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Dasha knew she had one thing particular with “Austin” lengthy earlier than she created the viral line dance that is been charming audiences throughout social media. Actually, she says she knew it when the track was nonetheless a demo.
“Individuals simply began perking up and texting me,” Dasha tells Rolling Stone. “Similar to, ‘Hey I heard this track and it is insane!’ Everyone’s ears perked up, and I felt like everybody gave a shit about my music for the primary time.”
At 24, Dasha — full identify Dasha Novotny — is basking within the success of “Austin,” fueled partially by the dance that caught fireplace on TikTok in February with the assistance of influencer Zoey Aune. After beforehand releasing pop music, Dasha dipped into nation with “Austin,” her debut single from her first nation album, What Occurs Now?, launched in November. By mid-April, the track had been seen 6 billion instances on TikTok, was positioned within the Billboard Sizzling 100 (it is at the moment at Quantity 32), and landed Dasha prime spots acting on Jimmy Kimmel Stay! and the CMT Music Awards.
“Austin” rapidly launched Dasha to nation audiences and drew consideration to her music in ways in which her 2023 pop album, Soiled Blonde, had not. She says writing What Occurs Now? sparked an epiphany for her about her place in music.
“I used to be within the pop world, however the songs had been all the time so story-based,” Dasha says. “Upon releasing (Soiled Blonde) final yr, I felt like, ‘Why does this simply not really feel real to me?’ And I went via a disaster for a couple of months considering what the hell am I doing? Lastly, it occurred to me that I wanted to be nation this complete time. I began penning this album early final yr with that in thoughts, and it was so easy to write down.”
The songs that make up What Occurs Now?, together with “Austin,” got here from the identical place of private heartache that characterizes the music of Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, and comparable artists that influenced Dasha whereas rising up in San Luis Obispo, California. “I wished to write down my scorned lady track,” she says. “I used to be actually upset at this man — who I actually wrote the entire album about. I felt so used.”
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The setting could have been imagined, since Dasha’s first-ever go to to Austin was for her CMT Awards efficiency, however the storyline was very actual. The TikTok video, and the assistance of Aune, was additionally by design. The viral success, nevertheless, was surprising.
“I bear in mind wanting individuals dancing at my reveals,” Dasha says. “I would like individuals to be line dancing, as a result of I am going out line dancing and two-stepping on a regular basis in Nashville. I wished to deliver that tradition again to my technology.”
Dasha says she got here up with a line dance and reached out to Aune to make a video for TikTok.
“I mentioned, ‘Let’s get Zoey to get within the video and get cute little nation ladies doing it and see what occurs.’ And in a single day, I wakened with virtually 1,000,000 (views). The subsequent day, it acquired doubling, tripling,” she says. “Then I posted one other one, and it did even higher. So, I simply put my head down for the subsequent month and posted 5 instances a day. I had the content material, I used to be locked in on it, and it paid off.”
Whereas Dasha is having an plain second along with her nation pivot, sustaining it’s her subsequent problem. She says she desires to “go to the moon” along with her music and goals of acting on Saturday Night time Stay or The Kelly Clarkson Present, however she additionally envisions serving to flip the tide of nation music’s fraught relationship with feminine pop-country crossover artists. She sees the backlash towards Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter by some audiences and is conscious that artists like Musgraves and Maren Morris have discovered extra consolation in pop circles than nation ones.
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Nonetheless, Dasha desires to take a shot at turning it round.
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“I need to change the tradition inside nation music,” she says. “I need to herald new followers, and I need to give the women a flip. I simply really feel with my tales, and the way I phrase issues, and the way I attempt to do it in probably the most susceptible and unapologetic means doable, I could be somebody that followers can look as much as — or make them need to be probably the most susceptible and unapologetic model of themselves.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and creator whose third e-book, Crimson Grime Unplugged, is about for launch on December 13 by way of Again Lounge Publishing.
How Nation Dance Went Viral on TikTok
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