Can TikTok Dance Challenges Boost Women Artists? Research Insights with Dr. Anandasivam Gopal

Dr. Anandasivam Gopal, President’s Chair of Information Systems and Innovation at Nanyang Business School, discusses his research, “Dancing to the #Challenge: The Effect of TikTok on Closing the Artist Gender Gap in the Music Industry.” Professor Anandasivam Gopal explained how TikTok hashtag dance challenges, 30-45 second, easily replicable dance videos tied to a shared hashtag, can create measurable, sustained momentum for emerging music artists rather than just a short-lived “spike.” Drawing on a dataset linking TikTok challenge activity with Spotify followership, the study uses daily follower growth (a compounding metric that signals durable audience-building) and carefully constructed comparison groups to isolate impact across similar songs while reducing confounds such as “superstar bias” and overlapping TikTok releases. The key finding is that when women creators make dance challenges for women artists (especially in Western pop with high danceability and light, fun themes), artists see roughly 3% higher daily Spotify follower growth, an effect that can compound to around 40–50% over two weeks, while self-created challenges by artists show little to no net benefit due to the “self-promotion penalty,” explained through role congruity theory. Practical implications follow for platforms and artist teams: encourage and seed more third-party challenge creation (ideally by women creators), treat challenges as selective strategy rather than a guaranteed formula, and keep the creative tone authentic and “peppy” to maximize the likelihood of sustained cross-platform spillover. This podcast is brought to you by Global Management Consultancy. For more information, please visit www.globalmanagementconsultancy.com. Disclaimer: A. The background music incorporated in this video is the intellectual property of its respective developer and is protected under applicable copyright laws. Notwithstanding that it is a free-to-use version, Business Talk, Global Management Consultancy, and Deepak Bhatt do not own, and expressly do not claim, any rights, title, or interest in or to this music. B. Dr. Anandasivam Gopal shared insightful perspectives from his research, “Dancing to the #Challenge: The Effect of TikTok on Closing the Artist Gender Gap in the Music Industry”, during his conversation on the Business Talk podcast channel. The uploaded video contains copyrighted content, so changing any graphics, music, or on-screen appearance of the author or host is not allowed.