity friends.
“After School” — Weekly
The young girl group Weekly saw viral success over their song “After School” when people started copying the cute choreography from the music video. Many dance covers of the song were posted to TikTok and thus, the “After School” challenge was born. The choreography is in the intermediate difficulty level, and is filled with transitions between slow and quick dance steps.
“Blood, Sweat and Tears” — BTS
The song may have been released in 2016, but that didn’t stop people from making BTS’s hit song “Blood, Sweat and Tears” go viral on TikTok years later. The track regained public interest due to a sped-up version of the chorus being used as a recurring dance trend. Many TikTok influencers such as Charlie D’Amelio used the song, both for the dance trend and as a background sound for regular videos, leading others to do the same.
“Anti-Romantic” — TXT
Though “Anti-Romantic” by TXT is a sad song about not refusing to love anymore because of the pain, TikTokers still managed to turn it into a dance challenge. The “Anti-Romantic” dance challenge features a simple and cute choreography that uses the popular TikTok dance hand motions, following the beat instead of the lyrics.
“Zoom” — Jessi
Jessi’s catchy single “Zoom” went viral due to the number of celebrities and idols that took part in the song’s popular challenge. Jessi herself created the TikTok challenge and released dance videos with other idols such as TXT’s Yeonjun and Soobin, spurring many eager fans to try their hand at the challenge.
“Permission to Dance” — BTS
“Permission to Dance” was released by BTS specifically to inspire hope, joy and, of course, dancing, so it is no surprise that it came with its own infectious dance challenge. The “PTD” choreography was intentionally made simple and easy to follow, becoming accessible to a large number of TikTokers. In a fun twist, many healthcare workers decided to join in on the trend to create their own “PTD” dance challenge videos and spread hope.
“WANNABE” — Itzy
Itzy’s “WANNABE” got its moment of virality on TikTok when people started trying to imitate a certain part of the fun, complicated choreography. Ryujin’s now iconic shoulder dance looks easy enough when she does it, but fans soon found that it required a lot of skill to pull off.
“Polaroid Love” — Enhypen
Enhypen continues to blow up on social media partly in thanks to their fun choruses and trend-perfect dances. The “Polaroid Love” dance trend featured a simple choreography that highlighted the sweet lyrics of the song and fans couldn’t help but try it out. The boys of Enhypen eventually hopped on the trend, causing more fans to participate.
“Pretty Savage” — BLACKPINK
BLACKPINK’s “Pretty Savage” gained popularity as remixes of different parts of the song kept popping up on the dance and club scene. Eventually, a dance challenge was born, using a slowed-down version of the song’s dance break.
“Dolphin” — Arin and Soobin
Oh My Girl’s “Dolphin” was already charting well, but its success on TikTok came when member Arin performed the song with TXT’s Soobin. Their cute and charming performance at KBS’ Music Bank led to many people imitating the easy and cute choreography.
