A Detached Adult’s Guide to Children’s Culture: Chappell Roan and the White Girl in the Top
Fame works differently than it used to. Very few people are household names, but there are plenty of YouTube creators, Instagram influencers and TikTokers who are household names among people under 25 but completely unknown to everyone else. Some people, like White Tube Top Girl, become instantly famous for no reason, and some people actually work at it and are super talented, like Chappell Roane, but the almighty fame algorithm doesn’t award points for effort.
Who is Chappell Roan?
Chappell Roan is a 26-year-old singer from Missouri. Her musical style draws heavily from 1980s synth-pop and Kate Bush, and her appearance is inspired by drag queens (or Miss Piggy, depending on who you ask). At age 17, she emerged from obscurity after posting a YouTube video for her song ” Die Young ” and signed a contract with Atlantic Records. Her EP didn’t sell very well, and Atlantic cut the cord. But Roan re-emerged in 2023 with a full-length album , The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released on Island Record, and it was slow going from there. Roan has expanded her fan base by opening for Olivia Rodrigo, appearing on NPR , and putting on amazing performances at festivals. All that hard work paid off when the record peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard charts about a year after its release. And that’s where we are now: Roan is on the verge of superstardom, so famous that even you and I have heard of her.
Who is the girl in the white top?
While Chappell Roan has certainly spent a lot of time on her fame, the almighty TikTok created a superstar out of thin air this week: White Tube Top Girl. Her name is Faith Marie, and her meteoric rise began (and ended) when she posted a short dance video . For reasons beyond human understanding, the unremarkable video went viral, resulting in more than 23 million views in its first week online and scores of responses. Mostly from people asking, “What is this anyway?” Or as video commenter Faith Marie put it: “Okay, wait, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” One possible answer is that the video is so popular because it’s mediocre. Marie is not a particularly good dancer; she doesn’t say or do anything unusual; she didn’t even invent the dance. At first glance, it’s the same as 100 million other videos that don’t require much effort. But perhaps Faith Marie is being fed to TikTok users because Marie has reached some rare level of perfect averageness, the great middle ground that all attempts to attract as much attention as possible achieve. If so, then “White Tube Top Girl” is a glimpse into our dystopian future of entertainment.
What is the One Million Beer meme?
I don’t really understand the joke about the “One Million Beer” meme, but here’s what it is: TikTok users post a video of themselves using a fancy filter where they walk up to a bar and either order a million beers, or order another drink, and instead the bartender will offer a million types of beer.
Here is the first video using this phrase . Apparently, people were so impressed by this that they started emulating it and expanding the concept, including the most popular variant: a dude (or dudes) orders Red Bull and vodka , or some food, or something like that, and a “handsome” bartender or the waiter answers. asking, “Did you ask for a million bottles of beer?” And he begins to put beer on the table .
Like the white pipe girl, the One Million Beer meme makes me wonder if there is something wrong with TikTok or something wrong with TikTok users. It’s a secret.
TikTok dangers
TikTok isn’t all bad: Over the past few years, the platform seems to have gotten much better at identifying and removing videos that encourage dangerous behavior. But people with bad ideas are creative and have managed to get around bans on physically dangerous activities like the Milk Crate Challenge by focusing on bad ideas instead. Here are some of these bad ideas, each illustrating something you should never do:
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Do not close the tailgate to other drivers to save fuel. While this may work, it is dangerous and annoying.
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Don’t listen to people who tell you not to wear sunscreen . I ‘ve written a lot about this, but the gist of it is this: the sun will give you cancer if you don’t wear sunscreen. Also: Don’t make your own sunscreen .
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Don’t take dental advice from TikTok . Avoid DIY dentistry entirely; this means don’t file your teeth, do home orthodontics, or get your own fillings.
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Don’t try to cleanse your colon of parasites if you don’t have any.
Viral Video of the Week: “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
Luckily, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” video proves that nothing popular on the Internet is ordinary. The video was viewed more than 36 million times in four days, and at least one of those views was likely made by Drake. This is a bad time for Drake. The rapper must have just recovered from the brutal verbal beating he took last month at the hands of Lamar, only to wake up on the 4th of July to see the full “Not Like Us” video.
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but the full version of the song is even more brutal than the mixtape version. More memorable and bright. More honest and cool. It’s definitely the song of the summer, but if you’re Drake, the song of the summer is about how terrible you are. Even if it’s about you, you have to admit how great it is – it’s undeniable. Imagine trying not to nod your head to this song because it accuses you of being both a colonizer and a pedophile.