🎵 Top Sounds 🎵
Our curated picks of the top sounds on TikTok
7 or 11? 😅
Use this sound when you want to make a good choice but fall into choosing the more tempting alternative.
Vampire 🧛🏻
This song, by Olivia Rodrigo, is currently popular on TikTok— unattached to any set trend. Use it in the background of a GRWM, travel, or vlog-style video.
Use this as a background for your coastal grandmother content, or for cooking videos and photo slide posts.
This soft sound from beabadoobee is being paired with similarly ‘soft’ videos of favorite products and morning routines.
Wonka 😝
This sound pairs with this over-the-top ‘quirky’ movement trend. This sound proves cringe truly is an art form. One note on the trend: while the sound might not be ‘promotion’ per se, given the SAG-AFTRA strike, and the guidelines for non-SAG influencers, it might be better to give the trend a pass and just enjoy the cringe from the sidelines.
Use this sound to express your gratitude.
🔉 Our Sound Highlight 🔉
Girl Dinner
Mood: 🤪
Is ‘girl dinner’ just re-packaged ED culture? It’s hard to say, given the sheer range of ‘girl dinners’ being shown on TikTok. At its core though, girl dinner is about making a meal with what’s rattling around in your cupboards, without any claims at appeal. Girl dinner is almost ubiquitously unappealing (but perhaps not as unappealing as boy dinner).
👹 Effects Highlight 👹
The Aged filter is providing TikTok with a mortality crisis. While some creators have leaned into appreciating the aging process, others have found ways to use the filter for inventive skits.
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This isn’t technically an effect but I needed y’all to see this. Slide posts have evolved to the point of coquette political leaders.
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Us this CapCut template when you’re not really surprised.
🗣️ The Moment 🗣️
Issues that are at the forefront of online discourse— SAG-AFTRA is on strike!
Two strong unions are on strike, effectively shutting down Hollywood.
It’s long overdue.
I’m not a guild member (WGA, if you see this, just know soon) but I will do what I can to stand in solidarity with striking actors and writers. If you’re an influencer, even if you aren’t union, you need to pay attention to the guidance SAG-AFTRA is giving about the strike. In fact, even if you’re a fan or cosplayer, you need to listen up as well.
Studios don’t have actors to rely on for press in the coming months. Studios don’t just rely on actors and writers to create the entertainment we enjoy, they also rely on them to sell those shows and movies to the public. With actors on strike, it is key that fans and content creators stand in solidarity. That means if you are not currently contractually obliged to make content for a struck company you should avoid both paid and organic content promoting struck companies. The goal here is to show what the absence of this crucial labor means for studios, to reach an agreement that is fair to actors and writers.
Right now we have the opportunity to change Hollywood. There’s no reason an actor on a hit show should be paid a $27 residual check while a studio head like David Zaslav rakes in $498 million. There’s no reason studios should continue to operate on a model of $200 million budget IP films versus smaller films from fairly-paid diverse talent.
If you’re a creative the prospect of labor action winning the day for workers should be more than enough reason not to scab. Solidarity forever, friends.
☕ The Zeitgeist ☕
Hot topics from across the internet
The worst people you know were paid thousands of dollars for being on Twitter. Because, according to Elon Musk, accounts like “Stop Woke” are what really keep people on the site.
UPS workers may strike as negotiations fail. UPS CEO Carol Tomé positioned herself as a "friend to workers'" but it turns out she donated to Republican anti-union lawmakers.
Jane Birkin, British-French film and fashion icon, passed away this week. Here’s a reminder of some of her feeling about the Hermès bag named after her.
Twitter is in its flop era. According to Elon Musk Twitter has lost 50% of ad revenue.
Wilhelmina, the modeling agency, had an open casting attracting what seemed like every Gen Z in New York.
Men need to stop until we figure out what’s going on. Jonah Hill, DDG, and Keke Palmer’s ex all showed how uncomfortable they are with being in relationships with women who are autonomous beings.
🥡 The Takeaway 🥡
Avoiding cringe as a brand is hard.
In Threads’ first five days, 100 million users joined. Including many brands who’d begun turning away from Twitter. Threads seems like an exciting opportunity, it’s tied to Instagram and lets your IG friends know you’re on Threads. It’s a platform all about engagement and isn’t (presently) mired in scandal like Bluesky, so it isn’t surprising that the launch of Threads had brands scrambling to kickstart their Threads social presence.
The problem is… Brands are kind of cringe.
I mean this in two senses. First, when a brand is unclear on how to navigate a platform, there’s a tendency to put out inorganic content that doesn’t resonate with audiences. Second, brands by default are corporate entities and not, as your mother might say, ‘one of your little friends.’
Take brands’ first time on Threads as a cautionary tale. Learn what a platform is, and how regular users interact on it, before leaping at regurgitating your corporate slogans on it.
If you want to have a strong presence online, it means understanding the platform you’re on and not crossing the line into over-familiarity. It’s fun when a brand can be subversive and play with expectations. It isn’t fun when brands act like they aren’t a brand.