Recoding the Renegade
If you walked through an American high school in February 2020, you would have seen students dancing, infectiously happy kids hitting the woah and drawing figure eights at the back of classrooms and around cafeteria tables.
The renegade, a 15-second sequence danced to the song “Lottery” by the rapper K Camp, took the world by storm in early 2020. As of 2022, #renegade has 3.3 billion views on TikTok. Everyone, from the average high schooler to Lizzo to Kim Kardashian, has been seen doing the dance. Everyone, that is, except the girl who created it.
Jalaiah Harmon, a Black teenager from the Atlanta suburbs, was 14 when she combined a series of popular moves, including the wave, the woah and the dab, to create the renegade. Harmon was part of a community that called themselves Dubsmashers. These creators, typically young and Black, utilize short-form video platforms including Dubsmash and Triller, to create dance videos for Instagram (Lorenz, 2020). The dance got over 13,000 views on Instagram when Harmon posted a video of herself doing it in September 2019. Harmon reported to The New York Times that Instagram users performed the dance over and over. Like many other popular Dubsmasher dances, someone eventually moved the dance to Tiktok without giving credit. Its virality only increased (Lorenz, 2020).
Harmon’s loss of control over her creation can be traced to Tiktok’s design. In “Instagram has largely replaced TikTok in India, and erased working-class creators,” Yashraj Sharma examines the political nature of platforms and how they can be designed to uplift certain voices over others. Sharma describes how social media algorithms can be programmed to elevate “curators” and hold back “creators” by prioritizing certain aesthetics. For example, she emphasizes that algorithms that “won’t recommend videos that are blurry, bear a watermark or logo” raise barriers for users who do not have access to a high quality camera or editing software (Sharma, 2021). The algorithms that Sharma observed tend to exclude people from lower class backgrounds, and researchers observed a similar phenomena in the 2020 US Tiktok algorithm, which blocked Black users like Harmon from receiving visibility on the app. Artificial Intelligence Researcher Mark Foddoul conducted a study that revealed that the Tiktok algorithm uses collaborative filtering, which shows users the tiktoks of creators who share the physical characteristics of creators whom they already follow. Foddoul concluded that the Tiktok algorithm favors the white creators who are most popular and abundant on the app, while preventing smaller creators of color from receiving the same visibility, holding back creators in the way Sharma described (Asare, 2021).
Harmon experienced the consequences of collaborative filtering firsthand: The renegade Tiktok trend soon caught the eye of Charli D’Amelio, a 15 year-old creator from suburban Connecticut. When D’Amelio, who is white, thin and meets conventional beauty standards, posted the dance without crediting Harmon, it reached a new level of virality. Her video received 55.7 million views, and she was dubbed the “CEO of the renegade,” receiving false credit for the dance’s choreography. Today, D’Amelio is arguably Tiktok’s biggest star. She has accumulated a following of over 148 million people on the app, stars in her own reality television show, produces music and has profited off countless brand deals. Many people, including Culture Writer Cassidy George, credit D’Amelio’s success to the virality of her renegade performance and the false credit for the choreography that accompanied that virality, highlighting the algorithmic impact that Sharma described (George, 2020).
Moya Bailey’s concept of misogynoir, “the uniquely co-constitutive racialized and sexist violence that befalls Black women as a result of their simultaneous and interlocking oppression at the intersection of racial and gender marginalization,” can help to explain why the Tiktok world failed to credit Harmon (Bailey, 2021, p. 5). Bailey emphasizes that while misogynoir leaves Black women hypervisible through caricatures and false representation, they are also “invisible when in need of attention.” (Bailey, 2021, p. 6). This was true of Harmon. In response to the lack of credit for her dance, Harmon joined TikTok, commenting on renegade videos posted by D’Amelio and other viral creators asking for credit. She also posted her own videos showing proof of her choreography. According to The New York Times, her efforts were largely ignored or ridiculed, highlighting Bailey’s notion of the invisibility of Black girls where attention is due.
Bailey also emphasizes the value of “digital alchemy,” which is Black womens’ work to “transform everyday digital media into valuable social justice media that recode[s] the failed scripts that negatively impact their lives” (Bailey, 2021, p. 24). In July 2021, Black creators engaged in defensive digital alchemy in the form of a TikTok strike. They refused to choreograph a dance to Meg Thee Stallion’s new song “Thot Shit” in protest of the appropriation and exploitation of Black creators like Harmon on the app. Over the course of the month, #BlackTikTokStrike was viewed more than 6.5 million times, and Black creators took the hashtag to Twitter where they could voice their objections (McClay, 2021). This action had an impact: When Harmon’s story got out, there was a massive push for attributions to be given, and big creators like D’Amelio began giving dance credit in their captions. In May 2022, TikTok added a feature that allows creators to directly link other videos in their own content. This was deemed to be “a major development in the ecosystem of trend attribution” (Spangler, 2022). Evidently, Black digital alchemy is effective at “recoding the failed script,” as Bailey described.
While D’Amelio and others have since credited Harmon as the renegade creator, the damage has been done: D’Amelio received the views, followers, brand deals and opportunities that stemmed from the dance. The end result is epitomized in a comparison of their earnings: D’Amelio made $4 million off Tiktok in 2020. Harmon is estimated to have made $3,800. Proper attribution is an essential first step, but it does not erase the harm caused by the plagiarists and the algorithms.
Works Cited
Asare, J. G. (2021, December 10). Does Tiktok have a race problem? Forbes Magazine. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/04/14/does-tiktok-have-a-race-problem/?sh=14f11fe23260
Bailey, M. (2021). What is Misogynoir? In Misogynoir transformed (pp. 1–34). introduction, NYU Press.
George, C. (2020, September 5). How Charli D'Amelio became the face of Tiktok. The New Yorker. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/how-charli-damelio-became-the-face-of-tiktok
Lorenz, T. (2020, February 13). The original Renegade. The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/the-original-renegade.html
McClay, C. (2021, July 15). Why Black Tiktok creators have gone on strike. BBC News. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57841055
Sharma, Y. (2021, October 6). Instagram has largely replaced TikTok in India, and erased working-class creators. Rest of World. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://restofworld.org/2021/instagram-and-class-in-india/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Spangler, T. (2022, May 18). TikTok is adding new video-crediting features, following backlash among Black Creators. Variety. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/tiktok-creator-video-crediting-backlash-1235270707/
Commentator: Brenna Cotter
ReplyDeleteKatie,
I really liked your blog post about the viral renegade TikTok dance and its ownership. Before reading your piece I had no idea that the dance was created by Jalaiah Harmon, I had always assumed that Charli D’Amelio had created the dance as she was the one given credit for it. I really liked your connection of this to Sharma’s piece “Instagram has largely replaced TikTok in India, and erased working class creators”. I liked that you mentioned Sharma's argument that certain algorithms are programmed to elevate some, while it holds back other individuals. Charli D’Amelio comes from a wealthy background and is a perfect example of the American beauty standard so I agree with you that it is no surprise her video was able to go viral, while a young black teenager who created the dance was not able to gain as much traction. It is important to note these discrepancies in order for change to occur.
In your piece you write about how a normal black teenager from Atlanta created the renegade dance. Jalaiah created this dance as a part of a group called the Dubsmashers to create videos for Instagram, however, this dance eventually made its way to TikTok where it was able to go viral. This moment you describe made me think of the Powers reading about coolhunting and incorporation. Powers writes about the widespread assumption that views subcultural groups as trendsetters giving people on the margins power by taking their trends, but then making that trend a commodity and incorporating it into the mainstream without giving credit. Charli D’Amelio taking this dance from a black teenager on Instagram and bringing it to TikTok without giving any credit to the original creator can be seen as an example of incorporation/coolhunting. This dance was made a commodity and brought into the mainstream and is what led to Charli D’Amelio becoming one of the most famous influencers on TikTok; yet she achieved this by taking the trend from another individual in a more marginalized position than herself and did not give any credit. Overall, I really liked your piece, and I think it sheds light on some very important issues our society faces with social media platforms in relation to race.
Irene Pak
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your deep analysis of the Renegade and the roots of TikTok with the example of this past trending dance as an artifact of popular culture. I recently saw and commented on another blog post by our fellow classmate Shelly Fashkha and found some similarities and differences between your takes on the art of TikTok dances and its structure as a social networking platform. I wanted to again point to The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin (1936). The key reshaping and reproduction that both you and Benjamin argue connect to the co-opting of independent artists and dancers as actions that defies the authenticity and aura of the art itself. In my comment on Shelly’s post, I also pointed out the lack of credit given to original creators and choreographers for the very viral dances and trends that permeate TikTok as an artifact of popular culture. I myself have danced to the Renegade and found myself not crediting Jaliah Harmon, as I have only around 20 followers and am private, however I agree that Charli D’Amelio and other TikTok creators with large followings must attribute the dance and choreography to the correct creator. Large TikTok creators constantly, even now, commodify, reproduce, and exploit the art of dance itself through mass distribution, as Benjamin refers to in stating that “mechanical reproduction is inherent in the very technique of film production… [which] permits in the most direct way and virtually causes mass distribution” (Benjamin, 1936, p. 65). It is essential for proper attribution and reducing the detrimental effect plagiarists and algorithms have on individuals and popular culture, facilitated by TikTok.
I remember being shocked when I first learned that the Renegade was not developed by Charli D’Amilio. I was glad to revisit this phenomena while reading your post. I attributed D'Amilio's renegade recording with what Walter Benjamin referred to as an aura in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I remeber playing D’Amilio’s Tik Tok over and over again with friends, amazed by how perfect her dance appeared, and trying fruitlessly to attempt to recreate her exact moves. No matter how many times my friends and I hit play, we could not seem to capture what made the dance so special when D’Amlilio did it. I was frustrated to learn that the woman who came up with this dance, Jalaiah Harmon, did not receive the recognition, and arguably more importantly, the bulk of the financial benefits, of ads and partnerships that branched from the dance. I was pleased to learn from this blog post that Harmon received some of the monetary rewards for developing the dance, but they are nothing compared to the fame D’Amlio received because of the her viral renegade dance. Today, I find it ironic that I assigned such an original aura to D’Amlio’s famous Renegade Tik Tok. It was not in fact the original. However, by the time she published that tik tok, D’Amilio had already garnered a large following, and what Benjamin considered a “cult of personality.” Today, the cult of personality that stars garner replaces the special aura that religious works once held. It makes sense that in a time and culture where organized religion plays a smaller role than it historically did, that youth will flock to watch a celebrity perform a dance and assign a higher “aura” to it than the original creator.
ReplyDeleteBy Anna O'Neill-Dietel: I remember feeling shocked when I first learned that the Renegade was not developed by Charli D’Amilio. I was glad to revisit this phenomena while reading your post. I attributed D'Amilio's renegade recording with what Walter Benjamin referred to as an aura in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I remeber playing D’Amilio’s Tik Tok over and over again with friends, amazed by how perfect her dance appeared, and trying fruitlessly to attempt to recreate her exact moves. No matter how many times my friends and I hit play, we could not seem to capture what made the dance so special when D’Amlilio did it. I was frustrated to learn that the woman who came up with this dance, Jalaiah Harmon, did not receive the recognition, and arguably more importantly, the bulk of the financial benefits, of ads and partnerships that branched from the dance. I was pleased to learn from this blog post that Harmon received some of the monetary rewards for developing the dance, but they are nothing compared to the fame D’Amlio received because of the her viral renegade dance. Today, I find it ironic that I assigned such an original aura to D’Amlio’s famous Renegade Tik Tok. It was not in fact the original. However, by the time she published that tik tok, D’Amilio had already garnered a large following, and what Benjamin considered a “cult of personality.” Today, the cult of personality that stars garner replaces the special aura that religious works once held. It makes sense that in a time and culture where organized religion plays a smaller role than it historically did, that youth will flock to watch a celebrity perform a dance and assign a higher “aura” to it than the original creator.
ReplyDeleteHey, this is a really cool post that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I have heard this story before, but I was never provided the full context before now. I really appreciate the white-paperness of the paper where the topic is covered so well. I also wrote in response to prompt two, and had similar connections drawn for my topic. I wrote about an item that was stolen from black and brown culture, which is decently similar to your topic of a dance being stolen from a young black girl.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though Ziesler greatly applies to this topic, especially with her work on male gaze. Ziesler (2008) defines the male gaze as “positioning women as nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable, the male unconscious reassures itself that, really, it has nothing to fear from women” (p. 8). The male gaze’s impact on TikTok is an interesting concept to me. The male gaze targets individual women whom men feel threatened by, but also the male gaze exists as a concept where certain women fit and dont fit it’s standards. I believe that the male gaze felt less threatened by D’amelio in the sense that she conformed more to its body standard. This conformity led to D’amelio’s success while Harmon was too far outside of the male gaze’s standard of white and body normative to gain mainstream acceptance.
Overall, a lot of "new" trends on TikTok start as a part of black and brown culture, and are eventually subverted by white influencers. In this case I feel like the white and body normative people are less threatening to the male gaze which hurt Harmon’s chance of success along with the misogynoir aspects at play.
- Sean McKeown
This post is fascinating, as when people imagine a “Tik Tok star,” they will likely think of Charli D’Amelio. However, usually, Tik Tok allows common citizens to become “niche internet micro celebrities,” who are well-known to a smaller group of people than would characterize a Hollywood following, and these TikTok creators generally do not pursue fame, influence, or money (Lorenz, 2022). Charli D’Amelio may have started as more of a niche figure at first, but the Renegade dance propelled her into an entirely new category: that of an influencer. Now, more than two years after her rise to fame, she has several retail collaborations, her family has signed with a prominent talent agency, and she has taken many more steps to create a profitable career out of her stardom (Tenbarge & Press-Reynolds, 2021). On the other hand, Jalaiah Harmon, the original creator of the dance that made D’Amelio famous, has remained a niche internet micro celebrity; even though she gained fans, the number of followers was minuscule compared to D’Amelio and she made a relatively small amount of money (Lorenz, 2020). Harmon still has a smaller group of dedicated fans and her page provides evidence of this, as she usually receives tens of thousands of views on her Tik Tok videos. However, a direct comparison to Charli D’Amelio shows the potential for her influencer status with more accreditation, as D’Amelio routinely receives tens of millions of views on each of her videos, even if she is not doing anything particularly compelling.
ReplyDeleteCommented by: Sophie Poritzky
Hi Katie, I really enjoyed reading your article. I will admit, in 2020 I downloaded TikTok like many people who were bored and started learning the popular dances. When I came across the renegade, I only saw it credited towards Charli and for many months I believed she was the real creator. This citation makes me think of the readings by Gladwell and Powers on cool-hunting and appropriation. Even connecting it to Drenton’s “TikTik tabloid”, it's interesting when Black creators boycotted creating dancers because since they are blocking their side to being socially surveilled, there is no opportunity for coolhunting to occur. Additionally, at first when Charli did not credit her, I thought it might have been an honest mistake and with the randomness of TikTik’s algorithm, she might have gone viral by accident. However, when you said that her efforts were ignored by white creators, it's clear that this was intentional. The white creators want to pretend they are innovators even though they are appropriators. I agree with your point that their virality is linked with“misogynoir”. White creators who fit the beauty standards dominate my for you page. I mostly only see creators of color because I directly follow them. Lastly, I think another example of digital alchemy, in this case generative digital alchemy, is when Harmon did the Renegade on the Ellen Show. The video is titled “”Original Renegade Creator”, and was actually credited to her. Hopefully by going on Ellen, a very famous show with many viewers, at least those people watching will credit the dance and original talent to her.
Delete-Msangwa Ogada