Now from the top, make it drop… Yep, that’s right, we’re talking TikTok. The app everyone said they would never download, but ended up doing it anyway. Although TikTok has taken up way too much of everyone’s time, it has definitely become a source of entertainment and laughter during this pandemic. 

Full of catchy 15-second sounds, easy-to-learn dances, and pop-culture trends, certain songs and filters exploded with popularity during last year’s quarantine. 

People of all ages latched on to the app during some of the most boring times of our lives, but content mainly came from those in the 18-24-year-old age range. Eventually, with sounds from Megan thee Stallion settling into our heads, the WAP became a dance that comes straight from muscle memory.

If you didn’t download TikTok when it first came out in [blank] you probably did when the United States went into lockdown in March 2020. As we all sat on our couches doom scrolling and getting lost in our for you page (#fyp), TikTok experienced an increase of 28.8 million downloads. 

As we approach a one-year anniversary of uncontained COVID pandemonium, here is a nostalgic scroll through last years #fyp trends. 

Perhaps one of the most popular sounds on TikTok, Megan thee Stallion’s “Savage” was used in 26.8 million TikToks.  Keke Janajah, a creator on the app, made a quick and easy to learn dance that inspired other big creators on the app to join in like Addison Rae, the Dameilo sisters, and James Charles. This new genre of tik tok dancing begins with a quick dance move called “the woah” which also stems from the app. However, as some replicated it well, Jessica Alba had more trouble which ended up in some light-hearted teasing in her comment section.

In summer 2020, Cardi B released “WAP” featuring Megan thee Stallion, which changed the app for the better. Multiple complicated and fast dances stemmed from the song and it has been used about 8 million times. These dances let people let loose during the summer months when worries of Coronavirus were not at an all-time high.

One of the first TikTok trends to gain a lot of attention was the sound “Bored in a House.’‘ “Bored in a House” has been used in 4.2 million TikToks. Created by user Curtis Roach, this sound brought many people together and helped bring out the humor in such scary and unpredictable times.  Users have used this sound to show what they were doing in their free time while being cooped up in their house. Even the famous rapper Tyga joined in on the fun while he danced and rode around on his hoverboard to flex his mansion. Other TikToks ranged from people dancing with their pets, riding bicycles inside of their house, baking, and everything else imaginable. 

Another trend included, “Random things that just make sense,” which acquired 7.6 million TikToks of people showing random things inside their home, office, car, purse, etc., that show off their quirk and style. One creator, Mary Louis, used this sound to show how she organizes her things in her cramped New York kitchen. She shows her wall-mounted knife magnet that helps save counter and drawer space, nesting glass prep bowls, and clever 3 tiered spice rack. Even though this seems random, it was satisfying to see what people own and why. 

The main character trend is one of the more widely known trends on the app. Living life as the main character means romanticizing your morning coffee, feeling totally confident in that outfit that has never seen the public eye, and simply believing in those rebellious main character vibes. TikTok took this wild energy and ran with it. Being used by 5.1 billion TikTok users, millennials, and college students who have missed out on some of the most hyped-up years of their lives created videos of themselves pretending to be the main character. User Aimyonce participated in this trend by acting as if everyone was awestruck by her presence in a store when in reality, she had forgotten her mask. 

If the pandemic has brought us anything, it’s good bops, fun dances, and the realization that we are in fact, the main character. Who knows how long we will be stuck in a quarantine slump, so hopefully some new trends, dances, and sounds come along to save us soon.