Why Are Sped-Up TikTok Audios So Popular? How To Speed Up Songs For TikTok Explained

Some of the most popular trends on TikTok are set to sped-up audios of viral songs. In the past few years, we've seen popular songs spanning multiple genres like "Them Changes," "Teenage Dirtbag" and "Angeleyes" all go viral with sped-up versions, sometimes even resulting in the artist releasing an official sped-up version of the track. Here's a full guide on sped-up TikTok audios and how you can make your own.

What Is a Sped-Up TikTok Audio?

A sped-up TikTok audio is exactly what it sounds like -- it's an audio (or original sound) uploaded to TikTok that's been sped-up. You can usually tell if an audio has been sped-up by the high-pitched sound of the voice and backing track. Speeding up the audio makes the song sound kind of like a Chipmunk version of the song, although Chipmunk versions are usually just pitched up rather than sped-up, allowing them to keep the original tempo.

Before TikTok, sped-up songs were known as nightcore. Nightcore was created by Norweigan students Thomas S. Nilse and Steffen Ojala Søderholm and became popular online in the mid-2000s as people began speeding up songs and setting AMVs to them.

It's unknown what the first sped-up song to go viral on TikTok was, but the app's users have been using this tactic since as early as 2016, when TikTok was still called Musical.ly. By searching "sped up Musically" on YouTube, we can see a number of sped-up versions of songs that assumedly went around Musical.ly, including a version of Meghan Trainor's "No" and a sped-up version of "The Last Time" by Flighthouse.

How Are Sped-Up TikTok Audios Used?

Sped-up TikTok audios are used in the same ways that any other TikTok audio is used. Some people dance to them, some people lip dub to them and other times they're simply used as the background track for a video. While there's no particular reason these audios are so popular, TikTok videos are often short and fast, so the sped-up audio allows the uploader to get to the point without wasting any precious seconds. Sometimes a song just sounds good sped-up. Others believe it helps bypass copyright detectors on the app.

A lot of the time, sped-up audios go viral and become the background tracks for popular trends. This year alone, we've seen a sped-up version of "Sweater Weather" inspire a dance trend, a sped-up version of "Wings" inspire the it made me think of you trend and a sped-up version of "Violent Crimes" inspire countless photo slideshows.

One of the most recent trends to feature a sped-up audio is the Wednesday dance, a dance set to a sped-up version of "Bloody Mary" inspired by Jenna Ortega dancing in the new Netflix series Wednesday.

How To Make A Sped-Up TikTok Audio

There are a few apps out there that are made to speed up audio, but the app CapCut offers one of the easiest ways to do this. First, download the audio you want to speed up from an app like YouTube. CapCut needs a video or photo to work, so grab a video or photo from your camera roll that you want to attach the audio to.

Start the app and open the video or image file and you'll be brought to the editing screen. You should see the option to "add audio" under the video or photo you've selected. Select "from device" and pick the audio you want to speed up, then click the "plus" to add it over the chosen video/photo. Now, you should be able to click on the audio and see a list of options, including a "speed up" icon. Tapping this will give you a slider bar to speed up or slow down the audio, as well as an option to alter the pitch.

Now all you have to do is post the project file. You'll now have a video containing the sped-up TikTok audio! If you want to use it on other videos, just tap on the "original sound" scrolling text at the bottom of the video. From there, you'll see all the videos using the sound and a red notification at the bottom that reads "Use this sound," allowing you to use it on any future videos. You can also add the audio to your favorites for quick access.

For the full details on the sped-up TikTok audios, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.