While the radio is still a popular place to listen to music, people are splitting their audio attention spans between podcasts, YouTube videos, and streaming services. (And, you know, a bajillion TV shows, movies, audiobooks… The list feels endless!) There just isn’t enough time in the day to listen to every album that gets released.
We find ourselves in an irony-poisoned environment where sincerity is punished with the harshness of internet virality. Acting too cool for sincere expressions is a big part of 2020's internet culture. Maybe that’s part of why a current TikTok trend in 2025 has revolved around the 2010 Kesha song “Your Love is My Dr*g,” as well as a separate trend of people lip syncing to Katy Perry’s 2009 ballad “Thinking of You.
Kesha’s popular hit has inspired a trend made for duos that is cute and hilarious to act out: One person (or pet!) belting out the main vocals (“So I’ve got a question/do you wanna have a slumber party in my basement?”), while the other sings the background wailing vocals. It’s cute and funny with two people, and it’s even funnier to let a clueless pet handle the main vocals while their owner wails in the background.
@remygumbs and Peanut the guinea pig lip syncing to Kesha
@brookedanielle120 and @Braden.Bradford dancing to “Your Love is My Dr*g”
@jessxcaao and @Mirkak Lafleur trying out the trend
Meanwhile, the old Katy Perry ballad “Thinking of You” has resurfaced for a less-cutesy trend. Instead, people lip sync along to the part in the song where Perry sings in an odd way: “You’re like an Indian summer in the middle of winter/Like a heart candy with a surprise center.” This is a rather serious, sincere song, but in an era where enjoying something without mocking it won’t gain much attention, it’s easier and more self-flattering to record yourself goofing off to the tune.
@thearielle jokingly lip-syncing to Katy Perry’s “Thinking of You”
@scoffeyx’s take on the “Thinking of You” trend
There are so many musicians and bands these days, that “culture critics” often struggle to decide who exactly is representative of the 2020s. Although the jury’s still out, commenters suggest that artists like Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Morgan Wallen, as well as specific albums like Charli xcx’s Brat, are among the defining voices of this generation. There are more songs being released daily than there were released in the entirety of the year 1989. There are still stand-out artists, but with such a deluge of new music, it’s harder for people to coalesce around the same artists. Genres are blurred, TikTok remixes are constant, and with a super-smart algorithm in charge, you never encounter songs you dislike.
So what exactly is driving this random wave of nostalgia for radio juggernauts of the early 2010s? It is being called a recession indicator, which has become quite the meme on Twitter and TikTok. People are searching for life’s answers in increasingly more difficult times. Kesha and Katy Perry were inescapable musical icons of the late 2000s and early 2010s. You couldn’t turn on the radio for 15 minutes without hearing Perry’s “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” or “Last Friday Night.” (The Teenage Dream album spent an astonishing 400 weeks—more than seven years—on the Billboard Top 200 charts!) And Kesha’s hits of the 2010s also got plenty of radio play: “Blah Blah Blah,” “Take It Off,” “Blow,” “D*e Young,” “We R Who We R,” “C’mon,” “Your Love is My Dr*g,” and “Tik Tok” all made it onto the charts. (And no, there was no TikTok app yet when she made this song, but we’ll get to that later.)
As so often happens on the internet, something heartfelt can easily be mocked and turned into cringe content. Cringe fails at sincerity and fitting into the cultural norm. It often presents as appreciating something ironically instead of authentically. Is it cringe to enjoy “Thinking of You” in 2025? Maybe… But it’s also just fun and silly to pull faces to match the way Perry chews the lyrics of the tune. A sweet interview of Perry from 2010 reveals that it was one of the first and most sincere songs she ever wrote, influenced by Joanie Mitchell and Patty Griffin. But 15 years later, Perry’s latest tour has been a heap of embarrassing moments that have tarnished her reputation. She isn’t just some talented girl-next-door with a guitar anymore. She’s a globally successful pop star worth $400 million, a former American Idol judge, a fiancee and a mom, and most recently, an astronaut who went to space (very briefly) with celebrity Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, the wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The eleven-minute trip to outer space was meant to promote Perry’s new album, but instead, she became the target of widespread internet mockery. “Out of touch” is one way you could describe flying to outer space as an album-release publicity stunt during a time when 60% of Americans are struggling to afford the bare necessities! And worst of all, the music from this album, 143, has not gained any cultural footholds or inspired any grassroots viral dance moments. Nope, fans are looking back to her original hit songs instead, back when Perry was relatably quirky and charming—instead of an oblivious rich woman twirling a daisy in outer space for a photo op. There’s the near-universal dislike of her recent song “Woman’s World” and there’s her sloppy (and easily-mocked) concert choreography. She’s gone from creating effortless pop hits to forcefully pushing out flops. And, in a global music environment where the “Teenage Dream” singer could work with any producer of her choosing, she’s chosen none other than disgraced producer Dr. Luke.
@kesha on TikTok
That brings us to singer Kesha, who has never backed down on her serious allegations against manager and producer Dr. Luke. Unlike Perry, Kesha still comes off as an underdog: She’s only recently parted ways with her restrictive management under Dr. Luke, and has said that after 20 years, she’s finally found creative freedom again. Even years after her original 2010s smash hits, Kesha’s music still feels counterculture in comparison to Perry’s, and therefore much cooler. It’s no wonder that her Animal and Cannibal era tunes have resonated with Zoomers and Gen Alpha kids on TikTok. They have a carefree, messy, party girl attitude that is very in vogue these days (just ask everyone who had a Brat summer). There was no TikTok app in 2010, so if the kids are going to lip sync to “Your Love is My Dr*g,” there’s no better time than the present. One of Kesha’s best-known songs, “Tik Tok,” follows the story of a tipsy all-night partier who’s got “no money in my pocket, but I’m already here,” which is really relatable to anyone just trying to have a good night out right these days.
In the early 2010s, when the internet was a smaller place than it is now, radio hits cemented themselves in culture far more easily than they do now, and would last longer. Sure, there’s still fresh music culture forming in the 2020s, but it’s also understandable that people are eagerly looking back to the carefree songs that entertained listeners of the past. It’s exciting to see which songs from the 2000s and 2010s gain a new life on social media now. For young people who weren’t even born when these radio hits were playing 24/7, these tunes will be fresh, new, and full of unapologetic optimism.
