TQE’s FYP: It’s Bama Rush, Y’all

Bama Rush is BACK.

I was raised in the South, so I was used to the whole hubbub. Rush at Bama was always so intense that I knew girls whose entire families would go up to help support them get through the week. Professional hair stylers, outfits planned like The Bachelor, the whole shebang. So I hadn’t fully expected it to blow up a few years ago on TikTok, when the rest of the world realized—wait, that’s a thing people do?

Whether you’re for sororities or not, there’s no question that for the girls in the rush process, the emotions and collective fervor are intense to go through, so watching it unfold from the outside is fascinating like a car crash. You’ll see girls posting their get-ready-with-me outfits in real time, rooting for one or the other to land where they want to be, so no wonder it scratches that same reality television itch that makes dating shows and the like such massive hits. Fashion magazines interviewed them. Social media reception could make or break a PNM (potential new member)’s chances, and/or catapult them into influencer stardom.

On the other side, those already in a sorority are posting about things like rush crushes, those marathon days prepping for rounds of recruitment, and more. There are even dedicated accounts you can follow that will update you on price breakdowns of outfits, the status of your “favorite” girls, and more.

Similarly, TikTok also amplified and warped that same sorority scene; now a standard recruitment requirement is to have a TikTok dance, which can either be impressive or feel vaguely like Shrek’s “Welcome to Duloc” doll number—a.k.a a little alarming. But now that it’s past Bid Day, we can dissect the process and the results across universities.

Believe it or not, full-length television shows are all the rage.

TikTok has the power to instantly elevate a piece of entertainment—say, a book, movie, or television show—to an object of conversation, and nowhere is that more evident than in this summer’s big hits. First, there’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, a book I actually read in middle school, blowing up again almost fifteen years later. It’s now ranked number one on Prime Video and practically every other item on your feed is discussing: Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah? Oh, and Taylor Lautner even posted about it on his story, a callback to the intense hype surrounding the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob fandom. We even spun up a TV Style Guide to geek out on all things Cousins-core.

What’s interesting here is that TikTokers have started directly posting excerpts from shows, with some streaming services even using it as a strategy. You’ll look at the comments and half of them say “what show is this???” then start watching, a hook more effective perhaps than glossy marketing posters or blurbs. Everyone wants to be in on the conversation.

Of course, adjacent content about the shows also takes off too, like the comedic summary post linked above with over 10 million views. Fan theories, behind the scenes footage, outfits, you name it (oh, and you should totally check out our style guide).

On a throwback note, people have rediscovered the magic of Suits on Netflix. Meghan Markle, is that you? Not sure why, but viewers have gone absolutely feral for the show again, with billions of streams re-activating on the platform years after its release. For example, this excerpt has over fifty million views alone. Copyright, who?‍‍