Those who went through the not-so-distant events of 2012 probably never expected to hear “Gangnam Style,” the news hit of K-pop superstar PSY, ever again. Still, “Gangnam Style” has made a comeback in an unlikely place: TikTok, where zoomers recount their trauma in unbearable detail in a new, dark fun trend.
@aubrecita I know – I also can not believe he left his battery so low #babydaddyproblems #postpartum #tidligereteenmom
♬ original sound – kooze
@ vi0let_x_m00n I wish I was making fun🥲
♬ original sound – kooze
“Gangnam Style” – or more precisely DJ Kooze’s mashup of “Gangnam Style” and Steve Lacy’s “N Side” – has gone viral on TikTok as a soundtrack for people to post their traumas. From a story about a woman who found out her boyfriend was unfaithful while breastfeeding their newborn, to the woman who was driven to the hospital with “bad cramps” and ended up giving birth, to the girl who went to meet her new boyfriend’s parents and found out that her mother was her therapist, the song is used as a soundtrack to people’s most personal traumas. Far from being depressing, the bopped melody and a smooth filter add a dark comic element to the narrative that shows how there is a bit of frivolity in even the most horrific stories.
TikTok has long served as a repository for trauma, as well as lay people’s various psychiatric diagnoses of how said trauma may manifest itself. For a time, the app tended to describe even the smallest actions – such as scrolling on your To You page or preparing for a trip – as a “trauma response” due to the emergence of a cottage industry. of armchair psychoanalysts on the app (a few of which actually have credentials). The propensity of commenters and creators to post intense, emotionally charged content on the app has even prompted the emergence of a new term: “trauma dumping” or sharing a traumatic experience with someone who has neither given consent nor the emotional bandwidth to treat it. . (A TikTok therapist made fun of the trend in a video last year and was paralyzed by it.)
Some have characterized the “Gangnam Style” trend as yet another form of trauma dumping. But on this week’s episode of Do not let this flop, Rolling stones’s podcast on TikTok and Internet culture explains cohost Brittany Spanos that the trend is simply a means of catharsis – and that it may reflect how Gen Z is better equipped to deal with his emotions than previous generations have been. “The memeification of trauma,” as Spanos puts it, “feels like a direct product of these unprecedented times we live in unprecedented citation, where teens and young adults have found solace in finding humor in some horrific experiences.”
Do not let this flop released on Wednesdays on all audio streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher and more.