Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - The ultimate summer trend recap + a Chick-fil-A streaming service

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

We've all long been familiar with the concept of a "song of the summer," but lately there's been a rush to declare "the summer" everything. Drink of the summer, drug of the summer, shoe of the summer, the list goes on. Casey Lewis joins Taylor to discuss the summer's emerging trends and why everything has been declared “of the summer.” Later, Taylor weighs in on the latest headlines, including Hasan Piker’s removal from the DNC, the new fridgescaping TikTok trend, what a Chick-fil-A streaming service could look like, and why everyone in DC is upset with food vlogger Keith Lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While we've all long been familiar with the concept of the song of the summer, lately there's been a rush to declare the summer everything. Drink of the summer, shoe of the summer, drug of the summer, the list goes on. Casey Lewis writes the newsletter after school, where she monitors hundreds of emerging trends. She recently released a big analysis, tracking all of the products, moments, and more that were declared of the summer. She's joining to chat about how summer became this defining moment in culture

what she learned from analyzing the season's hottest trends and what's on her radar going into the fall. Casey, welcome to Power User. Thank you, Taylor. So excited to be here. Okay, so you made this massive summer 20204 recap list of all of the major trends and viral products moments. I don't know what you want to call it. Tell me what inspired you to make this. And what was your methodology here? Not very scientific, but I'm fascinated by trends, but I'm also fascinated by the way that they report on that.

And we've all noticed the phrase of the summer popping up again and again. But this year, I noticed early on that of the summer was in every headline. And it was shoe of the summer, sneaker of the summer, purse of the summer. New York Post even had sex positions of the summer, which I actually did not include because it was not a real. Like, I try to have some journalistic standard in inclusion here just because, you know, it was based on some silly sort of like fake study. You know how it is. So this entire summer, I've been tracking the phrase of the summer over 500 publications and last weekend sort of distilled it into a master list. Yeah. It seems like the new year for trend forecasters begins in the summer

because that's like when these trends break out. So I want to talk about some of the trends that you've found. Like what really defined this summer in terms of the trend cycle? So I know you broke down a bunch of these categories. Can you give us some top level highlights? What did you notice? What sort of trends did you pull out on a macro level from analyzing all of the of the summer breakouts? I think the most fascinating thing about this project was how much shifted from May to June to July, now August, where Charlie X, CX, Brat Summer, that very much defined a moment of the summer, but it didn't define the entire summer because, for instance, in June, July, it wasn't really a thing yet. And so in early July, it was all about Sabrina Carpenter. She had two

different songs that were on the charts. It very much felt like she was going to own the song of the summer and so much of the summer generally where some headlines were pushing butter yellow as the color of the summer, which was associated with Sabrina, who wears a lot of butter yellow. It's so funny because it flipped so quickly to Brat Green. I feel like within a month. Yeah, so quickly. And also butter yellow, like that seems like a fake trend. But Brat Green is truly everywhere and isn't a fake trend. I mean, how do you even know what's a trend these days? It seems like there are so many micro trends, nanotrends, culture is so chaotic.

How do you determine what meets the bar for an official trend? I spent a lot of time trying to discern what is an actual trend versus a fake trend. And by fake trend, I mean that there is one viral TikTok and a media publication picks up on it and says this thing is happening on TikTok. And it is happening on TikTok, but there's literally one TikTok. And we all know that one person doing one thing, even on a large platform, does not a trend make. Obviously, it's very hard to discern a legitimate trend from a fake trend. And I spend a lot of time on Google trends, on Pinterest.

TikTok also has a trends platform to verify whether these things are actually popping or it's one viral trend that got a couple of headlines. Yeah. And I also think like this whole obsession of like what's a real trend, what's not a real trend. Five people doing things could be a nanotrend or a micro trend. Like I feel like the problem comes is when you misrepresent it, right? When you're like, this is the biggest trend in America. And it's like, no, it's actually just a trend within this small group. But if you accurately explain, hey, this is this little trend in a small group and it matters because XYZ, that's still interesting. And there's so much monkey see monkey do that happens on social media that oftentimes it may be, well, isn't a trend until it is.

You know, fake freckles as an example. Was that a real trend? So many people started doing it that it became one. Tell me some other learnings that you got from doing this analysis. So a big category every year, and I remember this from last year, years past, is the cocktail of the summer or the drink of the summer. Was it Negronis last year? I think Negroni has been one in recent years. I should dig into last year, but I didn't do this.

same analysis last year, but I can tell you definitively that this was the summer of the Paloma, which people love those. People love the Paloma. It's super refreshing. It makes sense why it would be the drink. But then the Paloma was the sort of definitive cocktail. However, there were lots of other ones thrown around in headlines. The Hugo Spritz was a big one. White port and tonic was a big one. And I quote, an icy, cold glass of dry sherry. according to the Wall Street Journal. Okay, what were some other summer breakout hits? And was there anything really surprising on this list?

The drug of the summer, I thought, was really interesting. And this was only covered on a couple of culture substacks. What is the drug of the summer? Poppers. Poppers. Knew it. You knew it. See, that's the thing. You knew it.

Why was this the summer of Poppers? I think Charlie XX had a big doing in that. Charlie XX is all about the girls and the gays on the dance floor, a summer of debauchery and hoppers play into that. What other surprising things did you find in this list? I mean, in terms of fashion trends, did you see any interesting evolution? I know that I think you mentioned that the shoe of the summer was jelly shoes. Yeah.

So the jelly shoes were a huge one. However, those mesh flats, those, you know, those like that is what I would have picked because those things are all over and I literally just bought a pair of knockoffs. Yes. I mean, they, I think that jelly and mesh are neck and neck. Though the true shoe of the summer as deemed by Teen Vogue, Teen Vogue again, Daily Mail, and then Vogue, was the flip-flop. Like the humble, classic flip-flop. At least in New York, it was like everyone was digging out their Javiernas again.

And the Rose $650 variation on the shoe was one of the shoes of the summer as deemed by Vogue. That's crazy. I got to bring out my reefs. I feel like there's also these phrases like Hot Girl Summer or Blank Girl Summer that really took off. I think you documented Horse Girl Summer, Dirt Girl Summer, Lazy Girl Summer, BFI Girl Summer. I don't even know what that one is. Lit Girl Summer. Talk to me about this sort of like blank girl trend and where it evolved from. Megan the Stellion actually coined this a few years ago, Hot Girl Summer. The whole, this sort of phrasing formation all goes back to her.

So now it's taken on a new life over and over again. Nancy Myers Girl Summer was one I saw. Hot Cat Girl Summer, which is obviously a variation on the Megan. One interesting thing I think about Megan the Stallion is she actually named her tour this summer, Hot Girl Summer. So that gave it some extra legs. I think that she's still using that framing. And I also think it's one of those phrases that really takes off on a social media platform like TikTok, where it's very easy to riff on it. Okay, that was my next question, is what role do you think platforms play in sort of commodifying summer into these trends?

Because so much of this feels very TikTok to me where there's just this rush on TikTok to declare, number one, a trend or to sort of package a trend or to kind of like really view your life in terms of seasons as well, like almost like movie seasons or additions where it's like, here's my summer moment. And I'm wearing the summer colors. I'm drinking the summer drinks. I'm like sort of consuming summer in this very specific way. I think that's a great point, Taylor. And I think a big part about all of this sort of summer hoopla is life is pretty mundane if you don't kind of celebrate these small things. And we've seen on TikTok girls romanticizing their lives, romanticizing the small moments. And this sort of taking summer and turning it into a whole to borrow a phrase from Gen Z aesthetic is all part of that.

I feel like also having summer or sort of packaging the seasons in this way lets you indulge, like you said, a little bit in a different identity or kind of experiment in different ways that you might not either. You know, I know you mentioned one piece that said this was the summer of age gap romances, the quiet vacation, things like this that I feel like can happen any time during the year, of course, but it's about sort of like living it up for the summer or engaging in this under the guise of the summer, not like your normal life, maybe. I guess the other three quarters of the year. Yeah, that's the second phrase I tracked was of the summer, but then also the summer of, which very small difference, but the way that the media kind of runs with these frameworks is fascinating to see the summer of Travis Kelsey, the summer of HGF romances. Like, there's nothing in common between these things, but it does get you to click. Yeah, I feel like we're just moving through trends also so quickly, like you're saying. It's like the, what XYZ of the summer in May is not going to be the same as June, July, or August. I also saw this interesting TikTok recently that said microtrems are dead.

Mobwife, blocourt, coquette, not to mention all the many beauty microchans that we saw the rise in super quick fall last year. It's been a while that we haven't seen any powerful microchrend like we were used to see every week last year. It was really interesting. It was just talking about how kind of like a couple years ago we had such a such an explosion of microtrends, like mushroom girl, tomato girl, you know, like just every little like niche trend you could imagine and how we're seeing less of that now. But I think what's kind of replaced that is this seasonal thinking where I don't know if it's like microtrends, but it's sort of like grouping all of these trends in this finite period that has a defined endpoint to. Like you might just drink Palomas for

the summer, but you're not going to keep doing it into the fall probably unless you want to make it part of your whole personality. Yeah. So are you basically saying that you think microtrends aren't dead because a paloma is a great example of what is effectively a microtrend. I think the micro trends are less like underneath the trend themselves and more being looped up together into like seasonal trends. Yeah. A whole seasonal aesthetic. Yeah. Seasonal aesthetic that are tied to lots of micro trends together. Because I feel like what we used to see on TikTok is just this like explosion of every single little micro trend. And now it just seems like we're like coalescing a lot of these trends under the summer of XYZ, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's a great point. It has been a while since I've seen a trending core rise to the top. Though I could see that happening with back to school because people are redefining their styles and shopping. And so the core, I think, will continue to be in the lexicon for a while. When we look back at the summer, was there anything that really stood out to you that was missing that went under the radar that was maybe took over a lot this summer but wasn't recognized very publicly. That's a really tough question. I will say I think about the Tenosha nasty song that was so much going to be the song of the summer in May, June, and no one's talking about it now. You can spend a lot of time scrolling on TikTok. You're not going to come across it.

And it shows just how fleeting some of these moments are. Another example is the man in finance. I'm looking for a man in finance with trust fund. Six-five, blue eyes. No one's talking about that. No one is using that soundbite. And it really goes to show like how quickly culture goes on to the next. One interesting thing, Taylor, is how quickly my FYP went from these sort of summer moments to back to school and fall, where it's like, you know, the end of August. And even like mid-July, once Fourth of July is over.

people are already starting to think about who they are in the fall. Yeah. Did you see that meme that was like, who will you be this fall? And it was like a series of, you know, different, I guess, like, aesthetics that you could choose. And it's like, how are you going to consume fall this year, I guess? Yes. Yeah. And I think TikTok and Gen Z, both of them in tandem, are the ones who are pushing a lot of this forward where it's trying to figure out who you are as a person.

And so it comes down to seasons. but it's really just like a larger, like, who am I? What do I want my appearance to say about who I am? And even my preferences in terms of my ploma that I'm drinking and my book that I'm reading. Yeah. And we saw these trend pieces, too, of like finance bro summer back in July and things like that where it was like, I feel like men in finance did have a moment this summer. But I guess the moment's over. Okay.

Let's look forward in the fall. What are you seeing already in terms of big trends? leading into this fall. So one thing I've done is spent probably 15 hours watching back to school halls. I've been watching those two. I'm obsessed. They're so good. There's such a valuable peek into someone's consumer habits.

Yes. And anytime I see one, I just feel lucky to be a little, like, fly on the wall. So the number one item I have seen is an Abercumbian Fitch Camo hoodie. Okay. Interesting. Pre-pre-herherit. Wall's Camo hat. This is totally unrelated to that camo moment, but camo is a huge trend and nothing is more popular or coveted than this Abercrombie-Camo hoodie. Cammo is having such a moment,

obviously not just with the Walls-Harris hat, but I think as an aesthetic, it's been creeping up for years, and I could see this being a Camo Fall. Yes, big Camo Fall. What else are you seeing? A lot of low-rise baggy jeans. I'm seeing a lot of ugs in Birkenstock, Boston still. On-running shoes are really popular. I'm not seen as many hokas. I'm seeing far fewer Adidas shoes. Interesting.

So the samba are done. Yes, the sambas are dead. What are you seeing in terms of like outside of fashion, but just in culture more broadly? You know, what sort of like macro trends are you noted? I think one thing that's really interesting is what's happening with beauty and skin care as it relates to teen girls and teen boys. And they're investing, both boys and girls are investing in fragrances in a huge way. The fragrance thing is so funny. I personally hate fragrance of all sorts. So it was surprising. But I guess maybe it's having perfumes having a comeback. It's the impact of Jeremy fragrance trickling down. It could be. It could be. Taylor, I also have. I am highly sensitive and this trend is my nightmare. You know, one other thing that's been on my

mind recently, I reported a story last week for the cut about Snapchat and how it impacts teen friendships. And I hadn't given Snapchat that much thought in probably 10 years. And then I talked to dozens of tweens and teens about how this platform is their primary platform for communication, which I think many of us know. This is not news exactly, but the amount of influence and the amount of nuances that Snapchat features have was mind-boggling to me and to understand how embedded it is in the social structures of Gen Zs and Gen Alphas is something that I've been, it's been top of mind for the last week. Yeah, Snapchat is a real sleeper hit, honestly. It is so integral to, as you mentioned, the social structures of young people. and their communication habits. But because there's not great discovery on the platform and because it's not generally used by older people,

I feel like it gets ignored a lot. I mean, it's certainly not going to be competing with TikTok in terms of necessarily entertainment content, but I think it is a place where things spread through direct communication. Yes, yes. It seems more like an I message than it is a TikTok or an Instagram. So I guess it's a cold Snapchat, Abercrombie hoodie fall. All right, Casey, well, this has been so great.

Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you, Taylor. I'll be back to talk about the biggest news of the week after the break. All right, I'm here to talk about the news this week with my producer, Zach. Hi, Zach. Hello. So the first thing I want to address because a lot of people were frustrated with my last episode, we recorded it before Hassan was removed from the DNC.

So I was talking about the content creators being accepted to the DNC. And I mentioned that it was really amazing, that they had given Hassan all of this access. Of course, a day after we recorded, they revoked his access. They kicked him out of the room where he was streaming. And he had to actually, I think, go back to his hotel room to stream. So, sorry about that. I didn't know that would happen. And, yeah, I don't think it looks very good for the DNC to be revoking Hassan's credentials

shortly after he interviewed a bunch of pro-Palestinian activists. So people gave you a lot of shit for that? Yeah. Well, I just got a bunch of people. comments because, you know, I think Keith and I last episode had talked a lot about how, you know, what the DNC was doing with Hassan. And so that changed. Gotcha. I actually watched his, his like response video about this and he sort of explained the whole situation. And he did say he would be down to go back next. He planned to go back to the DNC next time.

He didn't seem particularly bitter or upset about it. So no, definitely not. I think he's happy to get any access that he gets like most journalists. And I think by 2020, who will probably be so big that they truly cannot pull this type of stuff with him. So another TikTok trend that I'm obsessed with lately is fridgecaping. I don't know if you've seen these videos, but it's basically people artfully arranging their fridge and putting a lot of things that don't even necessarily go in a fridge, like little tiny, mini oil paintings or little decorative statues and things,

and just making their fridges very aesthetic. A bunch of people are saying, like, this is how young people have to romanticize buying groceries because we're also broke now thanks to, like, It kind of hit with me. Definitely made me reorganized my own fridge, but I haven't fully fridgecaped yet. But I just, I could watch these videos for hours. I'm really into the like fridge organization stuff, like all the TikTok trends that just show how you can organize and like all the hacks to save space and put things there. But I don't know why you need oil paintings and flowers and plants and things that just have no business being in your fridge. I live in New York. I don't have a very big fridge.

So it is really like a space optimization puzzle. And I just, I got no room for flowers or decoration. Well, the flowers, I feel like are going to die. They shouldn't be in a fridge, right? They need light. One thing that did change my life, though, that is also from TikTok, although it's not, I think, officially fridgecaping is taking produce out of the drawers and putting the produce actually in the shelves on the door.

That way, when you open up your door to the fridge, you can just grab produce really easily. And you don't have to, like, dig through some big drawer. Yeah. It's like an instant reminder to use your produce before it goes bad and you just see it more like, yeah, I got it. That's a good trick. But it doesn't look very aesthetic. Another story this week is Chick-fil-A is launching its own streaming service. It's going to be a streaming platform. It's kind of unclear what this service will look like. It will probably be an app. Deadline reported that Chick-fil-A has been working with a bunch of major production companies and studios

to create family-friendly shows, particularly in the unscripted space. And it's also in talks to license and acquire a bunch of content. They're trying to develop family-friendly shows, and they're working with major studios. They're also interested in acquiring content. So basically, I just can't wait to see what they launch. Chick-fil-A is a Christian company, as we know, and they have this very specific ideology that they promote. So I imagine anything on their streaming platform will be potentially pushing Christian values. I'm not really sure, but I'm very interested to see kind of how this content play works out for them. I think that there is a lot of opportunity in sort of the right-wing Christian space for streaming, right?

You always see the right-wing like rising up against Netflix and Disney and all the mainstream streamers. So it makes sense that a smaller streamer that caters to like right-wing family values. But what about like Prager You and Daily Wire and all the other right-wing streaming services that already exist? Aren't those all YouTube though? No, they're streaming. Yeah, the Daily Wire is like an app. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Maybe there's room for more. And I think Chick-fil-A is infinitely more popular than Prager You and Daily Wire, right? They have a lot of brand awareness and cachet. So I don't know. We'll see how it goes. It's a weird move, but I think there's probably space for it. I wish that they would do, like, cooking, like chicken recipes or something. I don't know. I hope it doesn't get, like, super political. They're really leaning into, like, the family-friendly aspect of it and for children. I could see this, you know, if they program it with a bunch of children's content, being a really good marketing vehicle.

I think actually making it political would be a mistake. If it's too overtly political, like, who wants a politicized chick filet streaming app? That sounds terrible. But if it's something where it's like, hey, here's a bunch of fun kids entertainment. And by the way, don't you love chick filet? Like, I don't know, it's just kind of like building that brand universe that I feel like McDonald's has done a really good job of. The other thing I saw was that the budgets for the unscripted side range in the like forehead. hundred thousand per half hour. So we should just let them know that power user is available for streaming. Let's develop a show. Hot ones 2.0, but with, with chick-fil-a chicken wings. Perfect. Perfect. I love it. Green light. Sticking with another food story, I don't know if you've seen, but people are so mad at Keith Lee on the internet right now, Zach. He is a really famous TikTok food reviewer, and he went to Washington, in D.C. and he ended up not reviewing a significant number of restaurants that he actually tried food from.

He said the food was just so disgusting. The smell it is insane. It smells almost unedible, in my opinion. He released this like cut of him trying some of the food with, you know, the name of the restaurant blurred out, just showing that the food actually was gross. And it's just really sparked a lot of discussion. I think people are saying, like, how have you not been able to find good food in Washington, D.C. or places like New York, like, what the heck? And then other people are like, well, he's just going off recommendations. And I just think it's opened a lot of conversation around sort of like food reviewers, food. Obviously, a lot of also discussions around, like, race and culture and kind of like what sorts of foods he's trying out. He just seems like such a sweet guy. I'm rooting for him. I feel protective of him when people start coming for him all that. I'm like way out on him. It just doesn't seem like he knows anything about food. He's just eating takeout in the car with his family. I'm just like, has this person ever worked in the service industry? Do they, have they ever worked in a kitchen?

I don't find his reviews to be like particularly knowledgeable about food. They're not. They're not knowledgeable. He goes to New York. He doesn't hit up the like spots, you know, the big like buzzy spots that people are talking about. And then when he did go to like one famous spot, he like famously ordered the wrong thing. You know, he didn't order the thing that that restaurant was known for.

and then he complained about it. And it's just like, dude, what do he? Like, I don't need to hear this kid. Just go back to Vegas. I don't need your food reviews. Oh, I like him. There's something wholesome about it. I guess, like, I agree. I think that, like, he could try different spots, maybe. And it might be like, I would love to see him try even just more unexpected places. He's, like, generally pretty wholesome with his family. Food reviewing is tough. I saw Pete Wells obviously announced that he was retiring from the New York Times. He's the longtime food critic. And he wrote this whole article. about kind of how that restaurant industry has changed and also just like how being a food reviewer was so hard on his health. And it just kind of gave me a new appreciation for what these people do because it is really hard to research dishes

and give these sorts of deeply informed reviews, especially when people have such different tastes and desires and all of that stuff. Yeah, I mean, just the age of the critic is in a weird place right now. But I have seen several of Keith Lee's videos and I'm just like, it's not for me. You're done.

It's not for me. It's not for you. Yeah, he's more of a, like, hang. Like, I think he's just one of those people where I'm like, I parisocially think he seems nice. And, you know, he should just maybe make more vlog content driving around with his family. But he seems like a sweetheart. I will give him that. And as somebody that spent a week in D.C. recently, I actually do think the food is not that good.

It's not as good as New York. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, I'm not super familiar with the D.C. food scene. But I do know they have very good Ethiopian food. Oh, yeah. That's true. Really good Ethiopian food.

All right, that's the show. You can watch full episodes of Power User on my YouTube channel at Taylor Lorenz. Power User is produced by Travis Larcuk and Jalani Carter. Our video producer is Brandon Kieper. Our executive producers are Zach Mack and Shot Kerwa. Power User is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you like the show, give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of Power User.