As long as the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok continues to avoid Donald Trump’s proposed ban in the US, the big record companies are going to be chasing rather than making hits. The type of songs that soundtrack viral videos over there are so random (who recalls the revival of Matthew Wilder’s 1984 hit Break My Stride?) that there’s no formula, so your best bet is grabbing a slice of the pie further down the line.
A fortnight ago an imprint of Columbia Records signed a deal with Ritt Momney — indie pop solo artist Jack Rutter, whose alias is the spoonerised name of the senator from his home state, Utah.
He already released a low-key, pretty debut album in 2019 but what the business types are really interested in is his auto-tuned cover of Corinne Bailey Rae’s 2006 single Put Your Records On (like I said, random).
Somehow it’s become the sound of thousands of makeover videos, leading to seven times more Spotify streams than his next most popular track and an imminent leap from the charts that measure virality to the old-fashioned hit parades. He’ll be as much in the dark as anyone about how to follow it.
