While nothing will likely ever fill the Vine-shaped hole in our hearts, TikTok’s stateside rise in recent months is certainly providing at least a temporary balm in these trying times. Today’s meme-savvy teens have really taken the app and ran with it (and the Chinese government can now apparently pinpoint exactly where they’re running with it, but that’s another story). The latest proof of TikTok’s utility can be found in these little rapscallions reminding us that Home Depot’s theme song is, somehow, a goddamn banger.
As New York Times’ reporter and current Nieman Fellow Taylor Lorenz noted on Twitter yesterday, “#homedepot” has consistently trended on the app for about three weeks straight now. Why would the Boomer equivalent of Toys R’ Us get so much screen time on an app primarily used by the very teens who resent them? Well, have you given their jingle a listen?
Look, that’s just a straight-up hit, plain and simple. Need further proof? Well, as we mentioned, there are about three weeks’ worth of TikTok backlog content to reinforce the point, including some solid remixes featuring the likes of Justin Timberlake and, because this is online we’re talking about, Shrek.
If you are in the mood to dive deeper into this rabbit hole, writer Magdalene Taylor at Mel Magazine also provided a solid round-up last week of how the song is bridging the gap between Gen Z and Boomers. Is there something to be said about the generation suffering the most from their elders’ excesses, including the birthing of such big box behemoths like Home Depot, simultaneously mocking and extolling a corporation’s attempt at youthful relevancy? Yeah, probably. But, like, the hook is the most infectious earworm since “Moves Like Jagger,” so if you’ll excuse us...