TikTok’s sonic logo is one of the fastest growing sonic logos in history. Today, that little sound is being heard millions of times a day on apps like Instagram, Reddit and Youtube… but creating it wasn’t easy. To make it, the creative team went through thousands of iterations, executed a covert marketing strategy, and fought through a final debate about a single note. Featuring Roscoe Williamson and Aifric Lennon from MassiveMusic.

Apply for the Associate Sound Designer/Mixer position at Defacto Sound at jobs.defactosound.com.
Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook.
Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial at shopify.com/20k.
Claim your $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/hertz.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/tiktoksboombling
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TikTok’s Boom-Bling

A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Music

Music Commentary

Many of the songs we sing to our children are hundreds of years old, with their original meanings obscured by history. In this episode, producer Leila Battison takes Dallas on a dark, surprising journey through history’s most famous nursery rhymes and lullabies, and up through the “Baby Sharks” and “Happy Songs” of today. Along the way, they share the songs they’ve made up for their own children, and explore why this music is just as important to parents as it is to kids.

Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook.
Find the right doctor, right now at zocdoc.com/20k.
Claim your $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/hertz.
Follow Leila’s channel Science Baby on TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Enable episode notifications & automatic downloads on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Five Twenty Thousand Hertz episodes that kids would love:

Space Remix (Apple/Spotify)

Minecraft (Apple/Spotify)

Sound 101 with Bill Nye (Apple/Spotify)

Tyrannosaurus FX (Apple/Spotify)

Songbugs (Apple/Spotify)


Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/nurseryrhymes
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nursery Rhymes

Whale songs are some of the most beautiful, cathartic sounds in nature. These extraordinary creatures use sound to socialize, to mate, to find food, and avoid predators. But for aquatic animals, the sounds of human activity can be absolutely devastating. With underwater noise pollution on the rise, what can we do to ensure the survival of these amazing creatures? Featuring acoustician Al Jones, Professor John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Vox Senior Producer Christophe Haubursin.

Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith wherever you get your podcasts.
Get a FREE Netsuite KPI Checklist at netsuite.com/20k.
Try America's #1 ready-to-eat meal kit with fifty percent off using promo code TTH50 at factormeals.com/tth50.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: www.20k.org/episodes/silentsea
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silent Sea

The sound of Late Night television is a complex beast with many moving parts. In this episode, we step inside the daily hustle of Broadcast Mixer Fred Hedemark as he and his team bring the sound of Late Night with Seth Meyers to life. Along the way, Fred reveals the highs and lows of working on a high-adrenaline, live-to-tape TV show, and shares some never-heard recordings from his years on the show.

Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook.
Learn more about Fred Hedemark’s work at audiofred.com.
Find the right doctor, right now at zocdoc.com/20k.
Learn a new language with fifty-five percent off at babbel.com/20k.
Find the right candidates with a seventy-five dollar sponsored job credit at indeed.com/hertz. 
Get a FREE Netsuite KPI Checklist at netsuite.com/20k.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: www.20k.org/episodes/latenight
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late Night

What do you call it when you’re homesick for a place you’ve never been? Is there a word for letting books pile up in your house without reading them? How about weather that looks beautiful out the window, but that you wouldn’t want to go out in? For this episode, we worked with Babbel to bring you our second annual Untranslatable Words challenge. In it, resident linguist Grace East pits the Twenty Thousand Hertz crew against each other in a hilarious and enlightening multilingual game show.

Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook.
Learn a new language with Babbel. Get 55% off your subscription at babbel.com/20k.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/untranslatablewords
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TikTok’s Boom-Bling

Download our free app to listen on your phone