By: Sadie Howell

TikTok: The source of entertainment that every teenager seems to be consumed with. Through this app, many new trends, phrases, and even styles have been born. The majority of these new things consist of a backstory, or ‘lore’, as to why it has become popular. Explaining some of these new trends is a lot of work; for example, the purple heart trend. As you take a deeper dive into the year 2024, you start to realize how much the media has changed us, and our latest obsessions.

Each trend that we’ve consumed throughout this year has died or become irrelevant within a month of it blowing up. Like, do you even remember the uncanny valley makeup trend? Unless it’s the election, most of these raves have been forgotten. For the people on Youtube Shorts, you probably still have a lot of catching up to do.

My opinions matter and you should trust me on these ratings because I am youthful and my for you page on TikTok is very up to date. I am also extremely chronically online. So, let us take a trip down memory lane; except you’re cringing as you scroll farther, and farther, down this list.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY: Saltburn

The cover photo for the movie Saltburn Click link here

Ah yes, another movie where Barry Khoegan plays an unhinged freak has been added to the cinematic universe. I won’t go into details about this movie, but let me tell you, it is an experience. In all honesty, this movie was terrible, all scariness aside. The one positive thing I took away from the movie was the song ‘Murder on the Dance Floor.’ This song was played in the background of many videos of rich people dancing in their mansions, referencing a scene from the movie. This was all over my TikTok, and it was honestly the only song from a popular movie that made it to social media that didn’t make me want to rip my ears off! (Hint Hint: Unwritten from Anyone but you.)

I give this trend a 4.5/10 (.5 added because ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ was played at every social event with a DJ, and it was a serious vibe lifter.)

MARCH- Drake Vs. Kendrick

I got this from searching Drake vs. Kendrick. Click here

I can’t even count how many times I was asked “Who’s side are you on? Kendrick or Drake?” Basically, Drake gets framed for being a predator by Kendrick, Drake defends himself in petty ways, resulting in big “fandom” wars. It all starts with Kendrick making distracts towards Drake, suggesting that Drake isn’t a significant part of rap culture. As a result of this, Drake creates a diss track that brings no further information to Kendrick, just serves as a point to defend himself. After further back-and-forth banter, Kendrick drops “Meet the Grahams” with one specific verse stating, “And we gotta raise our daughters knowing' there's predators like him lurkin'” releasing that Drake is in fact, a predator. With attempts of defending himself, Kendrick shuts the tomfoolery up, with the final hit, “They not like us.” As a spectator of all of this drama, I will say it kept me very entertained during the last couple of months of school.

I give Kendrick a 9/10 and Drake a 3/10.

APRIL/MAY- Rise of Mukbangs

Jelly bean sweets and her burrito the size of her head. Click here

Have you ever struggled to fall asleep? Same. I’ve always known about the power of mukbang’s, but I’ve never looked into it because I hate mouth noises. A mukbang is essentially a video of someone eating food without talking. The word “mukbang” originates from South Korea, translating to “let’s eat broadcast.” But, with these odd TikTok mukbang’s, I all of a sudden love mouth noises??? I fall asleep almost every time listening to people chew and review the gluttonous Crumbl cookies of the week, or eating the chipotle burritos that are larger than their head. Sometimes, though, it gets intense. For instance, getting a drink sized cup of Cane’s sauce, proceeding to dip a whole tender into the sauce, and then getting the lovely pleasure of hearing them slurp down the whole entire tender. It gets to a point. We call these people “Mukbangers”, another word we’ve all agreed on using normally. I rate mukbang’s an 7/10 because I think cups of canes sauce should be banned everywhere.

JUNE/ JULY- Brat summer

I feel like every summer there is some huge trend, like in 2022 we raved over stranger things, due to the fantastic new season being released that year. In 2023, we had Barbie, and everyone was dressing up at the theatres as their favorite barbie dolls. This summer’s trend was based off of the best new album release, ever. Charli XCX released her “brat” album on June 7th, 2024 consisting of the biggest hit of 2024, “apple.” I. Love. The. Apple. Dance. It didn’t become popular until mid July, but once it did, it was non-stop. Brat summer was essentially a mindset. Kind of a ‘You-just-had-to-be-there’ era. Did I mention brat green? The booger colored green was everywhere, with one word written on it. “Brat.” I think the popularity that spectated around the album was because of how “baddie” the album would make you feel. I mean, it’s charli XCX, of course you’re going to feel like you’re on the top of the world listening to lyrics that don’t really make sense, covered up by a sensational beat.

I rate Brat summer a 10/10. I want to feel the way I did listening to a 2 minute song that is basically just instrumental every summer.

AUGUST- Dress to Impress

My blood is boiling just a little bit writing this section of the story, yet I must persevere. Roblox is a very popular online game amongst the age groups of 4 through 32. Ever since the popular game on roblox, “dress to impress” was released, I’ve never been at peace. The game is based off of a prompt you’re given to dress up to, and you have 5 minutes to create the best, (or worst) version of the theme, with a competition runway at the end, with votes signifying who wins 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. It’s an awesome idea, I loved the thought of it, until the pre teens ruined everything good. No, Anita_Max.Wyn2012, you can’t dress up as a nude furry for the theme, ‘Masquerade ball’. And somehow, Anita_Max.Wyn2012 seems to win 1st place. Every. Single. Time. So, I cheated my way and spent real money to buy a gamepass for premium clothes and accessories to win. Now I can breathe!

I rate dress to impress an 8/10 or as a fellow Dress to Impress-er or would say, 5 stars.

SEPTEMBER- Beyonce AND Diddy

Photo from a website called Fatsoma. Click here.

I still can’t understand half of this. Had to search TikTok for at least 20 minutes to provide enough information about this fiasco. (Thank you, Beyonce, for giving me the privilege to learn about your lore.) I feel like this puts Kendrick vs Drake to shame. P. Diddy. We’ve all heard of him before, and heard his most famous song, “I’ll be missing you.” Well, turns out he is a terrible person. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Well, you should have. Justin Bieber left us hints in his music video of ‘Yummy’, Eminem had the most obvious lyrics in his song ‘Fuel’, and almost every other celebrity had some relation to Diddy. (Good or bad.) Basically P. Diddy had these secretive very bad parties, and when the list of celebrities that had been attending these parties were released, it left everyone including their mothers shocked. (Your mothers favorite singer was probably on that list.) More and more outrageous information about Diddy was released, including, murder, trafficking, and more bad topics. Oh, and Beyonce is all a part of this as well and you must thank her for all of your accomplishments or else she will kill you.

I rate this 4/10. Rage bait.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER- Cheetah print

Glamour. Is the song playing in your head? I bet it is. Cheetah print had an extremely successful comeback this year. If you didn’t know what to do for Halloween, be a cheetah. Found a cute new shirt? It’s probably cheetah print. Not only is it cute, but every high school girl owns a pair of jeans with the print on it, so when you think you just made a really cute unique purchase, you haven’t! I have yet to own something in my closet with the print, so I’m the unique one in this scenario. It resurfaced when a trend on TikTok was made, when one would wear cheetah print and look pretty, with a foreign song with the lyrics “Glamor, Blonde and Brunettes”, played in the background of the video. Now, if you ever hear someone say the word “glamour" in an odd accent, you will see cheetah print.

DECEMBER- Wicked

Photo from the Wicked wiki page. Click here.

Not to brag or anything, but I have hit this note before. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you need to watch it immediately. My Spotify wrapped and YouTube recommended videos are about to be forever changed by this film. I really became in touch with my inner theatre kid after watching it and so has everyone else. I turn a corner, and I hear a girl attempting Elphaba’s battle cry in ‘defying gravity.’ I turn the next corner, and a grown man is singing loathing, but also dancing choreography to it. But who am I to judge? I have also learned the full loathing choreography as well. The movie is an upgraded version of the Broadway original, because bald girl Cynthia does Elphaba much better than Elsa (Sorry Idina Menzel).

11/10. When Ariana Grande wrote ‘God is a woman’, she was referring to Cynthia Erivo and herself.

Honorable mentions: Purple heart lore (the funniest.), pink Pilates princess TikTok’s (the weirdest), coquette (the new ‘preppy’) & Chappell Roan (that’s all I need to say).

As we reach the end of 2024, you start to realize how much we’ve consumed on the internet whether it’s by TikTok, (your best choice), Reels (dangerous), or YouTube shorts, (They probably just got to the Beyonce and Diddy lore, give them some time.) I think my favorite from this year has been brat summer, though wicked and dress to impress came close. I hope 2025 is just as entertaining and mad as 2024.

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