Two TikTok sensations released new tracks on Friday, Jan. 30. Let’s take a look at them.
“The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan
Released on Jan. 30, Noah Kahan’s newest track, “The Great Divide,” is the lead single for his fourth studio album of the same name. Co-written and produced by Gabe Simon, one of Kahan’s close and consistent collaborators, the song was recorded at Guildford Sound Studio in Vermont.
This is the artist’s first solo comeback after nearly three years out of the spotlight.
Following its release, the track immediately hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Top Songs in the USA chart. It also peaked at No. 3 globally, making it Kahan’s highest streaming launch of all time. This is likely because Kahan first premiered “The Great Divide” live during his Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) Tour back in April 2024, which created massive demand for a professionally recorded version of the track. It took until mid-January 2026 for the singer to make his move, finally releasing a 36-second snippet of the song’s audio on his TikTok page. Just 10 days before the track’s release on Jan. 20, Kahan announced the release date and title of the long-awaited single, as well as his brand-new album, which will hit streaming services on April 24.
In the same Instagram post, Kahan said that “anything great is worth the wait.”
Just two days after the release of “The Great Divide,” the song’s music video premiered during a commercial break sandwiched between segments of the Grammy Awards.
“A lot of my life recently has been realizing the things I wish I could have said to people and the things I wish I could have done differently,” Kahan said in an interview with Sarah Tate from iHeart Radio. “This song is kind of just an expansion of that.”
The track’s major themes of mental health, friendship, distance and regret highlight the truth of Kahan’s earlier statement about the song’s inspiration.
If “The Great Divide” tells us anything about the rest of Kahan’s upcoming album, there is much to look forward to from the Vermont native.
“Scooby” by corook
corook’s “Scooby” also hit streaming services on Jan. 30, quickly becoming the singer’s most popular track. Produced by James Allan, “Scooby” isn’t corook’s first viral hit. Their mega-popular self-acceptance anthem “if i were a fish” blew up on TikTok back in 2023, which led the artist and their partner, Olivia Barton, to write a children’s book of the same name.
While corook is still finding their footing in the music industry, “Scooby” might just be their gateway to fame. The song’s teaser amassed millions of views in just days, with some viewers comparing the singer to Bo Burnham, a comedian known for blending quick-witted cultural critique with his jokes, usually in the form of music.
Obviously inspired by the current political climate in the United States, corook explained in an interview with Melodic Magazine that they “think it is an incredibly weird time to be the level of artist that [they are]. Like somebody that obviously has a fan base but also can’t avoid the ease of interacting with the internet.” As such, they have had to “create a lot of boundaries” with the internet. While they feel conflicted about stepping back from social media during a time when speaking out is so important, they said that they feel that they have been having “a far higher quality of interaction with people elsewhere” because of it.
While “Scooby” isn’t linked to any known upcoming project, the success of this single will likely bring the American singer back into the limelight, hopefully prompting them to write more music of the same sort.