Popular TikTok students explore platform’s genres
Chapman TikTokers Gianna Gravalese, Axl Avenido and Cooper Scott have gained a massive following on the video-sharing platform. Despite the breadth of the content on the app, they said the different genres are what make TikTok unique. Photo courtesy of Gravalese, Avenido and Scott.
There’s no sugarcoating it – if you still haven’t downloaded TikTok, you’re either living under a rock with Patrick Star or, forgive the candor, but you’re probably really old. Before TikTok, there was Musical.ly, a platform on which users created and posted 15 second lip-sync videos. The app quickly transformed into TikTok, which is currently the most popular video-sharing app globally, according to The New York Times. Advocating for and promoting a youthful demographic, TikTok is home to the ever-changing trends of Gen Z which only continue boasting the thriving platform.
Cooper Scott, a Chapman sophomore strategic and corporate communication major, has amassed over 600,000 followers on his TikTok account. Despite its technical evolution from Musical.ly, Scott argued TikTok’s roots stem from Vine, a now-peacefully-resting app that promoted short-form content no longer than six seconds.
“TikTok pretty much took everything from Vine, except for the fact that it gave creators more flexibility and freedom with the length of the videos,” Scott said. “It’s the new Vine.”
Vine set a precedent for creators to deliver humor with efficiency, a medium of storytelling soon adopted by TikTok. Chapman alumnus Gianna Gravalese, who graduated in May with a degree in broadcast journalism and documentary, posted a video to the platform on July 14 that has since accrued 2.3 million likes. When asked if she preferred TikTok or Vine, the question stumped her.
“This is the hardest question anyone has ever asked me in my life,” Gravalese said. “Vine will always hold a special place in my heart, but I do have a great love for Tiktok.”
TikTok can be divided into two main categories: “Straight TikTok” and “Alt TikTok,” according to Screen Rant. “Straight TikTok” is the colloquial term for mainstream and generic content created by cisgender heterosexuals, whereas “Alt TikTok” is a subculture within the app that features more eccentric and alternative content.
“There are so many different sides of TikTok,” Gravalese said. “I, specifically, am on the weirder side, so my ‘For You Page’ is a mix of Disney, Hamilton and ‘Deep TikTok’ to name a few; pretty much anything that’s not random e-boys dancing.”
“Straight TikTokers” launched their careers through dance videos, skits, pranks and family content, as demonstrated by some of TikTok’s most successful users Addison Rae, Chase Hudson and the D'Amelio sisters who currently reside at the “Hype House” in Los Angeles.
“The stereotype that has been created for ‘Straight TikTok’ is the … type of people that are just famous for being attractive,” Scott said. “‘Alt TikTok’ is more a creative place where people feel like they can openly express themselves as opposed to ‘Straight TikTok,’ which is the more generic idea of social media where the prettiest and most attractive people thrive and everyone else sits around envying them.”
Senior communication studies major Axl Avenido entertains a fanbase of 16,000 followers. Much of his content includes duets with other TikTokers as well as videos of him singing and playing instruments.
“In order for something to be funny it has to be short, abrupt and completely random. Our humor is so disassociated from what true comedy would be,” Avenido said. “You could laugh at a fat raccoon falling out of a tree and that would go viral, or you could laugh at this guy throwing spaghetti at the ceiling and that would be considered hilarious.”
As “Alt TikTok” excelled in popularity, a new facet of this side emerged: “Deep TikTok,” a term coined by Medium author Kristin Merrilees. Now referred to as “DeepTok,” users known as Deep-tokers explore underground comedy and obscure trends. While “Alt TikTok” focuses on the independent nature of diverse content, “DeepTok” dives into a multitude of ultra-original and niche topics such as “Bean Tikok,” “Retail TikTok,” and “Frog TikTok.”
“Anything outrageous enough is funny. Anything that completely shatters your expectations or completely shatters the norm is what thrives on ‘DeepTok,’” Scott said. “Some of it really freaks me out, but sometimes I see videos where I don’t know who could have thought of this, I don’t know why they thought of it, I don’t know why they spent time making it, but this is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life and because of that, I love it.”