Today, Explained - Don't stop, make it pop

Episode Date: July 12, 2019

Your favorite young person’s favorite app is TikTok. Vox’s Rebecca Jennings has been spending too much time trying to understand it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The weekend's almost here. We're just moments away. Are you going somewhere? Are you going to take your toothbrush? It's pretty easy to travel with the Quip electric toothbrush because it doesn't have any cords. It comes in this case that mounts to any mirror or glassy surface even. Maybe you can mount it to a fridge wherever you're going this weekend. People will be like, why is there a toothbrush on this fridge? And you can be like, because I went to getquip.com slash explained

where the Quip starts at just $25 and your first set of refills is free to getquip.com slash explained where the quip starts at just 25 and your first set of refills is free g-e-t-q-u-i-p.com slash explained okay so the best kind of tiktok is when you like you see a kid doing a stupid challenge and then you see their parents reaction so this guy just like has like a craft single and then right now he throws the craft single at like the glass sliding door and you just pan to the dad who's like, why would you do that? It's just a beautiful piece of cinema. One of my favorites is this growling dog

and it's growling at the exact same time as you hear this cover of an Ed Sheeran song, like one of those really cutesy wedding songs. And the cover is like, Take me into your fucking arms. And the dog's mouth is moving at the same time. And it looks like the dog is lip syncing. Take me into your fucking arms.

Another one of my favorite TikToks is this girl who's just like in her bedroom and she's just like, Um, so I think I broke my glasses. And then her cat bites her at the exact moment. Ow! Coffee just bit the hell out of me. What the fuck? My life is falling apart. Oh, my life is falling apart. My life is falling apart. And she like zooms in right at the perfect moment. Again, a genius.

These children are geniuses. The dog barks the like profane version of the lyrics in sync with the music. Almost perfectly, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Rebecca Jennings, you cover the internet and its culture for the goods. Is that why you are like a rare adult person who actually spends time on TikTok? That is part of the reason, yes, but also because TikTok is like a uniquely joyous app that I just love.

And I've also turned on all my co-workers to it. So it's twofold. Yes. I think some of these jokes, I mean, which clearly you and I love and a lot of people on the Internet love can seem a little niche and like a little subcultury. But how big is TikTok getting right now? TikTok is absolutely enormous. TikTok is the latest app to capture the attention of teens and young adults across the world the app came as the number one downloaded app of 2018 tiktok is a social media phenomenon and it poses a big threat to snap and because the app has broad copyright agreements many of the videos

are users lip-syncing to popular musicA, there needs to be a TikTok anonymous. I am addicted. I feel like I've been watching videos for five minutes and it's been two hours. Then I go up to someone, I'm like, do you see that new TikTok video? They're like, what's TikTok? I'm like, Susan, I can't be your friend. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

As of late June, it has around a billion worldwide monthly active users. That's including the Chinese app, which is called Douyin, and TikTok, which is where it's known around the world. It's still not at the point of, like, Facebook, but that is a huge, huge part of the population. And, like, I guess the most comparable apps that we've seen to TikTok, like Snapchat and Vine come to mind, never got quite this big, right?

Totally. TikTok is much, much, much bigger than Snapchat and Vine. How much value does this app now have that it's got a billion users? So its parent company, ByteDance. ByteDance. ByteDance, yeah. As of last fall, it became like the world's most valuable startup. Wow. ByteDance was most recently evaluated at $75 billion.

Damn. Which is more than what Uber was worth when it was a privately held company. And that was back when the company had about half of its current monthly active users. So one would imagine it's worth a lot more than that now. Where does this app come from and what does it mean? What does TikTok mean? Well, the name TikTok means, as far as I know, nothing. It is not related to the Kesha song, which is a bummer because that song is great.

Yeah. But TikTok is essentially like the second version of Musical.ly, which was an app that was mostly known as a karaoke app where you could go on, you could lip sync to music, and people got really famous off that. And then Musical.ly was acquired by the company ByteDance, and in August and September of 2018, it was rebranded as TikTok and then launched internationally. And it's essentially the same thing as what Musical.ly was, but TikTok is much weirder than Musical.ly ever was. Of course, people are still like singing to like music all the time on TikTok, but that's really not what the app is known for. What's it known for now?

It's more known for like this style of comedy that actually mostly came from Vine and Snapchat, but it's much more like weird, surreal, like goofy, a lot of inside inside jokes a lot of kind of like edgy humor that you would not think of like as like things that 12 year olds actually know 12 year olds love edgy humor what I'm talking about do you want to like pull out your phone and tell us how it works how exactly do you use TikTok I don't have the app because I'm scared I can't open it up because it'll immediately start playing videos really like you don't even have to access them? It'll just start playing them? Yes. And that is actually the best thing about TikTok, which is that it's just like an endless stream of videos. It's sort of like if you logged on to Facebook and Instagram and you saw a whole feed of stuff without even like friending or following anybody.

You can really be a passive viewer of TikTok in a way that you it's harder to do with other social media apps. So that's what like the viewership experience is like. What is it like to actually post stuff? What do you do? You press and hold to film and then you can stop pressing and then continue to hold. And that will create like a cut. OK, so the classic use of TikTok is you find a sound that you see someone else using or that you search in like the little database of sounds and songs that you can pull from and then from there you can easily do something whether lip sync or dance or whatever

to that song that a lot of other people have done the same thing with so in that sense you can hop on a viral trend really easily by like downloading the same song and making your own version of what that song should be so there's one that I saw last night that was basically used one of the songs from La La Land called Another Day of Sun and at every beat drop they show a different outfit that they're too scared to wear in public so like the first thing that you see when the song starts is like here's some outfits that I'm too scared to wear in public and then like drum beat and then you see one outfit and then another drum beat and then a different outfit. Another one is a song called The Get Up. It's like a country trap song, similar to Old Town Road, but you just do like a silly dance to it while you're,

it's like a tracking shot of you walking and dancing. One that I really like, it's from the song Work by Iggy Azalea from I'm pretty sure like 2014. She's just like, walk a mile in these Louboutins. And then what you see is people putting their feet in objects that should absolutely not have feet in them, like traffic cones.

I saw one on, like, two rolling stretchers that this, like, EMT guy was doing, and it's extremely funny. A lot of things go viral when someone has, like, a catastrophic fall, and it looks very painful. Can you turn around? I don't know. Catch me! Catch me! Is it still recording? It is. Did you get me falling? I was just at home for like the 4th of July weekend

and my mom lives in the same house as a small child. I would say she's a fifth grader and her life is TikTok, which gives me the impression that like the kids love TikTok. Is it mostly young people who use it? So that's like kind of a joke, right? It's like people that are like 10 years younger than I am are like, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm still on this app. I'm so old. It's like it has this this ethos of being for kids and very young teenagers. Most of the people that I see on my feed are probably older teens and a lot of boomers. So it's like boomers and Gen Zers really love TikTok. And some people that I don't see a lot of are people my age that are in their mid-late 20s or early 30s. You don't see a lot of true millennials, a lot of Gen Z, a lot of, like, true millennials. A lot of Gen Z.

A lot of boomers. A lot of greatest generation. Is that the one before boomers? Really? They're on there? There's a real community of, like, elder TikTokers. It's really charming. What are the elder folks doing on the TikTok?

Hit or miss? I guess they never miss. Huh? You got a boyfriend? I bet he just kissed you. They have big fans. Okay, so there are some older people on TikTok, but it's mostly like Gen Zers. Does it make you feel old? Yes, it does. I feel like I should be like apologizing for being there because I'm like crashing the kids table. It's obviously a lot of fun, but is there a dark side to TikTok? I mean,

there is because it's social media. You would be correct. Obviously, TikTok is really popular with kids and TikTok, like most sites, is really bad at verifying the age of their users. And there have been a lot of sort of scandals around the world of people going on there and talking to kids that were like broadcasting from their bedrooms, saying where they went to school, doing these really, these things that of course kids are going to do because they don't know not to do them. It's obviously a great place for child predators and there's been a

couple instances of that. And then TikTok was apparently collecting data for children under the age of 13, and the FTC actually gave them the highest fine in history for collecting data on children under the age of 13. They were slapped with a almost $6 million fine for that in February. The FTC saying in a statement, this record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children. We will not tolerate companies that flagrantly ignore the law. And these problems were the same as the ones that Musical.ly had too. In 2017, there was a seven-year-old girl in Indiana who was asked to send shirtless photos

of herself by a stranger on Musical.ly. And then a 25-year-old in California was charged with sexual exploitation of children under 12 through Musical.ly. So these are problems that predate TikTok. But I guess those problems can be found on most any app, huh? Yeah, for sure. It's just that TikTok is really, really, really popular for kids. TikTok is one of those perfect things. It's just that TikTok is really, really, really popular for kids. TikTok is one of those perfect things. It's like, are your teens TikTok-ing? It's a really good like

fear-mongering device because to be fair, horrible things have happened and it's like the latest teen app and people love to freak out over stuff like that. But for the most part, it's like very, very joyous and funny and lovely. The answer to that question is yes, your teeds are using TikTok. Yeah. And it's not going anywhere. It sure isn't. I hope it doesn't. I hope it doesn't go anywhere.

I hope it doesn't go the way of Vine. And Vine sort of died because it couldn't really figure out how to make any money for Twitter, which owned it at the time. Is TikTok making any money at this point? So, yeah, they are certainly trying to. Like TikTok used to be completely ad-free, and now it's sort of like every fifth or sixth scroll, you will see an ad. But people, individual users, are definitely making money off of TikTok. Up next on Today Explained, from TikTok to the top of the charts. Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road. I'm gonna ride till I can't no more.

I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road. Hello? Johnny Harris. Sean, Ramosro? Johnny, you're the host of Vox's Border series. You just are in the process right now of releasing a new series on India. Yes, I'm actually currently in the process of waking up, but yeah, all of that stuff too. Johnny, aren't you on the East Coast here in Washington, D.C. with the rest of us?

No, no, I'm at 6 a.m. here in Portland, Oregon, and I 12 minutes ago rolled out of bed. Oh, Johnny, I am sorry. It's okay. It's to hear your voice. I will wake up at whatever hour. You can do it anytime. Just listen to the show. Johnny, you and I have made many advertisements about Quip electric toothbrushes because you have traveled the world with your Quip. Do you have it right now with you in Portland? Totally. The Quip is now a fixture of not only my world, but my children as well. And your wife is, right? Yes. Yeah, we all still have it. We're all converted. And you took the whole crew to India and Sri Lanka. Did the Quip come with you there as well? It did. Yeah, all four of our Quips. Well, I mean, I don't know if you told anyone, but just in case they're listening to this now,

the Quip electric toothbrush, as you well know, starts at just $25 and comes with your first set of refills free at getquip.com slash explain, G-E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com slash explain. Does the Quip make for a good travel toothbrush? That is the theme of this week's Quip ads. Yeah, I mean, yeah. The thing is just so, the only word I keep coming back to is sleek. It just slipped in wherever I needed to slip in. It's so sleek. So yeah, this is, the Quip is working and I'm glad you converted me to this stuff, which is why I entertain you calling me at six in the morning while I'm in Portland. Anytime, Johnny.

I'm Jessica Fisher. I'm an actor living in New York City, and I make TikToks. I'm known for making astrology videos, but that wasn't the one that got me, I guess, the fame that I have. It was very odd. It happened overnight. I just did a video of me dyeing my hair with henna. I put the henna in my hair to this song, literally just the sound of somebody playing ukulele and said, check back tomorrow to see what it looks like. And literally overnight, I got 45,000 more followers. So I had 50,000 the next day.

And it was like every second I'd refresh and have another 100 or 200, 300 followers every second. It was the craziest experience. Waking up on that morning with all those followers was really exciting but also a little bit um terrifying because i made all these dumb videos of me lip-syncing to things and then i thought to myself oh god people are now watching these people are commenting on them and have opinions about me you should never use henna in your hair it'll kill your hair you're such like a clown you're like an idiot and all these things. And I was like, oh, now I have haters, that's a new thing. I woke up with all these followers and I thought, oh gosh, I'm an actor, I should probably do something with these. And I'm a Gemini and there's this thing that I've always gone through whenever I tell people I'm a Gemini,

they're like, oh God, I do not want to be your friend stay away from me so I made a video that was like that so I'm a Libra so I'm a little bit boy crazy I'm a Leo I don't leave the house without looking my best I'm a Gemini oh so you're a bitch two-faced crazy bitch don't tell her any secrets crazy slut and that got very popular. And that's what my followers now know me as doing. I'm hoping to use TikTok as a way to jumpstart my career. When I'm looking at getting agents, I'm telling them that I'm an influencer. But since TikTok isn't monetized, it's not really the platform to grow a career at the moment. They

can use your videos for whatever they want. So there are some creators that have their videos in commercials for TikTok and they won't get anything from it. As far as going viral, yes, it is useful for recognition and getting your name out there and your face and your content out there. But I wouldn't argue that it's good for

if you're trying to make a career out of monetizing your art. All right, Rebecca, for people like Jessica, TikTok may be great for building followers fast, but not yet great for making money on the actual app? I think what I would be interested to see is when and if a lot of these really, really funny teens are going to get like talent scouted. But what has happened for sure are the artists that have TikTok songs that go very viral on the app. They can make a lot of money from that. And we've actually talked about

one of those artists on the show before. His name, you might know him from having the number one song in the country, Lil Nas X. I sure do know him. So after he, his song, Old Town Road, went like super viral on TikTok because it had this great beat drop. It gave people like automatically something to do. This is the Yeehaw challenge, if I remember correctly. Yeah. You transform from like your normal self into like your country self. You literally are like wearing your sweatpants sitting on the couch and then the beat drops. And you're like are on a horse. You're wearing your country western shirt, you got your fucking hat on, and you are countrified. Exactly.

And the virality of this particular meme propelled Lil Nas X to being the most popular artist in the country this year. I think also because the song is a fucking banger. So that is mainly why. But yes. So are there other people trying to launch their careers like Lil Nas X organically did? Oh, yeah, obviously. There are a ton of songs by artists you've probably never heard of that go super viral. People like Flo Millie, who has a song called Be Flo Mix. Who got beef with me?

Girl, you don't want to compete. I'm too fast on my feet and you know where I'd be. Making you mad is my specialty. I'm the petty queen. I need you to have it. flow mix. It's this very lo-fi goofy song and there are a lot of artists like that. There's like Swako the Child. Even people that are like already successful in the industry are trying to emulate it which is like the Jonas Brothers just got TikTok, and it's all very thirsty, and it doesn't come off as natural. What are they doing?

They're just, like, making, like, really staged videos, which just feels, like, inauthentic. I have fit my entire body into this box. If you're trying to go viral on TikTok, you're kind of like looked down upon a little bit. But then again, like record companies are extremely always on the lookout for what songs are going viral and how they can make money off of them. Because when songs go super viral on TikTok, that often translates into a lot of Spotify streams. What kind of songs are going viral? So we love to talk about the artists that are discovered on TikTok, like Lil Nas X. But actually, what most of TikTok is, is these old songs that have been around for years,

maybe even decades in some of the cases, that have this new life from like challenges and memes on TikTok, songs that you don't really think about anymore and that just kind of popped up organically. Nicki Minaj, Roman Holiday, that song got really big on TikTok because there's this really frantic moment in it that makes it feel like the camera is like shaking. And so what you can do with that is just clap that music on a thing that's going on that's crazy and make it feel even crazier. It demands something of you visually. And then there was this one song by Marina and the Diamonds called I Am Not a Robot where she has this twinkly voice and then at the very end of

the section that's used on TikTok she goes goes like, which sounds like Michael Jackson. And a lot of the times you'll just see someone transform themselves with makeup into like creepily look like Michael Jackson. And you see the full extent of the transformation right as the happens. And one song that's like 20, 30 years old, I Wish by Ski Low. And this one's really goofy because it just, you know how it's like, I wish I was a baller. This meme just like ends at ball. And then they'll just turn into a ball. You'll just see a ball.

Wait, you just see an actual ball, like a tennis ball, like a dodgeball? Yeah, it's like they'll be dancing and then like they'll cut and then it's just a ball. I wish I was a ball. So it sounds like TikTok has basically become an unofficial streaming service too, like Spotify or something. People are actually listening to and discovering music on TikTok. Oh, yeah. Like I've actually found a couple songs that I really like just from TikTok. And I was like, what is that?

And it's really easy to find. There are Spotify playlists that you can go to that are just like TikTok jams and like find all the songs that you've heard like 15 second snippets of. And now you actually like them as a song. Do we know how much streaming is going on? Like how much potential TikTok has to like actually make an impact in the music business? Oh, yeah. I think there was a quote from some record label guy that was like, if a song goes viral on TikTok, it will show up in Spotify's like viral 50 playlist.

It'll get like 20 times the streams that it would have gotten otherwise. So yeah, there's like real increases that TikTok is contributing to. Does it translate to other forms? Are comedians into TikTok the way they're into Twitter? Are movie stars into TikTok the way they're into Instagram? I don't know what. There's an entire generation of comedians and actors that are going to be discovered on TikTok.

And singers, too. There's a ton of people that are like aspiring singers that just like post 15 seconds of themselves singing and they get a fuckload of followers TikTok is almost like a teen talent show honestly like it's a really good way to discover like undiscovered talent so it sounds like all told that like people who are trying who are already established and trying to like maintain some sort of status on TikTok ultimately don't really translate the way someone like Lil Nas X, who wasn't trying to do anything, does. Authenticity comes out really clearly on TikTok, at least I would like to think. And that's the kind of content that travels really far

and that has a huge impact. And I think what's going to happen is that we see a lot of actual careers come out of being really good at TikTok. So for all the marketing companies right now that are sitting there trying to figure out how to game TikTok, the answer is just try not to? Yeah, I mean, I think TikTok will be better without, you know, the hands of tons of record companies. But obviously, that's what's going to happen. There's going to be a lot of money poured into TikTok. And that's going to change it for better

or for worse. But for now, it's a very like, it feels like a very pure platform in a way that other social media sites certainly do not. All right. So if you felt you were missing some of the humor in this episode, but don't want to go all the way and download TikTok to get the jokes, head over to Today Explained on Twitter. You'll find a great thread from Rebecca Jennings with many of the TikToks we talked about today. The show's at today underscore explained. Rebecca's obviously the tickiest talk we got here at Vox. She mostly writes for the goods, which is Vox's section on consumer culture. You also heard from Jessica, the TikTok star.

You can find her on TikTok at Jess.Fisher5 if you're so inclined. Jess spoke with Today Explained producer Noam Hassenfeld, and right after she got off the phone with him, she hit TikTok and posted a video captioned, an actual interview I just had for a hashtag for you hashtag fyp hashtag feature me hashtag original sound hashtag actor so you're an actor yeah and you're well known on tiktok yeah i do well do you think your tiktok fame will help your acting career uh no definitely not really video apps helped launch the careers of many actors. Not this app. I'm telling you, not this app. All right, the weekend's here as far as I'm concerned.

I'm definitely going to the beach. I'm definitely not bringing my toothbrush because I'm not much of an afternoon brusher and it's just a date trip. But if I were, I'd be hoping to go with a toothbrush just like the Quip electric toothbrush. It's at getquip.com. It starts at just $25, and your first set of refills, cost-free.