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In October, Sadie Jean, singer-songwriter and sophomore at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, set out to study songwriting with some friends. A specific number, a request to reconnect with someone who escaped, take shape.
Jean has a sweet but firm voice and asks “WYD Now?” her song is a clever piece of fear of coming of age:
I don’t want to be in my 20s and it’s still in my head
17 so far, talking in my bedroom
Paint the walls of our shared flat
You’re still everything I want and
i think we can handle it
The chorus ends with a cold call query: “So what are you doing now?”
Jean was doing TikToks on the trip and one of them, a friend insists he share the song with its subject: “You should send it to him.”
Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. But what he chose to do next almost certainly caught his attention. He posted a snippet of “WYD Now?” As an audio that can be added by TikTok users to their own heartbreak videos.
Then, on Thanksgiving, he posted an “open verse challenge,” a trusted TikTok trick to boost a song’s virality, where a musician performs a song but leaves a gap for a collaborator in hopes others on the app can duet. video and fill the empty space with something special.
Challenges like this have become routine, but Jean’s chorus, a search question that needs an answer, turned out to be perfectly suited for the format. In her video, she lip-synced the refrain with a wooden spoon, then held the spoon to the camera with a sad look in her eyes that sought answers.
Since then, dozens have taken on eight stick challenges with a wide variety of approaches. The best-case scenario came out last week: A real star took the bait. Rapper and singer Lil Yachty gave a synthetic, awe-inspiring answer. He played with structure first, skipping before the start of eight measures, telegraphing emotional directness and urgency: “Fiiiiiiiinallyyyydoingggggbettttterrrrr.” And her poetry was soft, she greeted Jean’s desperation with a deep sigh.
The Yachty verse is “WYD Now?”, which has become a kind of micromeet on TikTok. It closed in for a wild six weeks. The responses take a wild arc, taking music and comedy, candor and nonsense. (Also, a rigueur comment from Charlie Puth.)
First, there were duets that were compatible with each other – @theofficialkristylee to write with the eyes of an older sister; a complex sigh @zakharartist; a lame bolt of skepticism from @heyitsjewelss; seductive therapy talk @davinchi; and an early Drake rap @lucasstadvec (“My little one, trying not to come back with you/You are bad for me and it is unfair that I am not bad for you”). Those who chose to rap in eight bars took more thematic latitude with verses with vivid detail about them. sex and violence It’s hilarious juxtaposition against Jean’s seriousness.
The most striking and natural effort, @zai1k_the one whose voice is the hum of an engine but sings with a slight bristle. “You wanna go girl so I won’t hold you back/Don’t tell me you need me baby, cause I told you/You keep walking, you act like I owe you but I don’t owe you girl.”
Consuming these duets in one gulp highlights not only the raw excess of talent that vibrates on TikTok every day, but also the collective power of myriad approaches. The singers found unique counter melodies; rappers discovered intriguing counterrhythms. Some songs took the age theme from Jean’s original, and more than a few referenced the spoon.
As the weeks passed, their collaboration got more ridiculous – Jean duet again some of the funny ones are inadvertently joking—and even opportunistic. This mild thirst began to professionalize the challenge, in a way recalling the early energy and promise of “American Idol,” when the contestants were forced to impose their personalities on far-flung standards. For good measure, @hashtagcatie — this is Catie Turner, the lovable eccentric from Season 16 of “Idol” — also performed a Lucy Dacus-like duet. he did so @franciskarelofficialwho gained fame on TikTok last year, a similar challenge Published by pop star Meghan Trainor.
The finished version of “WYD Now?” for Sadie Jean. Released to streaming services on December 10; it only exists as a duet on the walls of the app. But perhaps another young singer, Stacey Ryan, who felt momentarily a sparkly cabaret style number At the end of December.
@zai1k_ jumped this challenge is just as perfect as he wrote his poem for Jean. And he and Ryan upped the stakes by announcing that the full version of their collaboration will be released to streaming services later this week.
It’s a smart move to move the vibrant energy of impromptu collaboration to a more formal stage. But it also opens up the idea of what exactly a song release could be at this creative moment. You can hear Jean’s solo version on streaming services, but all of the aforementioned collaborators are also part of the song’s journey. Why not release an EP with all the different duets, the modern day equivalent of the old remix EP or a dancehall riddim album? No one gets anywhere alone anymore.
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