Nichetok: How To Meme An Aesthetic

One thing about social media: many users just want to do Pinterest, but on a platform not overrun by suburban moms. If there’s one non-controversial thing that people like doing on the internet, it’s putting together groups of things that please them in terms of aesthetics or relatability.

Photo dumps and meme collections have both been popular forms of sharing in recent times, and now short-form video is getting in on the act. Since this summer, NicheTok has been making steady progress in hitting the For You pages of millions with a formula both predictable and mesmerizing.

The setup is simple, blending a video slideshow with PowerPoint-level transitions with the soundtrack of a vintage indie song of choice. Fill the time between effects with clips from sports, sitcoms and maybe a couple of ironic memes, and the masterpiece is complete. It takes some collating, but that hasn’t stopped people from joining in on the trend in droves and making NicheTok into an increasingly large and thriving community.

TikTok is not the first platform to have a visually-conscious userbase, but it has expanded upon the possibilities that this brings. On top of that, it dominates the trend conversation outside of itself in a way that hasn’t been allowed previously.
The -tok suffix has been attached to a whole rainbow of aesthetics and miniature movements over the years, many of which relate more to lifestyle than to a strict meme format. NicheTok has found a way to bridge the gap between the two, creating an identity that has a clear structural function.

Content-wise, NicheTok makes its mark by being repetitive in inspiration and more varied in the details. Notably, it is inspired by aesthetic movements that have already flourished on the platform. Blokecore and Britcore are hashtags which, as the names suggest, draw upon the experience of British life and culture. They both mock and celebrate the imagined life of a stereotypical man, whose place in the Matrix of cutting-edge online identity is not traditionally a strong one.

Almost always white, English, middle-aged and working class, these blokes can be fashion muses or purveyors of banter-friendly memes. Predominantly, though, they are the butt of the joke. This is exemplified in the recent TikTok sound "Day in the life of a true Brexit geezer," which takes the viewer through a slideshow showing off the eponymous man’s family, food, household and routine.

Then, there's the more youthful take on the trend, which draws upon a selection of clips with clear creative hallmarks. These include classic UK soccer moments (both on and off the pitch) and excerpts from landmark cringe comedies Peep Show and The Inbetweeners, all which continue to be fundamental to the genre. Some of the more daring variants that really try to pursue the niche label sprinkle in bits of other sitcoms, too, as well as excerpts from other predominantly UK-based shows and otherwise forgotten viral videos.

There are a few U.S. variants out there (using things like WWE and Family Guy, for example). Still, for the most part, the phenomenon is a solidly British trend with a suitably patriotic musical accompaniment — The Smiths and Oasis for the basic, Slowdive for those who consider themselves more of an auteur. In essence, these videos act as a fancam for a particular type of UK experience that is built on making references that people will only get if they have similar tastes.

That said, nationality isn’t its only defining feature. The audio-visual assault of NicheTok is the epitome of consuming as many types of media at once to prevent any thinking from happening. The average video is also a rollercoaster of an emotional experience, vacillating from the euphoria of a goal being scored to a meme about mental illness to a climatic and/or cringeworthy part of the comedy of choice. It’s probably no coincidence that clips involving drug use, such as the crack habit of Super Hans from Peep Show, are also genre favorites. While NicheTok prides itself on a certain exclusivity and aesthetic sensibility, most important of all is the escapism it provides.

With their runaway popularity, NicheToks are not so niche anymore &emdash; they are just too good a meme. Nonetheless, experienced members of the community are trying to maintain their namesake with clips of increasing obscurity. They achieve one of the key principles that help memes to endure, which is being able to express ourselves while sticking to a rule book that allows this to prosper.

Most TikTok users will have come across the “we have all lived the same life” genre of comment under ultra-specific videos about relatable moments. In some respects, this genre is an attempt to take this feeling from uncanny to reassuring; in others, it’s a competition as to who can synthesize the best piece of art. Either way, it is a comforting way to zone out for sixty seconds on the media that may or may not have fundamentally changed the wiring in your brain.