MUMBAI: Teenangers can make anything look cool. Their social-media is filled with songs like “Toosie Slide,” “Old Town Road” and “The Box” to No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and every day, pop songs like Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” become templates for teens to dance, lip-sync, or act to. But the creative geniuses on TikTok are also discovering (and popularizing) indie songs, international songs, and songs no one has thought of in years, if ever. TikTok has deep cuts — they just have nothing to do with vinyl records. Now, you can listen to the entire thing instead of 60 seconds or less. Here are some of the songs that TikTokkers have taken from the underground and turned into global memes.
Britney Spears is a TikTok star in her own right, but her 2011 song “Criminal” pretty much took over the app with the “Mugshot Challenge,” where users recorded themselves applying makeup to look roughed up and then posed for a mugshot. It pretty quickly flamed out after YouTuber James Charles posted his pics with a fake bloody nose and black eye on Twitter with no caption. He was immediately called out for glamorizing abuse, and it led to a larger conversation about the trend diminishing the harsh reality of mass incarceration. The power of Britney, however, has kept “Criminal” out of the controversy. In fact, the song hit a new peak in daily streams, with just over 100,000 listens on April 12. Femme Fatale will never die!
This very specific Nicki Minaj verse has become a double-threat on TikTok, with stars posting both dance routines and #relatable lip-syncs to it. What do we have to say other than “Bottoms Up” is a bop that should live forever in the hearts and minds of the children?
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Post-Cats Jason Derulo is loving his newfound TikTok fame. He’s already fitting in with Hype House member Addison Rae, as evidenced by their lip-sync to “Ridin’ Solo” that has over 3.6 million likes on her page alone. Outside of TikTok royalty, the lyrics “I’m puttin’ on my shades to cover up my eyes / I’m jumpin’ in my ride, I’m heading out tonight / I’m solo, I’m ridin’ solo, I’m ridin’ solo, I’m ridin’ solo, solo” have become every single person’s anthem. Did we have “#mood” in 2010? Because it’s still a #mood.
Millennial-Gen Z cusps, where you at? The theme song to True Jackson VP, a 2008 Nickelodeon show starring Keke Palmer, has changed meme format a few times on TikTok. Most recently, @natalieeab paired it with “purple flame” camera effect, which kinda looks like the effects from the show’s intro, to make a joke about her mom dismissing her depression. Now it’s a template for ironically venting about people getting mad at things you can’t change or for any intangible attribute kindly “leaving your body” on command.
It’s not hard for Drake to get people dancing. I lost a whole summer to “One Dance.” But it was kind of random for a snippet of his 2018 song “Nonstop” to go Elizabeth Warren-on-SNL viral.
YouTuber turned singer-songwriter Queen Naija self-released her song “Medicine” in 2017, and suffice it to say, it blew up, currently amassing over 100 million views on YouTube. Three years later, the internet is still bumping “Medicine,” this time to relatable memes.
There are over 700,000 TikToks with millions of views set to Ultradiox’s song “Walked In.” Lizzo’s done the dance, James Charles has done the dance, and TikTok star Addison Rae did the dance on Entertainment Tonight (that TikTok alone has 3.2 million likes). Meanwhile, the SoundCloud rapper only has 3,000 followers on Instagram.
This ode to Timothée Chalamet is set to “Romeo and Juliet” by 2018 Tiny Desk Concert winners Hobo Johnson and the LoveMakers. Lead singer Hobo Johnson (Frank Lopes) kicks off the song with a huge scream of relief, and I think we all understand that feeling. #relatable
Here’s how to make a teen banger. First, bass line (see Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now”). Next, relatable, self-deprecating, love-struck lyrics. Big “hiding under the covers eating ice cream” energy. For guaranteed virality, add an indie darling like Clairo or Gus Dapperton. Congrats, you’ve probably made the bop “Supalonely” by Benee. The teens will be dancing in no time.
Aptly described as “trash and fire at the same time” by a YouTube commenter, Yungster Jack’s “Pressure” is a genre-bending track with a MySpace feel that somehow became the soundtrack for “I’m shy” memes on TikTok.
The Teenagers, a self-aware band from France, blew up in the mid-2000s, thanks to their breakout hit “Homecoming.” Now, their cult fan base includes TikTokkers, like dancer Haley Sharpe (the inventor of the “Say So” by Doja Cat dance — bow in her presence), who lip-sync to it. For fun, NME named “Homecoming” the fourth-best song of the year in 2007 … when Haley was only four or five.
A remixed ’90s club hit, “Walk4Me” is a perfect song for mini lip-synced sketches or for hitting the gym. Wherever you’re at in life.
So, “Pillow Talking” isn’t that old (2017), but it’s also not a song you really listen to every day. Unless you’re like me and have also had it stuck in your head since TikTok decided to revive it.
