TikTok

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Corvette Corvette

The bouncing, steering-wheel dance to Popp Hunna's 'Adderall (Corvette Corvette)' that ran through TikTok from October 2020 into early 2021, a period the record marks as the peak of the sped-up hip-hop dance craze. The record's entry for the trend that made an entire generation mime driving a car they did not own.

▸ 2020peak 2021†2021

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Creator Fund

TikTok's $200 million pot, announced in July 2020, that paid creators a few cents per thousand views and became famous mainly for how little it paid: a viral video was worth, in the record's collected complaints, roughly a sandwich. Closed in December 2023 in favour of a programme that paid for videos over a minute. The record's entry for the first official proof that views are not money.

▸ 2020peak 2021†2023

☠ Deadn.✎ 6

Dalgona Coffee

Instant coffee whipped for twenty minutes into a foam because there was nothing else to do. Every kitchen on Earth made it once, in April, and none made it twice.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Doggface Skateboard

Nathan Apodaca longboarding down an Idaho highway, drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice and lip-syncing Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams', posted on 25 September 2020 after his truck broke down. Mick Fleetwood recreated it, 'Dreams' re-entered the charts, and Ocean Spray gave him a truck. The record's entry for the most serene viral video of the pandemic.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Don't Rush Challenge

A relay of transformations to Young T & Bugsey's 'Don't Rush', begun by a group of Nigerian university friends in the UK in March 2020: each person appears bare-faced, covers the lens with a brush, and returns glamorous. The record's entry for the lockdown trend with the clearest origin and the best outfits.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Flip the Switch

Two people stand at a mirror, the lights go off on the line 'look, I just flipped the switch', and they reappear in each other's clothes. A March 2020 trend that peaked when Elizabeth Warren and Kate McKinnon did it on Saturday Night Live. The record's entry for the outfit-swap that everyone from senators to grandparents found time for.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Glizzy

A hot dog. Washington-area slang in which 'glizzy' meant a Glock, repurposed by 2020 TikTok into a word for frankfurters and a genre of videos about people eating them with unsettling enthusiasm ('glizzy gladiator', 'glizzy gobbler'). The record's entry for the word that changed weapons for sausages and lost none of its menace.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Aliven.

Ick

A sudden, irreversible revulsion at something small a partner did. Given a name in 2017 and a whole genre in 2022; the lists are still being compiled.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Alivephr.

It's Giving

Evokes, resembles, has the energy of. Can be finished with any noun or with nothing, which makes it the most flexible sentence fragment in use.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 2

It's the ___ for Me

The August 2020 roast format in which friends took turns naming each other's most specific flaw — 'it's the crocs for me', 'it's the unpaid parking tickets for me' — and the comment-section habit that followed. The record's entry for the sentence structure that made criticism sound like a compliment for about six months.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2021

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Laxed (Siren Beat)

A siren-jam instrumental by seventeen-year-old New Zealander Jawsh 685 that became the sound of the 'Culture Dance' in early 2020, where users danced in traditional dress from their heritage. Jason Derulo sang over it, unlicensed at first, and 'Savage Love' went to Number One. The record's entry for a beat that started a dance, a lawsuit, and a chart hit in one year.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

M to the B

Bella Poarch bobbing her head and mugging to a 2016 grime diss track by Blackpool teenager Millie B, posted in August 2020 and for years the most-liked TikTok ever made. The record's entry for the video that made a Filipino-American Navy veteran the platform's biggest face by doing, technically, nothing.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

● Aliven.

Main Character

The protagonist of the day, either aspirationally or as a warning. On Twitter, being one is the worst thing that can happen to you before lunch.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingv.✎ 1

Manifesting

Wanting something out loud until it happens. Cambridge's Word of the Year for 2024, and fading in exact proportion.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Part 2?

The comment that ends every story cut off mid-sentence, and the engagement it produces: creators learned around 2020 that a video stopped before the ending earns a 'part 2?' comment, a follow, and a second video. The record's entry for the cliffhanger as a business model.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Pass the Brush

The relay transition of spring 2020: a creator brushes a makeup brush across the lens, and the next creator, in the next stitched clip, receives it fully made up. Chains of dozens of people passed the brush from bedroom to bedroom during lockdown. The record's entry for the trend that made a group project out of being alone.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadinterj.

Sheesh

An exclamation of approval, held for four seconds. A small sound that everyone made at once and then, with visible embarrassment, stopped.

▸ 2020peak 2021†2022

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Supalonely

The sad-girl bop of early lockdown: New Zealand singer BENEE's 'Supalonely', given a loose, shoulder-heavy dance by Zoi Lerma in February 2020 that made 'I'm a lonely bitch' the anthem of everyone stuck indoors. The record's entry for the song whose title turned out to be a forecast.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Sway House

The Hype House's rowdier rival, opened in January 2020 by talent firm TalentX with Bryce Hall, Josh Richards and Jaden Hossler, and known mainly for parties during lockdown, a power cut ordered by the city, and a Kanye-branded energy drink. The record's entry for the content house that made the news for reasons other than content.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2021

● Alivephr.✎ 3

TikTok Made Me Buy It

The hashtag and confession under which a leggings, a lip oil or a mini waffle-maker sells out overnight because one video showed it working. Established in 2020, it had billions of views by 2022 and its own shelf in Amazon and Sephora. The record's entry for word of mouth with a shopping cart attached.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

TikTok Text-to-Speech Voice

The flat, faintly amused synthetic voice added to TikTok in December 2020, which read captions aloud and became the narrator of a generation's jokes. The original voice belonged to actor Bev Standing, who had not been told; she sued, settled, and was replaced by 'Jessie' in 2021. The record's entry for the most heard uncredited performance of the decade.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Toosie Slide

Drake's April 2020 single whose lyrics are literally dance instructions — 'right foot up, left foot slide' — built so that TikTok could not fail to choreograph it, and TikTok obliged for roughly six weeks. The record's entry for the first song written by a superstar as a set of stage directions.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadphr.✎ 3

Two Pretty Best Friends

'I have never seen two pretty best friends. It's always one of them gotta be ugly.' Jordan Scott's October 2020 pronouncement, delivered from a car, which every pair of best friends on TikTok immediately set out to disprove with a duet. The record's entry for the most rebutted sentence of 2020.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2021

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Use This Sound

The creator's plea appended to an original audio — 'use this sound', 'pls use my sound' — in the hope that other videos will carry it to the For You page and, ideally, to a record deal. Common from 2020 onwards. The record's entry for the platform's smallest form of ambition, and its most frequently answered.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Video Reply

The TikTok feature that turns a comment into a sticker on a new video, introducing the 'Reply to @username' era in 2020 — where the comment supplies the premise and the creator supplies part two, three and eleven. The record's entry for the mechanism that let commenters become unpaid writers' rooms.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Wipe It Down

Lockdown transformation challenge of May 2020: wipe a mirror to BMW Kenny's 'Wipe It Down', and on the fourth wipe the reflection is a different, better-dressed you. The record's entry for the trend that proved every household owned one clean mirror and one outfit worth revealing.

▸ 2020peak 2020†2020

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

WitchTok

The lockdown-era TikTok community of tarot pulls, spell jars and moon water, which peaked in mid-2020 when a rumour spread that baby witches had tried to hex the moon. The record's entry for the era's most theatrical hobby, and for the one time the fae were mentioned in a trending topic.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

E-Girl

A look built for a front-facing camera. Fading with the specific shade of pink and the specific platform that made it.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 1

Goblincore

Mud, moss, mushrooms, and collecting shiny things. Cottagecore for people who did not want to clean the cottage.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Hot Cheeto Girl

A TikTok archetype of late 2019: long acrylic nails, hoop earrings, a lanyard, a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and an opinion about you. Born in the 'types of girls at my school' genre, it was called a caricature of Latina students within months and quietly retired. The record's entry for the stereotype that came with its own snack.

▸ 2019peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Hype House

The Los Angeles mansion where the biggest TikTok teenagers — Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, Chase Hudson, Addison Rae — lived and filmed from December 2019, the platform's first content house and the model for every one since. A Netflix series arrived in 2022, by which point almost everyone famous had left. The record's entry for the frat house that ran on the For You page.

▸ 2019peak 2020†2022

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

No Thoughts, Head Empty

The caption of blissful vacancy — 'no thoughts, head empty, just vibes' — which spread from Tumblr and Twitter in 2019 to TikTok in 2020 as a description of any pleasant, mindless moment. The record's entry for the first decade in which not thinking was posted as an achievement.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 1

OK Boomer

Two words dismissing an entire generation's opinion. Said in the New Zealand parliament, explained in the New York Times, and dead within the quarter.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Roxanne

An independent single by Arizona Zervas, released October 2019, that TikTok turned into a Top Five hit within weeks via lip-syncs about a girl who 'never loved ya'. The record's entry for one of the first proofs that an unsigned artist could chart from the app alone, a fact labels noticed and then acted on with some urgency.

▸ 2019peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Say So Dance

The hip-swaying, finger-pointing routine Haley Sharpe made for Doja Cat's 'Say So' in December 2019, which pushed the song to Number One in May 2020 — with Sharpe cast in the official video. The record's entry for the first time a teenager's bedroom choreography was credited, on camera, by the artist it launched.

▸ 2019peak 2020†2020

☠ Deadinterj.✎ 3

Sksksk

Keyboard-mashed laughter — a hand dragged over the S and K keys — which had circulated on Black Twitter and stan accounts for years before it was stapled to the VSCO girl stereotype in summer 2019 and killed by Halloween. The record's entry for a laugh that became a costume.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Slowed + Reverb

The opposite edit: a song pitched down, slowed, and drowned in echo until it sounds like it is playing in a shopping centre in a dream. A YouTube genre from 2019, adopted by TikTok in 2020 for sad edits and liminal-space videos. The record's entry for melancholy as an audio filter.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Transition (TikTok)

The hard cut disguised as a gesture — a hand over the lens, a jump, a hair flip — that lets a creator change outfit, location or face in a single beat. TikTok's native editing trick from around 2019, and the skill that separated creators from people with phones. The record's entry for the sleight of hand that a whole platform learned to do.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.

VSCO Girl

Scrunchies, a Hydro Flask and sksksk. Named in July, parodied in August, explained in the Times in September; and I oop.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2020

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

Wait for It

The caption promising a payoff — 'wait for it…' — placed over a video whose first five seconds are nothing, so that the viewer stays for the sixth. Standard on TikTok from 2019 and, by 2021, a warning sign that nothing would happen. The record's entry for the phrase that trained a generation to distrust the phrase.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Yeehaw Challenge

The transformation meme of early 2019: drink a mysterious 'yee yee juice', and on the beat drop of 'Old Town Road' you are dressed as a cowboy. It carried an unknown Lil Nas X to nineteen weeks at Number One and was, in the record's view, the first time TikTok made a superstar from nothing. The record's entry for the trend that put a Stetson on the algorithm.

▸ 2019peak 2019†2019

◐ Dyingn.✎ 5

Cottagecore

Baking bread in a meadow in a dress, as an aspiration. Peaked in a pandemic spring when the meadow was unreachable and the bread was the whole day.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

For You Page

A feed of things you did not ask for, from people you do not follow, correctly guessing what you wanted. The end of the social graph, and hardly anyone noticed it go.

▸ 2018peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Nobody: Format

A caption format in which 'Nobody:' (or 'Literally nobody:') is followed by a blank line and then 'Me:' plus a description of unprompted behaviour. Born on Twitter around late 2018, peaked across TikTok in 2019 as a caption for any video nobody asked for. The record's entry for the joke whose punchline is the absence of a prompt.

▸ 2018peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Original Sound

TikTok's label for audio recorded in the app rather than pulled from its library — 'original sound – username' — which by 2020 had become a currency, since any clip anyone laughed at could be reused ten thousand times with the originator's name attached. The record's entry for the credit line that made attribution automatic and fame accidental.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

◐ Dyinginterj.✎ 3

Chef's Kiss

The fingers-to-lips 'mwah' of an Italian chef, typed as '*chef's kiss*' from around 2017 and used on Twitter and TikTok by 2020 to approve of anything perfect, including things that were not. The record's entry for the gesture that went from restaurant advertisement to universal grade.

▸ 2017peak 2020still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 2

Instagram vs Reality

The side-by-side format that pairs a posed, edited photo with the same body or room un-posed, un-edited and unlit. It started as a Reddit subreddit dedicated to catching bad Photoshop in December 2017 and became, on TikTok around 2020, creators exposing their own tricks. The record's entry for honesty as a format.

▸ 2017peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 4

Situationship

A relationship that neither party will name. Named, therefore, by everyone else.

▸ 2017peak 2023still up