The lifecycle of a trend

It was the summer of '24, and everyone was asking are you having a brat or a demure summer? 

Not very mindful of us to start without explaining what's going on! If you were online last summer, you'd have noticed everyone was having a brat summer - brat being the title of Charli xcx's album, which has now turned into a lifestyle and aesthetic. The album promotes being hedonistic and living your authentic life by drinking whatever you want (and we're not just talking about water) and feeling free. Think - gritty 90s/00s, smudgy black eyeliner and wearing underwear as outerwear.

We were convinced we wanted to be in the business of having a brat summer partying and living our best lives until the hangover finally wore off, and Jools Lebron came on the scene a few short weeks after...

"You see how I come to work? Very demure, very mindful" was played over and over on a loop in our office, Jools' catchphrase suddenly shaking us out of our brat stupor. The trend, sparked by the word "demure," became the internet's newest beast, which happens to be the polar opposite of a brat summer. 

Instead of living "our life von dutch" we sobered up, put our sunglasses away and got ready to embrace our demure and mindful side. The main idea behind this trend is being considerate of the people around us and being mindful of how you present yourself to others. So, instead of our brat summer of partying without a care in the world, it became time to flip sides and become self-aware of our actions and how they affect others. VERY mindful! 

This made us think about the lifecycle of a trend and how we can swing from one to the other seemingly overnight. One minute, we're partying 365 and learning the apple dance (another Charli trend), and the next, we're slating green cut creases and being very mindful. So, how do we go from one to the other? 

As we know, the definition of a trend is a video that has been widely disseminated, so is it just luck? How do we, the people, decide what's good or not? It's a cumulative effect; you get sent a video, then send it to two people, and those two people send it to x amount and so on and so forth. So it's based on recommendations and how often we get sent something, but that's too simplistic.

Let's not forget we are also creatures of habit, and we follow the herd. We see how many likes and comments a video has, and that plays into our subconscious - we are more likely to like, comment on, and share a video that has a good number of likes already. 

There's also the very good point of the "corporate ick": when big brands take on the viral trends we know and love, they immediately become over by our standards; it's no longer seen as fun and light-hearted. This is a good lesson: not every trend needs to be jumped on; keep it relevant and light - avoid giving your audience the ick! You may not run a big corporate account, but it still stands for business accounts. You need to use your skills and expertise to determine what will flop or not. Sometimes that means trial and error.

So, it seems we move seamlessly from one trend to another these days. A trend's lifecycle doesn't seem to be overly long; it can switch up daily depending on the trend and platform. However, the longevity and legacy can last long after the trends are seemingly over. Charlie recently posted about how she wishes Brat Summer wasn't over, and people in the comments are telling her it's not. It's not a trend. It's a state of mind.

As trends are essentially chosen by us, the people, it's nice to see that a virtually unknown creator like Jools can achieve the same notoriety and virality as a long-standing artist like Charli, which again is the beauty of the people choosing the trends. "We made the right person famous" and "get the bag, sis " are common phrases on Lebron's videos, and the support is only growing, all thanks to a trend! 

Trends Vs memes?

We love memes, you love memes, and the internet loves memes. This love means that memes persist years after they were created, and even after Vine's downfall (RIP), vines are still quoted. So why do memes have longevity over internet social media trends?

The inner cynic in us want to say its because we're overloaded with video content these days and we consume everything so quickly so trends move quicker to keep up with our appetites. Whereas memes tended to be static images with plain text overlaid, a quick Tweet or Facebook post was the height of sophistication back in the day, but they're still popular today, whereas TikTok trends aren't afforded the same status.

TikToks have been described as "music-first memes" where trending audios are the key rather than the text. This new classification and the bank of videos under each sound mean that, in theory, people move on quicker as they are targeted by clever algorithms showing them the same audio with different creators, causing interest to wane quicker. 

From a creator's POV, platforms literally push you to use trending sounds and dangle the carrot of views exploding if you do. If you don't get the views, you move onto the next trending audio. It's over creation and overconsumption, whereas memes tend to hit on critical pop culture moments or hit people in the feels.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use trending audio and jump on trends; if you want to see results, you must play the game. Just make sure you're missing the trend cycles. Ensure you have a smooth sign-off process with your clients so you do not have to wait weeks before you post something, as the trend will most likely be over by then.