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    TikTok Made Addison Rae Famous. Pop Made Her Cool.

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    A couple of years ago, when Addison Rae went to pitch herself for a deal with Columbia Records, pop stardom was not a guarantee. She was best known as one of TikTok’s breakout stars, someone who had used the app to catapult from anonymity to ubiquity, but as a dancer and personality — not a musician. And some early demo recordings she didn’t love had recently leaked online, and she wanted to distance herself from them.So instead of presenting a set of sonic ideas, she came into the meeting with a mood board in a binder.First there were the descriptors: words like “intentional,” “intense,” “loud,” “dance,” “glitter.” Then there were the colors: aquamarine, hot pink, purple, yellow. And then the screen grabs of superstar live-show touchstones: Britney Spears’s “I’m a Slave 4 U” at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna’s Girlie Show tour, and so on.It worked — she landed the deal. But what came next was a conundrum, Rae said in an interview last month on Popcast, The New York Times’s music podcast: “I was like, I know what I want people to feel when they hear my music, but what does that sound like? And what am I going to say?”Those questions set Rae on a year-plus mission of refining her public image, one that was forged in the relentless algorithmic fires of TikTok and that has lately seen her remade as a savvy pop ingénue. This week, she’ll release “Addison,” her debut album and one of the year’s signature pop releases. (Its original title was, in fact, “Mood Boards.”) It’s a breathy, sweaty, urgent album — more a throwback to the sonics of three decades ago than a conversation with contemporary pop.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As ‘Pretty Little Baby’ Goes Viral, Connie Francis Is Joining TikTok

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      With a forgotten song becoming an unlikely hit, the 87-year-old singer is happy to be back in the spotlight.Sixty-four years ago, Connie Francis recorded “Pretty Little Baby” as one of dozens of songs in a marathon recording session that yielded three albums within two weeks. It did not, at the time, feel like a song that had the makings of a hit, so it landed on the B-side of the 1962 single “I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter” that was released in Britain. Since then, it was more or less overlooked.Then came TikTok and its canny ability to resurrect decades-old songs for a new generation.Over the last few weeks, “Pretty Little Baby” has been trending on the social media app — it has been featured as the sound in more than 600,000 TikTok posts and soared to top spots in Spotify’s Viral 50 global and U.S. lists — bolstered by celebrities and influencers, like Nara Smith, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian and her daughter North, who have posted videos of themselves lip-syncing to it.The ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog used the song for a clip on TikTok in which she said Ms. Francis had long been her favorite singer. And the Broadway actress Gracie Lawrence, who is currently playing Ms. Francis in “Just in Time” — a play about Bobby Darin, Ms. Francis’s onetime romantic partner — also posted a video of herself lip-syncing to it, in her 1960s costume and hair.The song’s current popularity is an unexpected twist to Ms. Francis’s long and illustrious career. In 1960, she became the first female singer to top the Billboard Hot 100 and, by the time she was 26 years old, she had sold 42 million records and had two more singles top the Billboard charts. But this particular song, which she recorded in seven different languages, remained so obscure that Ms. Francis, 87, told People magazine that she had forgotten ever recording it.Amid the frenzy of the unexpected attention, Ms. Francis is trying to figure out how to turn this sudden attention into opportunities for herself. She and her publicist, Ron Roberts, enlisted Mr. Roberts’s son to help them set up a TikTok account for her and, in a phone interview on Thursday, she said she had been mulling the idea of emerging from retirement to do some kind of show in the next few months.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares152 Views

      in Music

      On TikTok, ‘Propaganda’ Lists Go Viral

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      TikTok users are building eye-catching lists of their dislikes and are labeling them as propaganda that they’re “not falling for.”Lip filler, people who aren’t cat people, the societal expectation for women to shave their legs, working a 9-to-5 job. On TikTok, users have recently begun lining up their dislikes and branding them with an eye-catching term: propaganda.In thousands of videos, many of which are set to a snippet of Charli XCX’s “I think about it all the time featuring bon iver,” users present a list of things they have deemed “propaganda I’m not falling for.” With the context of only a few words of text on a screen, the topics span across genres, with common examples including milk (both plant-based and from cows), Labubus, artificial intelligence, politics, run clubs and the male loneliness epidemic.Delaney Denton, 22, said when she first saw one of the videos she thought it was “kind of iconic” and was inspired to make her own, which now has nearly a million views.“I think it’s putting a spin on things that just feel a little off in our society but aren’t necessarily propaganda,” Ms. Denton said of the trend.

      @delaneydenton #fyp ♬ I think about it all the time featuring bon iver – Charli xcx & Bon Iver The concept isn’t exactly new. Social media aficionados will probably remember the “in” and “out” lists that were an inescapable start to 2024. And people are often looking for new ways to classify their opinions, as is the case with the recent rise of “coded” language online.

      @maya81802 I could make so many of these I have 10,000 opinions (they’re all right) #fyp #propoganda ♬ I think about it all the time featuring bon iver – Charli xcx & Bon Iver We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      How ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’ Took Over TikTok

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      I have never watched an episode of “The Jennifer Hudson Show.” Yet here I am at my desk, singing to myself: “Aaron. Pierre. That’s Mufasa.”If you’re familiar with the tune, you’re singing it now too. If not, picture Pierre, the dashing actor who voiced the title character in “Mufasa: The Lion King,” strut-dancing his way down a hallway surrounded by … Actually, just watch it below and then keep reading.

      @jenniferhudsonshow Aaron Pierre, that’s Mufasa #thejenniferhudsonshow #jenniferhudson #aaronpierre #jhud ♬ original sound – Jennifer Hudson Show OK, welcome back.“The Jennifer Hudson Show,” a daytime talk show, is not a top syndicated program, according to the ratings agency Nielsen. But it has amassed a huge social media following with its behind-the-scenes promotional videos.Before taking the stage, guests make their way down a hallway as members of the show’s staff serenade them with a complicated, customized hype song, sung entirely from memory. Some of the biggest names in American culture — Michelle Obama, Usher, Angela Bassett — have danced, skated or nervously shimmied through this “spirit tunnel” as the TikTok cameras roll.Some of the videos are awkward. Some are suave. Most go viral.During the show’s first season in 2022, members of the show’s staff learned that cheering for Hudson before she took the stage boosted her confidence and energy.

      @jenniferhudsonshow We got @imkevinhart #thejenniferhudsonshow #jenniferhudson #kevinhart #jhud ♬ original sound – Jennifer Hudson Show

      @jenniferhudsonshow It’s Gwen! @Gwen Stefani! S-T-E-F-A-N-I! #thejenniferhudsonshow #jenniferhudson #gwenstefani #jhud ♬ original sound – Jennifer Hudson Show We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      What’s Next for MrBeast? Class Consciousness.

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      On YouTube, he’s long prompted people to do extreme tasks for money. But on his new reality show and in social media posts, MrBeast is showing a new motivation.In the eighth episode of the reality competition show “Beast Games,” released last week, the YouTube superstar MrBeast — the show’s host, co-executive producer and mischief-maker-in-chief — asked the 10 remaining contestants to choose their share of a $1 million split.By this stage of “Beast Games,” which streams on Amazon Prime Video, there was a surprising amount of good will and trust among the players, who are all competing to be the lone winner of a $5 million prize in next week’s finale, the largest amount ever given away on television.The money was presented in a preposterous stack of bills, an almost cartoonlike array. The first contestant took one-tenth. The second took a little more. The third contestant to stake a claim was J.C., a man with a sob-story background who had previously appeared to be beyond ethical reproach. But the combination of quite reasonable greed and quite tragic desperation led him to take $650,000 for himself, leaving barely anything for the remaining players, to their collective repugnance.The subsequent shots of J.C., alone in his bunk, weeping and surrounded by duffel bags of cash, was the first truly affecting note of this season. He was a villain, but a completely reasonable one. Resources are scarce, competition is everywhere — all you can do is grab what’s in front of you.J.C. anguished after taking the bulk of a $1 million pot split among nine other contestants.Amazon Prime StudiosTypically, the YouTube videos for which MrBeast, born Jimmy Donaldson, is known steer clear of such psychic weight. He is 26, and has been the dominant star on YouTube for several years now, with 357 million subscribers. His stunt videos, in which people are prompted to do extreme tasks for money, are often viewed hundreds of millions of times.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Television

      TikTok True Crime to Stream: ‘Dancing for the Devil’ and More

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      Across television, film and social media itself, here are four picks that explore crime stories associated in some way with the imperiled app.TikTok continues to be on shaky ground in the United States. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld a law passed by Congress last year that required a ban of the Chinese-owned app unless it was sold to a government-approved buyer.Hours before the law took effect, TikTok went dark briefly, then flickered back to life when President Trump, a day before his inauguration, indicated support for the app. He then signed an executive order stalling the ban for 75 days.Whether the app will disappear for good is unclear, but in the meantime, here are four true-crime stories associated with TikTok — the most downloaded app in the United States and the world in 2020, 2021 and 2022 — that captured broader attention.Documentary Series“Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult”It’s of course no secret that the glossy dance videos that have populated TikTok since its inception, along with much online content, is more fantasy than reality. But that’s little comfort to the revelations uncovered in this 2024 Netflix series.“Dancing for the Devil” primarily spends time with dancers who were managed by the talent company 7M Films and were members of Shekinah Church — both entities founded and led by Pastor Robert Shinn — as well as desperate family members of those still involved with 7M. These families claim that their loved ones are essentially trapped.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares109 Views

      in Music

      The Year in Pop: Hits Without Stars, Stars Without Hits

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      This past spring, Tommy Richman got famous off a TikTok.Well, not famous exactly. Popular. Let’s say popular. Tommy Richman got popular off a TikTok.Or maybe that’s not quite right either. How about: This past spring, a snippet of a song used in a video on TikTok catapulted Richman, a young soul singer with some promising earlier releases, onto the path to fame.The snippet was of “Million Dollar Baby,” a deliciously saccharine pop-funk thumper, and the TikTok it soundtracked was a loose clip of Richman and his friends having a fantastic time in the studio one night — a warm little bolt of you-shoulda-been-there fun. This was in April, and before long, the clip had millions of views, and the audio was inescapable. Eventually, it appeared in over nine million videos on the app. Radio play followed quickly, leading to a No. 2 debut for the song on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by a few months in the Top 10.Stardom secured, right? Not quite. While “Million Dollar Baby” is one of this year’s defining singles, Richman remains largely a cipher. He hasn’t done many interviews; he had a needless social-media kerfuffle over how people taxonomize his sound; and his debut studio album, “Coyote” — which pointedly and stubbornly did not include “Million Dollar Baby” or its follow-up cousin, “Devil Is a Lie” — arrived with a whisper in September, and disappeared even more quietly.Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” blew up on TikTok and hit the Hot 100, but didn’t appear on his debut studio album.Craig Barritt/Getty ImagesThis isn’t to consign Richman to pop’s deep bin of one-hit wonders. If anything, the current pathway for breakout successes, especially via TikTok, is more insidious than that. Viral smashes like “Million Dollar Baby” often feel like hits without stars — potent for soundtracking and sticking to content made by others rather than attached to the artist who actually created it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      Singing ‘Wicked’ Fans Are Anything but Popular

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      Some fans who have attended early screenings of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical have treated it as a singalong. Not everyone is thrilled.Angela Weir went into a screening of “Wicked” on Monday night ready to be transported to the Land of Oz. But when Glinda (Ariana Grande) began to sing “Popular,” one of the musical’s early numbers, she was not the only one singing.“It started slow. Then people heard each other — it was like they encouraged each other,” Weir said on Tuesday. “It was a beautiful scene, and then you’re taken out of it.”As anticipation builds for the film’s release on Friday, some fans who have attended early screenings have ignored theater norms to sing right along with their favorite characters, much to the chagrin and annoyance of other “Wicked” enthusiasts. Many have taken to social media to issue a strict edict: Shush.As a debate grew on TikTok and Reddit, a possible solution emerged this week: For those who want to join in on the duet “What Is This Feeling?” between Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, more than 1,000 theaters across North America will host singalong screenings starting on Christmas Day.A representative for Universal said the company would not comment on the debate, and the off-key serenades have continued in the meantime.Weir, 35, said the singing at a screening in the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., was particularly distracting during the movie’s finale, when Elphaba belts out the show’s most famous ballad, “Defying Gravity.”

      @arweirr i did like it tho #wicked #pleasedontsing #oscars ♬ original sound – Angela 🙂↔️

      @jordycray Time and place! #fyp #foryou #wicked #wickedmovie #arianagrande #cynthiaerivo #musical #popculture #popculturenews ♬ original sound – jordycray We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      How Did ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Become a Gen Z Hit? TikTok, Of Course.

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      After almost 20 years on air, the reality competition series made changes that brought a surge of younger viewers.The world has changed around “Dancing With the Stars” since the competition series became a hit after its 2005 premiere. Though producers have periodically experimented with casting, canned hosts and tweaked the elimination process, the heart of the show — pairs of professional dancers and celebrities performing weekly and facing elimination based on scores from judges and fan votes — has remained intact.That formula meant “D.W.T.S.” had an audience with a median age of 63.5 in 2022. But in the past two seasons — after almost 20 years and 500 episodes — the show has grabbed hold of Gen Z viewers through its canny use of TikTok, casting of younger dance pros and the chance virality of “wow moments” from routines.“We’ve kind of hit this tipping point where now we feed TikTok, TikTok feeds back to us,” said Conrad Green, the showrunner.Ahead of the Season 33 semifinals, Green and two of the show’s professional dancers, Rylee Arnold, 19, and Witney Carson, 31, explained their parts in making “Dancing With the Stars” a hit with Gen Z.Charli D’Amelio was an influencer contestant for the streaming era.In 2022, Disney execs removed “Dancing With the Stars” from network TV, making it available only via the Disney+ streaming app, a move aimed at drawing older viewers to the service, which predominantly catered to children from the ages 2 to 17.

      @officialdwts The countdown to #DisneyNight is on! Join us in ONE HOUR – 8/7c on ABC and Disney+. 🐭✨ #DWTS ♬ original sound – Dancing with the Stars #DWTS We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More